Some people are good at “this”. Other people are good at “that”.
Your personality should fit the needs of the business you’re in. There are some personality traits that are well suited for most businesses in general. But some business ventures require certain personality traits to really solidify success.
And some, just require “personality“.
Some Horses, A Carriage, And A Whole Lot Of Personality
Last summer I was at a party and I met a woman who had just moved into town. She was a natural conversationalist, very friendly, and very outgoing. She had just recently moved here from a small tourist town and told me about her business there, her success, and what happened after she left.
She had run her own carriage tour business. There were three such businesses in the town and she was very happy that hers had been the most successful of the three. She was always booked solid, and she didn’t achieve that by having the cheapest rates. She did it by being the best tour guide.
She couldn’t bring her horses or her business here when she left so she sold the business to a man who had wanted to buy it from her for a while. She stayed on and worked with him for about a month before she left to help him get up and running.
But something was missing. And after leaving and then stopping in a couple months later, she found that the business was floundering. The problem? Personality.
The man she sold the business to wasn’t as outgoing or as engaging with the customers as she was. I guess he didn’t have the whole “Spokesmodel” thing going on.
Now this isn’t to say that he couldn’t be quite successful in another business. But whether he didn’t have the passion to talk about all the little town’s sights day after day, or he just wasn’t a charismatic tourguide, he didn’t fit the business. And the business didn’t fit him.
Every business has it’s needs. So does every business owner. When the business and the owner fill each other’s needs, the result is success.
What does your business need from you? What do you need from it?
Excellent post Shane and I agree 100% that you need to be in a business thats matches your personality. Imagine an Accountant doing the job of a Sales Manager, no way mate, it will never work.
My parents wanted me to be an Army Officer which runs in our family, heck no, I am too independent for a job like that, all my life I have been self employed so even blogging (which is a hobby I recently cultivated) kinda fits my personality. We sure need to spend some time trying to find out which business would suit our personalty.
Loved this post mate, keep up the good work.
Take care and Cheers.
Thanks Robin,
It’s definitely worth spending some time getting to know yourself and what fits.
When you find a business you WANT to do and CAN do, then you can get a good symbiosis going where your business fuels you up and you drive it forward.
Nice post!
Its totally true that you have to be in a businiess that fits your personality, or you wont like it.
I couldn’t agree more with this article – personality plays a huge part in our success, whether on a personal level or a professional level.
A positive and exceptional personality also helps differentiate you or your business from the others.
– Martin Reed
Andy,
Yeah, you get as much as you give. If you don’t like your business, then you don’t give much. And that’s what you get back.
Hey Martin,
A good positive personality is one of those things that’s good for every business. Gotta frame forward to go forward.
I think a lot of personality also depends on the passion an individual has towards their business. That man probably (I’m assuming) saw that her business was successful and wanted to make money off of it without realizing the needs the business would require of him.
-Gregg
Gregg,
I think you’re right. He wanted the success of the business more than he wanted the actual business.
Thanks for this reminder, Shane. You’re right on target here.
Excellent post Shane. It is 100% true, and I have seen examples of this too. I always advice people I have helped to start their own business too look at their personality and at their interests before deciding on what sort of business to start.
// Andreas Bard
Hey Scot,
Thanks! Ithink this story is a good reminder that not only do you have to love the business you’re in, but the business has to love you too.
Andreas,
Glad you liked it! It’s hard when you’re advising people about business. A lot of times they want to do what’s “hot”, because they’ve seen someone else succeed at it. Not always the best choice.
sound like could have been chasing the money and not his true interest
I have an perfect example of this. A guy I consulted to start a company wanted to start an online business and started out with niches he had no interest or knowledge in. It just did not fit him, and he did not earn a dollar.
My advise to him was to do something he really loves, and his first answer to my question was music and guitar playing. I helped him out and this guy now owns 2 different succesful websites teaching guitar playing online and that is earning him a nice income.
// Andreas Bard
Andreas,
That’s a great story. I’ve done a couple things I wasn’t totally jazzed about. Never works. No matter how great the idea is. When you really love it, it can take a little time, but the cash always comes.
How do you find out what kind of work you like doing, if certain companies in the field you’re interested in, won’t even give you a chance to step into the job and see for yourself? I am interested in administrative work, but seeing as offices are not willing to take a chance on a rookie, who obviously HAS administrative skills, but has not been given the opportunity to develop them, how does one get their “foot in the door,” then? Nowadays, even when you have a “degree” in a particular field, they don’t want to hire you because you don’t have “the experience.” It’s a bunch of baloney, if you ask me. If you have the DEGREE, then you have the EXPERIENCE. A friend of mine is unable to get a job in the nursing field, simply because she doesn’t have the “experience.” She has the degree. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. Are employers just too LAZY to train talented people into doing the job right? I consider myself very teachable, however, if my employer is not willing to train me, or see that I do the job right, how am I ever going to do it the way that HE wants me to do it? (I’m a very opinionated person, as you can see, but I’ve learned the hard way that if you don’t speak up when you disagree with your employer, you’re going to be in a peck of trouble.) My arguments seem logical, do they not? Why aren’t employers willing to train? Hmm???…..
-Jessica
Hi Jessica,
Having a degree is a great asset. Truly. But it’s not experience. There are a million things that you’re going to encounter in the real world that will never be covered in a classroom.
It’s only once you get experience that you can really value the difference between having it and not having it.
A lot of employers can’t train people because they don’t have the leadership talent to do so. It’s really that simple. They don’t because they can’t. But there are some ways around this …
1) Keep searching until you find an employer who IS willing to develop talent. They’re out there.
2) Know that you may have to “start at the bottom” and take a reduced wage or lesser position in the company to get some experience.
3) Be the leader. Use whatever knowledge and experience you have to sell yourself as a valuable asset to the company. In other words, walk in there and tell them what YOU can do for them. Show them how you can make them money, save them money, or otherwise provide some real tangible benefits.
You’ll always run into micro-managers who criticize everything and at the same time don’t know how to provide proper direction. In those cases, you either go with the flow or you move on.
I like this article and I always knew this to be true. The problem that I am encountering is finding the right opportunity to fit my lifestyle. I have not come across a business opportunity that I feel I would enjoy. I have been searching and am willing to put in the time and money to learn whatever industry/skill set I would need to enter the business. I am thinking that the business opportunity for me is out there, I just have not discovered it yet.