As an ESTP, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you take things in via your five

senses in a literal, concrete fashion. Your secondary mode is internal, where you deal with things rationally

and logically.

ESTP's are outgoing, straight-shooting types. Enthusiastic and excitable, ESTP’s are "doers" who live in

the world of action. Blunt, straight-forward risk-takers, they are willing to plunge right into things and get

their hands dirty. They live in the here-and-now, and place little importance on introspection or theory.

They look at the facts of a situation, quickly decide what should be done, execute the action, and move on

to the next thing.

ESTP’s have an uncanny ability to perceive people's attitudes and motivations. They pick up on little cues

which go completely unnoticed by most other types, such as facial expressions and stance. They're typically

a couple of steps ahead of the person they're interacting with. ESTP’s use this ability to get what they want

out of a situation. Rules and laws are seen as guidelines for behavior, rather than mandates. If the ESTP has

decided that something needs to be done, then their "do it and get on with it" attitude takes precedence over

the rules. However, the ESTP tends to have their own strong belief in what's right and what's wrong, and

will doggedly stick to their principles. The Rules of the Establishment may hold little value to the ESTP,

but their own integrity mandates that they will not under any circumstances do something which they feel

to be wrong.

ESTP’s have a strong flair for drama and style. They're fast-moving, fast-talking people who have an

appreciation for the finer things in life. They may be gamblers or spendthrifts. They're usually very good at

story telling and improvising. They typically make things up as they go along, rather than following a plan.

They love to have fun, and are fun people to be around. They can sometimes be hurtful to others without

being aware of it, as they generally do not know and may not care about the effect their words have on

others. It's not that they don't care about people; it's that their decision-making process does not involve

taking people's feelings into account. They make decisions based on facts and logic.

ESTP's least developed area is their intuitive side. They are impatient with theory, and see little use for it in

their quest to "get things done". An ESTP will occasionally have strong intuitions which are often way offbase,

but sometimes very lucid and positive. The ESTP does not trust their instincts, and is suspicious of

other people's intuition as well.

The ESTP often has trouble in school, especially higher education which moves into realms where theory is

more important. The ESTP gets bored with classes in which they feel they gain no useful material which

can be used to get things done. The ESTP may be brilliantly intelligent, but school will be a difficult chore

for them.

The ESTP needs to keep moving, and so does well in careers where he or she is not restricted or confined.

ESTP’s make extremely good salespersons. They will become stifled and unhappy dealing with routine

chores. ESTP’s have a natural abundance of energy and enthusiasm, which makes them natural

entrepreneurs. They get very excited about things, and have the ability to motivate others to excitement and

action. The can sell anyone on any idea. They are action-oriented, and make decisions quickly. All-in-all,

they have extraordinary talents for getting things started. They are not usually so good at following

through, and might leave those tasks to others. Mastering the art of following through is something which

ESTP’s should pay special attention to.

ESTP’s are practical, observant, fun-loving, spontaneous risk-takers with an excellent ability to quickly

improvise an innovative solution to a problem. They're enthusiastic and fun to be with, and are great

motivators. If an ESTP recognizes their real talents and operates within those realms, they can accomplish

truly exciting things.

Dominant: Extraverted Sensing

Auxiliary: Introverted Thinking

Tertiary: Extraverted Feeling

Inferior: Introverted Intuition

ESTP’s have some advantageous traits which are unique to their personality type. Their skills of

observation make them extremely good at correctly analyzing and assessing other peoples' motives or

perspectives. Their people skills allow them to use this knowledge to their advantage while interacting with

people. For this reason, ESTP’s are excellent salespeople. They also have a special ability to react quickly

and effectively to an immediate need, such as in an emergency or crisis situation. This is a valuable skill in

many different professions, perhaps most notably in action-oriented professions, such as police work.

ESTP’s enjoy new experiences and dealing with people, and dislike being confined in structured or

regimented environments. They also want to see an immediate result for their actions, and don't like dealing

with a lot of high-level theory where that won't be the case. For these reasons, they should choose careers

which involve a lot of interaction with people, and do not require performing a lot of routine, detailed tasks.

ESTP’s are gregarious and fun-loving individuals who want to make the most of every moment. They love

action, and always seem to be doing something. This enthusiasm is carried over to their personal

relationships, which they approach with the desire to make the most of their relationships on a daily basis.

They tend to get bored easily, and may be prone to switching relationships frequently unless they find an

outlet for their boredom elsewhere. They approach life on a day-by-day basis, so long-term commitments

are not naturally comfortable for the ESTP. They may feel tremendously committed, but they want to take

their commitments day by day.

With a dominant function of Extraverted Sensing, and an auxiliary function of Introverted Thinking, people

with the ESTP personality type have a heightened need for sensory experience and for tactile engagement

with their physical environment. The ESTP is most comfortable when they can treat life as a big game in

which they must be quick to use their skills in order to win. In such a game-playing scenario, the ESTP is

most likely to be the winner, as no other personality type is as quick on their feet as the ESTP.

ESTP’s have an amazingly ability to size up people in an instant and come up with an accurate ballpark

understanding of where they are coming from. The ESTP cannot help using this skill, it is natural for them,

but it brings them great satisfaction to be able to use this skill to enact some personal gain, or to “win the

game.” The ESTP is also strongly driven to tangibly interact with their immediate physical environment.

This need manifests itself in many ways, most commonly as an attraction to sports or physical challenges,

and as a desire to always be doing something. ESTP’s are the great Doers. If you want to make something

happen quickly, ask an ESTP. These inherent skills make the ESTP likely to find success professionally as

salespeople or professional athletes. However, any career that capitalizes on their people skills or their

ability to maneuver within their physical world AND gives them immediate feedback is likely to be a good

fit for the ESTP.

The ESTP’s need to be engaged with their immediate, external world makes success on a personal level

more challenging. They feel happiest when they are outside of themselves, but personal success requires

going within to get to know the self. However, once these needs are recognized, they are not mutually

exclusive. The ESTP who feeds their constant drive for new sensory experiences as well as their need for

real reflection upon those experiences and impressions will find a deeper level of personal satisfaction than

the ESTP who allows his immediate needs for sensory experiences to yank him about.

However, even those ESTP’s who have developed their ability to reflect on matters will always be

connected at some base level to the strong desire for new experiences, and will get their “bread and butter”

feelings of success from conquering challenges in their physical environment. ESTP’s need to know

they’ve got the goods, won the moment, done the job. Once given a task that intrigues them, or having

discovered something new to be tried, very little will stop them from doing all they can to meet the

challenge, and thereby achieve what they consider to be a personal success. Success to an ESTP is usually

not measured in ongoing terms, but in transient moments of achievement, moments which bring the ESTP

the needed feeling of having won the day.

As an ESTP, you have gifts that are specific to your personality type that aren't natural strengths for other

types. By recognizing your special gifts and encouraging their growth and development, you will more

readily see your place in the world, and be more content with your role.

Nearly all ESTP’s will recognize the following characteristics in themselves. They should embrace and

nourish these strengths:

and mannerisms.

them at a moment’s notice.

odds stacked against them, which makes them great troubleshooters or the type of salespeople who

can cold canvass a winning deal from the hardest client.

almost always be the last man standing.

perceptions mean to them and discriminate carefully between the options available rather than

simply flowing with the process of the moment, will enjoy these very special gifts:

perspectives may be useful and valid.

extraordinary teachers of positive life skills.

more valuable or efficient way. Such ESTP’s are an asset to any company involved in

manufacturing.

good detectives or analysts.

With any gift of strength, there is an associated weakness. Without "bad", there would be no "good".

Without "difficult", there would be no "easy". We value our strengths, but we often curse or simply ignore

our weaknesses. To grow as a person and get what we want out of life, we must certainly exploit our

strengths, but we must also face our weaknesses and deal with them. That means taking a hard look at the

potential problem areas in our personality type.

It is important to realize that type weaknesses are just the blind spots behind our stronger character traits,

and that the more undesirable characteristics specific to a type are usually limited to those people whose

type is heavily expressed, and then only if circumstances have combined to narrow or circumvent that

person’s natural development. So in reading what follows, it is worth remembering that, in describing these

typical tendencies and the negative patterns of behavior which can flow from them, we are building an

understanding for positive development. Every person is differently made, and we must always remember

that these so called “weaknesses” are the unavoidable, understandable and natural characteristics of our

type.

Most of the weaker characteristics found in ESTP’s result from Extraverted Sensing dominating their

personality and co-opting the usefulness of their other functions, whilst some other difficulties stem directly

from the ESTP’s inability to use their less adapted functions of Extraverted Feeling and Introverted

Intuition. Either singly or in combination, these ESTP traits cause most or all of the following weaknesses

in varying degrees:

possibility to “do something.”

plans.

up with them on their blind side.

expected.

partner.

themselves.

employers or clients by job hopping.

neglecting themselves and their relationships.

of family or employees, insisting that they live up to what the ESTP sees as the proper code or

level of accomplishment.

Because the ESTP is driven to experience the world through concrete sensation, their need for sensual

experience combines with the possibilities of the moment to provide everything they feel is necessary to

life. Using Introverted Thinking only to justify or enhance their sensual needs, the ESTP can easily flow

with the world in a reckless manner, their own behavior mapped and justified by a ruling grid locked only

to the objective action of the moment. Many of the difficulties described above flow from this common

ESTP trait of attending only to the world and the people around them for the sake of satisfying their

constant need for fresh experiences and new conquests. For the ESTP who lacks the support of a well

adapted rational, judging function, the objective world remains an endlessly fascinating playground, where

the constantly changing rules of the game often provide the only real codes of conduct they live by.

Without a well developed Introverted Thinking function enabling the ESTP to reflect upon the

consequences of their actions and desires, the feelings and needs of others can seem of little concern to

them. Often, those who cannot match the ESTP round for round are considered persons of little

consequence, or valued only as useful pawns in an endless game of one-upmanship where the gratification

of the ESTP’s needs is the only object. In addition to this, because Feeling is the ESTP’s tertiary function,

its judgments tend to be colored by the unconscious background, which means that it is often used

negatively. In responding to the ESTP’s sense driven thinking assessments, such a feeling function plays

down empathy and enhances the maintenance of negative feelings about others, particularly when they do

not “go along” with the ESTP’s primary function driven ways and needs.

Under such conditions the strongly expressing ESTP, whose auxiliary Introverted Thinking function serves

only to make biased, supportive, “correct” judgments about their own behavior, will often “stand outside

the circle”, their biased judgments reducing others to a mere audience, expected to support the ESTP’s

notions without question. In relationships this can be a danger, for it means the ESTP will rarely accede to

the feeling based demands of others, nor give credit to those ideas which arise from an intuitive outlook on

life. Their behavior in this regard often borders on outright contempt or a sullen refusal to accept anything

outside their own purview.

Such strongly expressing ESTP’s can sometimes find themselves without any truly close relationships, for

their behavior often provides a strong signal to others, who sense that “here be dragons”, and consequently

offer as little as possible of their personal feelings or worldly knowledge as grist to the ESTP’s oneupmanship

mill. Under these circumstances, whilst the ESTP may have lots of acquaintances and partners

in fun, there will be very few who will befriend them at any truly supportive, emotional level.

Apart from the reasons given above, some narrowly expressing ESTP’s can sometimes find themselves

isolated because of the unusual things they believe about people and the world - particularly in regard to the

reasons they believe certain things happen. The ESTP is extremely familiar with the workings of the

immediate, rational world of the senses, but because their Intuition is a virtually unconscious function, their

ideas about things outside their ken can quite often be extraordinarily quaint, superstitious or just downright

bizarre, and their thinking can weave some amazing logic to support these beliefs. This rarely affects their

day to day life, for these ideas and superstitions quite often support their keenness and abilities, but in a

situation where truly intuitive or theoretical notions are considered relevant and important, the ESTP can

find themselves very much the odd man out.

Of all the personality types, the strongly expressing ESTP can be the hardest to convince that their world

view is not the only valid one; that it does not necessarily spring from the best and only way to be; that

everyone else in the world that is “normal” does not approach life in the same way as the ESTP.

To grow as an individual, the ESTP needs to focus on freeing their thinking from the control of Extraverted

Sensing and allow them the space to make careful, rational judgments. Not only about the immediate,

external situation, but also about the ways in which it can be managed to create a more valuable, long term

result. The ESTP’s capacity to do this is innate; it hides just beneath the surface and takes only a few

deliberate moments to allow it to work. All the ESTP needs to do is to recognize the difference between

thinking with the moment, with the subject of their immediate sense impressions, and the thinking they do

when nothing else grasps their attention. The ESTP needs to recognize that the second kind of thinking, this

“alone with self” space, is full of potential for careful judgment of their actions and consideration of the

best course for the future. Introverted Thinking is in truth the ESTP secret weapon. It is Introverted

Thinking working in the background of their life which makes the ESTP such a potent personality.

Bringing it into the foreground, allowing its power to be no longer a secret to them is the key to ESTP

development.

I want to offer the ESTP some specific suggestions and advice here, for bringing the value of introspection

into focus it isn’t just a matter of flipping a switch in the head. One of the reasons for this is that, when

uncoupled from the fascinations of the outer world and reality, the ESTP’s Introverted Thinking tends to

get caught up in the negative judgments and images which flow from their feeling and intuitive functions;

all too easily falling into a cloudy, uncertain world of anxieties and sinister implications. The ESTP’s inner

space needs to be cleared of this often childish and ill-informed miasma of negativity. So it is necessary to

reassure yourself, to calmly and decisively insist upon quiet in your inner mind, and have faith that all

concerns will be taken care of by the “adult of the household” (the mature version of Introverted Thinking.)

Turning off the world and getting into your own space can be difficult at the beginning, but it provides the

greatest rewards. For the ESTP doesn’t need to learn how to think, they already do it extremely well – they

just need to turn their thinking upon themselves. They need to measure and evaluate their usefulness, their

actions, their relationships in ways that look for quality, and in ways to offer value to all things and people

in their lives.

Challenge yourself. Challenges are simple stuff for the ESTP, and all it really takes is a few moments of

reflection each day. Ask yourself regularly: “What am I doing? Why am I doing it? Who benefits from it?”

Ask these questions in every type of situation, and discover how the answers begin showing a path toward

not only greater understanding of self and others, but also show ways to include others in a relationship

with your whole self. Soon you will discover your feelings and intuitions coming on board with a more

positive and inclusive force. Growing yourself soon becomes easy, because it just takes the simple routine

of letting your innate power of considered thought work upon your own life, rather than only using it to

ESTP’s usually have a strong group of supporters, both at work and socially. They are often popular, their

appeal is magnetic and they attract those who would like to do the things they can do. The problems the

ESTP has fitting into the world tend to be related to the flip side of this attractive and challenging exterior,

for the deeper and more intimate side of people tends to avoid them, just as the ESTP tends to avoid the

deeper connections. ESTP’s have no trouble attracting lovers and admirers, they simply have trouble

keeping them, for once relationships begin to demand constancy and deep, feeling based connections, the

ESTP is often left wondering what the fuss was about. Their inadequacy in this regard can often make

others feel they are lacking any real feelings or desire for commitment, whilst the truth is that they simply

do not know the path to such things without a long and difficult learning period. They are more frightened

of feelings rather than unable to feel, they are more timid of commitment rather than unable to commit. In

relationships the ESTP needs reassurance, but all too often their needs are unspoken and interpreted as

inabilities.

Ask yourself what you want from a long term relationship. Now turn this around and see how your

requirements compare with others. Are you being realistic? Have you forgotten to include the needs of

others in your ideal relationship? Are you afraid of the things you need to offer, or are you just afraid that

in offering them you will lose something?

Always remember, that a relationship which adds to your personal skills and life is a valuable one, while a

relationship which limits your ability to be yourself is not going to work. Now try to see how your own

demands and needs might add to another, and what they might take away from them.

Don’t be afraid of letting your feelings show, even if they frighten you for their weakness or showing your

own vulnerability. More often than not, such honesty is the beginning of the kind of relationship that can

lead you to grow.

Your best partner is going to be the one who fills your private space, your thinking space, as well as your

senses. Try to talk to others about what you think. Discover yourself in your thoughts and let relationships

grow through your letting the other person into your inner world. Discuss your fears and limits and

discover the strength available to you from the support of another who may have what you need.

1. Feed Your Strengths! Give yourself every opportunity to show your innate skills. If you are not in

a relationship or a job which allows this to happen, it might be time to discover ways to change

this. Remember, your strengths derive from being able to deal with the world, with situations

where getting things done, where opportunities to surmount difficulty exist.

2. Face Your Weaknesses. Try to be straight up with yourself. You have limitations others find as

strengths. So what? You don’t have to hide behind a curtain of fear just because you have

difficulty with feelings or sorting out your inner perceptions. Allow yourself to be who you are

and at the same time let others help you be more honest with your limitations.

3. Talk About Your Thoughts. Discussing your ideas and perceptions with others will help you to

develop your separate, inner reality, make you a “real” person to them even without all that

external activity. How well you use your auxiliary function is very important to your overall

health and happiness.

4. Don't Be Afraid to Show Emotion. Your inferior functions want you to be still a child inside, and

that makes you run, that makes you want to prove yourself even more. You don’t have to prove

anything to anyone in this regard. Everyone feel emotion and everyone is a little child inside. Find

those people whose eyes tell you that you are not alone, and let them hear your child’s voice.

5. Respect Your Need for Action. Understand that you need to be actively working with your

environment to be "in the groove" with life. Don't chastise yourself for not being the sort to sit

around and read a book or watch a movie. Choose a partner and companions who value active

lifestyles, but remember to allow yourself time out to consider how their input into your life will

change it. Don’t just follow your nose – life is not an endless party or expedition.

6. Recognize the Differences in Others. Realize that everyone is different, not just a little different,

but very different. Everyone has their place and value. You need to notice those values and places,

places where you cannot easily fit. You can learn from these people, for they have gifts you can

use, gifts they offer simply by being who they are. Try figuring out their psychological type for

yourself and notice how certain types can lift you out of negative feelings just by being who they

are

7. It's OK to Get Out of your Comfort Zone. Understand that the only way to grow is to get outside

of your comfort zone. If you're uncomfortable with an idea or situation because you're not sure

how to act, that's good! That's an opportunity for growth.

8. Identify and Express Your Feelings. You may have a hard time figuring out exactly how you feel

about someone that you're involved with. It's important that you do figure this out. Don't lead

someone on with your ambivalence. If you determine that you value the person, tell them so every

time you think of it. This is the best way to make them feel secure in your affections, and so to

promote a long-lasting relationship.

9. Be Aware that You can Fail, and that it is OK. Not every mountain can be climbed, not every

customer will be satisfied, no matter how hard you try or no matter what tricks you bring to bear.

Getting beaten is an opportunity to reflect upon what is important, what really matters in life. Next

time you will take up a challenge more worthy of your skills, and more valuable to others. You

can be a champion, and it will be at your own game. Try to let it be a game of life, where

everyone wins if you do.

10. Assume the Best. Don't distress yourself with fear and dark imaginings. Expect the best, and the

best will come.