In case you missed it, Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick has recently stepped down from his position as CEO of the ride-hailing app that he founded in 2009. The resignation follows a four-month investigation into the company's "toxic" corporate culture.
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. No, not Dickens, but an apt summary of the radical opposites taking place between my INTJ psyche and the corporate world I found myself working in for almost 16 years. It's a story of contrasts and comparisons between the massive success I achieved and the desperate, inescapable desire to "get out while you can."
Energetic, outgoing and creative, ENFPs are highly social individuals who crave fun and freedom. They love coming up with new ideas and original solutions and sharing them in an enthusiastic way. Empathetic ENFPs also love connecting with others emotionally and helping them to express their feelings. Together these traits form a person who is friendly, interesting and popular with almost everyone they meet.
For years, self-help gurus and mindfulness experts have been preaching a simple mantra; if you want to improve your life, you have to change the way you think. Dream big and you will have success. Visualize yourself rolling in dollars and you'll become a millionaire. Unfortunately, science suggests that positive thinking might not work. In fact, the opposite may actually be true - that if we act happy, we become happy, something psychologist Richard Wiseman calls the "as if" principle.
Anyone who knows anything about personality theory understands that some personalities need a predictable rhythm to help them keep order to their day (we're looking at you SJs). Take away the routine, and these personalities have a tendency to get stressed, feel overwhelmed and become paralyzed by inactivity. They might even blame themselves for losing control of a situation.
A lot of things determine how successful you'll be: the career you choose to pursue; the company you keep; the things you love doing; whether you possess a burning desire to prove other people wrong. There's no one-size-fits-all prescription. This is good, because we all define success in different ways.
For idealistic INFPs, success often means having the freedom to live a moral, beautiful, and virtuous life. Success in the conventional sense (power, prestige, money) doesn't matter as much as pursuing your passions, expressing yourself creatively, and growing without restraint.
Growing up, I lived in a house where almost all traditional gender roles seemed backward. To us, this was simply normal.
Our family maintained the running joke that my mom would have been the perfect 1950s sitcom dad. She was a razor-sharp, highly introverted engineer and CEO who made up for frequent business trips by always being there to inspire my brother and me when we pursued our own goals. In many ways, she was a textbook INTJ.
Compassion opens the door to happiness. We all want to receive compassion from others, since it shows that people see and understand us. Compassion is the mode of expression that tells us we are not alone; that hearts and arms are open for us if we choose to accept them. It is the instinct that drives someone to serve food at a homeless shelter, donate money to famine victims, or help a friend in need without expectation of reward.
Years ago, I was chatting with another mom at a play group, who had daughters just a few months older than mine. She was talking about how much she adored her kids. Possibly, she loved them to the exclusion of everything else. She could not imagine how dull and pointless a person's life would be without them.
ENFPs are true free spirits. It's no secret that they loathe the cubicle life, hate dressing for success, and value intrinsic rewards over financial pay-offs. Freewheeling ENFPs want to do what they love, and the careers that are recommended for them - actor, public relations professional, photographer, drugs counselor - are sufficiently non-conformist to appeal to their independent, unconventional nature.
But .... aren't these suggestions just a little boring?