I'm one in a million. You probably are, too. So what!

[Late Bloomer]

I've been thinking about some theories of personality types. The idea is that personality can be measured in several dimensions.

For example, what's a person's most motivating goal, and what's his or her overall attitude to life. For each of these dimensions, there are a small number of basic ways someone can be.

These different values and characteristics can be summarized with a key word, for example, Tranquility, Suspicion, Perseverance. Each of these is a fundamental quality of personality that's persistent through life.

Each of these qualities is not good or bad. But it can be a great fit or a lousy obstacle, depending on the situation.

Let's use Suspicion vs. Idealism to illustrate. Society really needs to have detectives and auditors who act with Suspicion. People who never naively accept how things seem positive on the surface.

Someone with this attitude to life is naturally driven to double check their facts. They don't need their boss to remind them to do that, it's what they do anyway. They don't need to be reminded that people might be stuffed suits full of socially conditioned nonsense.

Nobody had to order Bob Dylan to be more skeptical about society in his songwriting.
Fictionally, Mr. Spock's captain didn't have to tell him to not let emotions interfere with his analysis.
Stephen Colbert's producer doesn't have to tell him to quit agreeing with everything politicians say.
The Bible tells us St. Thomas had to see for himself, the Church considers him a Saint anyway.

The opposite quality of Idealism would be far more appropriate for a kind minister who, like, Mr. Rogers, encourages kids to believe in themselves. Or for a talk show host who helps guests show their good side in a fun easy way, like Johnny Carson. Or for someone who radiates happiness and belief in people even though they hardly need to say anything at work, like Vanna White.

Mr. Rogers wouldn't be a success if he said, "Kids, if you think there's something wrong with you, you're probably right about that. You know, everyone's got some dark and dirty secrets to hide."

But Mr. Rogers is the last person you'd want to interrogate an apparent defector from an opposing army. "I believe in you and everyone else should too, of course you get asylum just for asking for it. Sure there are some holes in your story, but stress could make anyone confused and you have a stressful situation. Would you like some peppermint tea to help soothe your worried nerves?"

You don't think of Mr. Rogers to run the Audit and Compliance Committee's investigation of alleged money laundering. And you don't want James Bond to say a few words at the memorial service, to kindly comfort the bereaved.

Some activities can be successful whatever traits one brings. I already pointed out both skeptical and idealistic talk show hosts. You can find the same range in successful authors, film producers, executives, musicians, etc.

You can find several of these types of personality theories. I find them to be interesting tools for self-awareness, for making friendships and relationships deeper through mutual understanding and respect, and for customizing sales approaches.

One such theory has enough different categories, with multiple keywords per category, to describe about 800,000 complex personalities types by their unique factors. But these aren't equally distributed. Some traits are very common and some are very rare.

For myself, with some very typical attributes and a few very rare attributes, I'm one in easily more than a million. In my metro area of three million people, there might be three people, including me, who generally think, feel, act, and respond to life in virtually the same way I do. In a nation of somewhat more than 300 million people, there might be 300 people with the identical personality profile.

But, 1/3 of human beings aren't adults in the work force. They're kids, or the elderly, or retired at any age. Or out of the work force due to poor health, or an addiction, or mental illness. Or they're a stay at home parent. Or, like me for many years, they're a full-time caregiver.

So if you subtract a third of those potential dopplegangers, that means there's only one other person pretty much just like me in the metro area, and maybe 200 nationwide.

Are these my competition? No.

For one thing, they might have totally different skills than I do. The other person who thinks and feels just like I do in the same town, might be a great athlete who has a pro sports career. I have no sports skills and little interest in sports. No matter what I do, I'll never be a competitor to that person's career.

Maybe the other person locally is also a musician, but plays the tuba (I can't play any brass instruments) and conducts a marching band (music that usually annoys me). If I got to fulfill my childhood ambition to be the next Peter Gabriel, I'd obviously be no competition to their career.

The other people might have different interests. If they care about business, maybe they learned to have fun with office politics and climbed the corporate ladder. Maybe their expert knowledge is all about insurance, an area where my understanding is weak.

Maybe they only are willing to work Downtown while I don't mind the suburbs. And so on. For the 200 nationally, maybe only half of them want to seek clients anywhere in the country.

There's probably nobody in my metro area who wants to do any kind of business consulting, let alone marketing and technology consulting, who can also bring my personality type into the picture.

Nationwide, there might be a dozen or so apparent competitors. But if they see the world the way I do, they'd rather create a team with me, to go after bigger clients together!

Even if we ever learn of each other, and they want to compete head to head, we'd probably never encounter the same clients as we both do our own thing.

As a result, I can be realistically confident that
THERE IS NO, ZERO, COMPETITION
FOR JUST WHAT I CAN DO MOST NATURALLY,
AND JUST THE WAY IN WHICH I CAN DO IT.​

But this by itself doesn't make it valuable. It makes it rare, but a lot of stuff is rare and not worth any money.

I just searched eBay for what's rare. I found that a "rare" CD of Fastway's 1988 glam metal album "On Target" is only $18 with free shipping. Never heard of this one before? Me neither. It's energetic and full of shiny keyboards and overproduced big drums, crunchy guitars and catchy harmonies in the choruses!

It might be rare, but it's not packed full of relative value! The Allmusic review says, "Pointless attempts at pop-metal are strung together like carnival-prize stuffed animals, brightly colored but full of cheap synthetic stuffing that's probably a health hazard. A frightening affair, On Target plunges to the absolute depths of bad '80s metal banality."

A "rare" T shirt goes for $10. A "rare" book of poetry is under $20, a "rare" set of Ukranian banknotes $25, a rare "worthy of collection bitcoin commemorative coin, gold-plated iron with bitcoin logo" (wtf!) is 99 cents in the velvet-lined box, a new "rare" BMW logo watch $20.

What's the most important conclusion I can make of all this?

If I want to sell, I should NOT write sales copy that appeals to me!
I should have sales copy that is for the 999,999 other people in this town (and every other town) who DON'T think and feel just like I do...
showing them the advantages TO THEM of hiring an unusual nut like me!​

Also,

What happens to come easy to me, or that I understand well from my life experiences, doesn't matter worth a damn in business, UNLESS...​

it gives me leverage to better serve a substantial market need , which has a high barrier to entry, in a scalable, timely way I can control!

 

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[S.Y.]

O fu efnosi zuas ecomovz vu xsovi. Fenp!

 

[Late Bloomer]

O fu efnosi zuas ecomovz vu xsovi. Fenp!

Vjepl zua! O'wi xuslif jesf vu fiwimuq vjev et e dusi tvsiphvj ug nopi. O lpux ov't huoph vu ci ep onqusvepv qesv ug nz gavasi. O'wi huv e mietv e duaqmi ug cuult op ni. Niepxjomi, muuloph vu ati vjuti tlommt vu eff wemai vu vji gusant, epf gopf e xez vu qovdj tuni duqzxsovoph, op neslivoph qsukidvt gus dmoipvt.