How introverted entrepreneurs can become extroverted?
An interesting question!
There’s a lot of talk about introverted and extroverted. You can find it in any topic that has to do with challenging yourself. Are you too introverted to work out, are you too extroverted to stay at home and do the grunt work, etc.
As an entrepreneur, one should be confident, a problem solver, and a decision-maker. You don’t have to change who you are, from introvert to extrovert, in order to be those things, but you will have to reach out to new people at least some of the time. Being an introvert, but also failing to respect the importance of social connections and hiding away too much, one could develop a habit of procrastination followed by time-wasting, inefficient work sprints, rinse and repeat, with very little progress over the long run. But apart from that risk, there’s another side to the story. An introvert can most definitely become a successful entrepreneur, without turning into an extrovert. Let’s get into the details.
The advantages to being an introvert are:
1: we respect people’s personal time more.
2: we jive better with any other introverted people (of which there are many).
3: we are less easily distracted by our social lives from working on our business.
#3 is the big one. Introverts sometimes have a lot more time in the week to give to a startup. The reason why I’m actually happy to be introverted, by the way. If not, I would probably not have the patience to stay at home and work on the more slow or boring aspects of an online business in the beginning.
With that said, you aren’t really introverted or extroverted, across the board. It just depends on your learned behavior in a situation. You can teach yourself to be more extroverted in your business endeavors, while still living like a hermit or a wallflower most of the time! 😉Coming straight to the point, here are the tips to be more extroverted, as an introverted entrepreneur:
#1 Analyze and utilize your strengths. Are you an active person and feel good while doing something? Schedule walks or golf course meetings for your mandatory business social interactions. Do you like to talk to people over video chat? Focus your most frequent and important communication over that method so you get really used to it.
#2 Look for the solutions to your weaknesses. There is very little about your mental state that you cannot change if you really want to.
#3 Give yourself sufficient time to relax, rejuvenate, and enjoy life and your progress so far. Always reward social efforts in spades.
#4 Shortlist your long-term and short-term entrepreneurship goals and start meeting them, one at a time.
#5 Work on the things that scare you most, the hurdles of your entrepreneur journey.
I have been making money online for more than six years. I am an introvert and it definitely does not assist in my entrepreneur efforts much. I’d say it was just a neutral quality of who I am that makes things a little different, not better or worse.
Still, I learned to use it to my advantage. I wish I could have shared more about that here, but it will make this answer lengthy.
Instead, you might want to check out “How to Never Wimp Out Again”, on my blog. That post complements this answer and expands on some stuff. If you are interested, you can visit my website. I think I may do a post about introverts, actually, very soon.
Reply in a comment or message if you have any questions. I’m happy to help.
Good Luck!
Thanks,
Cleo