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Personality-based Life Coaching

The Smiths

Long stereotyped as social outcasts, brilliant eccentrics, and unapologetic sociopaths, Smiths frequently find themselves as both beneficiary and victim to prejudice--it’s not enough that they’re powerful, they have to be misanthropic too. It must be something about those Killer Whales, Spiders, Chimpanzees, and Owls that makes society want to brand them as the mustache-twirling, cat-stroking archvillain that longs to rule--or destroy--the world. Perhaps it’s because a majority of Smiths rather like the idea of being a super genius, albeit an “evil” one, and find pieces of truth in the caricature.

 

Of course, just because something is true doesn’t necessarily mean that the insight comes with nuance, and when looking closer at the relationship between Smiths and the majority of society, i.e. the Gatherers and Hunters of the world, two things become clear: there are plenty of people who would love to be a Smith, and there are even more people that have absolutely no idea what that means.

The Killer Whale

There are several types that generally like to work behind the scenes, humbly avoiding the spotlight whenever possible. The Killer Whale is not one of them. Well-known for their natural drive to lead, Killer Whales, as opposed to the similarly commanding but far more authoritarian Stags, derive their power from the force of their intellect, convincing their followers, in a not so subtle way, that they are the smartest person in the room--and as such, to follow another would be folly.

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The Spider

If life is, as Voltaire once wrote, just a game, then the Spider seems to be playing chess while the rest of us are playing checkers. Not only do they always have a plan, but they usually have multiple contingencies as well. And as opposed to Killer Whales, Smith siblings that are prone to displaying their hand for all to see, the serious and reserved Spiders very rarely reveal the personal agenda that drives their farsighted planning.

The Chimpanzee

A Chimpanzee in a nutshell: innovation for innovation’s sake, cleverness for cleverness’ sake, and a wink and a nod to those too slow to keep up. Eschewing the pragmatic goals of the Killer Whale and Spider, and far flashier than the understated Owl, Chimpanzees view themselves as a different breed of Smith. They are highly skeptical of specialization and laughterless rooms, making them the most versatile and mischievous of all the types.

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The Owl

If a Humpback Whale is the “old soul” of personality types, the Owl is just old. Now this might seem insulting, but to the information-obsessed Owl, advanced age, or at least the appearance of it, is believed to be a sign of wisdom. Every tuft of disheveled hair, every imaginary gray follicle, and every mismatched wardrobe accessory: all evidence of a life spent devoted to the pursuit of knowledge.

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