Famous personality, Leadership

The Temperaments of America

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“There are strong minds in every walk of life that will rise superior to the disadvantages of situation, and will command the tribute due to their merit, not only from the classes to which they particularly belong, but from the society in general.”

So wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper #36, one the founding articles of the United States of America.

If this is not one of the best arguments for the importance of Temperament in the Human Wealth of Nations, then I don’t know what would be.  The genius of Hamilton’s America is that it matters not the station one was born into, whether it be: from a dirt poor family in a log cabin in Kentucky (Abraham Lincoln, Rational); from modest family in a modest house in Omaha, Nebraska (Warren Buffet, Guardian); from a rich family in a New York apartment (Humphrey Bogart, Artisan); or from an unmarried African-American mother in the deep segregated South in Kosciusko, Mississippi (Oprah Winfrey, Idealist). Or born in another country, and being able to be an immigrant, including a poor white kid, of a single mother household from Dutch territory, the Caribbean island of Nevis: “that Scottish bastard,” Alexander Hamilton (Idealist). Continue reading The Temperaments of America →

Temperament research

Don't Worry, Be Happy(er)

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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

–  Declaration of Independence of The United States of America

Pursuit of Happiness – our unalienable right.  What makes people happy?  What makes them unhappy?  If you’re unhappy, how do you get happy?  The results of a survey of more than 3000 people who completed the Keirsey Temperament Sorter-II at the Keirsey.com website were a little surprising, and led us to look a little deeper into this question – and it turns out it may not be hard, for any of us, to feel happier just because we want to. Continue reading Don't Worry, Be Happy(er) →

Leadership

Career Growth Strategy (1): Get comfortable in your own skin

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In my previous article (Popular Question From an Introvert), I stated that moving ahead in your career isn’t about making clever maneuvers.  But rather, that it’s about building for the long term.    I ended by introducing what it takes to do this:

  1. Get comfortable in your own skin by celebrating who you are.
  2. Figure out what will get the company ahead.
  3.  Learn to articulate “your” story by highlighting how your differences are a tremendous asset.
  4. Articulate how your unique talent, viewpoint, and approach would be a significant advancement for the enterprise.

In this article, I will expand on the first step:  (1).  Get comfortable in your own skin by celebrating who you are.  To start, I’d like to take a look at why it is so difficult to celebrate who we are, and then I’ll move on to how we can shift our perspective.

Continue reading Career Growth Strategy (1): Get comfortable in your own skin →

Famous personality, Leadership, Rational

Real Idea Men

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It is one of the biggest corporations in the world, with yearly revenues greater than the gross domestic products of 169 countries. Not bad for a company that was co-founded by two young nerds on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell software on computers. They didn’t have much money then.

In fact, one of those guys who arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico airport from Boston in 1975, didn’t have enough money to afford the “upscale” moderately priced motel the computer manufacturer who was interested in buying this software had reserved for this nerd while he proved that his software worked on their computer. He was very nervous about the software — everything was riding on the code — which was punched onto a small role of paper computer tape he carried with him. But, it worked the first time, largely because they had used an emulator of the computer (a software program written by this guy) to build and test the code back in Boston.

This guy, although he didn’t have much money at the time, he did have a big idea. Now others had similar ideas,which was to sell software for computers. That wasn’t the big idea. He and his co-founder shared a firm belief in this big idea, but they were a little different in personality.

Continue reading Real Idea Men →

Famous personality, General site information

16 People, 16 Types

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I promised in our welcome message to explain the significance of the 16 people pictured in the banner at the top of our blog. It’s very simple – there are 16 types of people, 4 of each temperament in Keirsey Temperament Theory. Each of the people in the banner represents one of the 16 types.

Before jumping to the rest of the article, can you determine which type is represented by each of the 16 people?

Continue reading 16 People, 16 Types →

Leadership

Popular Question from an Introvert

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Q: I am a fairly introverted person.  It seems like to get ahead at my company you have to “toot your own horn”.  This makes me uncomfortable. Do you have any advice?

“Tooting your own horn” works well if you have a beautiful “horn” and you are talented in “tooting.”  There are those who do this quite well—with charisma, grace, and finesse.  They know how to position themselves, and sell themselves to just about anyone.  Then there are those without horns, who have not had much practice in the fine art of tooting.  So what do you do if you’re not a horn tootin’ kind of guy or gal?  Many “so called” experts would say that if you’re going to succeed that you have to learn to “speak up” and “stand out”—that you should get yourself a beautiful horn, and start practicing like crazy!

Continue reading Popular Question from an Introvert →

Artisan, Famous personality

Amazing Grace or Amazing Disgrace

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Charlie Sheen has a tiger by the tail.  It’s himself.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

So are the words of John Newton, once an infidel and libertine by his own account; the words are the beginning stanza of Amazing Grace, a famous Christian hymn about redemption. Despite the libertine ways of his younger days, Newton changed his ways, and spent the last 43 years of his life preaching the gospel.

There are two meanings to the phrase Amazing Grace: 1) the forgiveness of God and 2) the ability of some people to show amazing gracefulness.

The Artisans are known for their charm and grace.  Talented Artisans can be known for their amazing gracefulness.  However, those Artisans that are using the Dark Escape methods, methods of madness, can be amazing in their disgrace.
Continue reading Amazing Grace or Amazing Disgrace →

General site information

The Please Understand Me blog

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Welcome to our new blog.  Authors David M. Keirsey, Edward Kim, and Kip Parent from Keirsey.com have been writing on Keirsey Temperament Theory in various blogs and forums for a number of years, and will now be focusing their efforts in one place – here at blog.keirsey.com.

While each of the authors reserves the privilege of addressing any topic of the moment, each brings a particular area of focus to this blog:

Dr. David M. (Dave) Keirsey, who has spent his entire life observing people and categorizing their temperaments, will write about famous and infamous personalities and how their temperament shapes their actions.  Dave’s first entry, on Charlie Sheen, christens the blog with observations on this (in)famous Artisan.
Continue reading The Please Understand Me blog →

Entertainment Industry Information