Part 1: Attributes of the EPT

Jeremy: Hey everyone, this is Jeremy from Alex Charfen's team and in this episode Alex is presenting to an audience at the Titan Summit. This place is filled with high performing human beings just like you and me. And in this first part Alex talks about the same things, the same attributes that make us so strong and that allow us to go out and really change things in this world are also the same things that cause us to appear broken and challenged.

Alex Charfen: I'm Alex Charfen and this is the Momentum Podcast made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution.

Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny, we define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future. And instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution. And we always will be.

Let me tell you how I got here. A few months ago, I gave a speech, a 10 minute talk at Joe Polish's office, and I sat down, I was really jacked up. I was excited to give the presentation and I got passed a note and it said we should connect or something like that. But it was from Robin Sharma and I did what anybody would do when they get a note from Robin Sharma, I immediately took a picture of it to prove that it happened, right? And so the note said something like, "Hey, we should connect. Let's talk." And so we had this call on a Saturday and on Friday night I remember not being able to sleep because I was going to speak to Robin Sharma the next day. You guys know what I'm talking about, right? And I got up and we had this call and I don't know if you've ever had a conversation where you say hello and then within nine words, you go so deep you're like in that place where you're going, "Is this really happening?"

And we did that for like a half hour and it was uplifting and energizing and incredible. And there was some details in the call that I got a little overwhelmed by because Robin during the call had said like, "Hey, I've got this event." And he explained Titans and all this stuff and it was great. I got off the call, I ran over to Katie. I'm like, "I just had a half hour call with Robin Sharma and man, it's like real." He's not like one of those guys that wrote the book with a ghost writer. You guys know what I'm talking about, right? It's real and she's like, "That's awesome. What did he say?" I said, "I think I'm either speaking at Titan Summit or we're going to have to buy tickets."

Because like plain as day Robin said, "Hey, you should speak at Titans." But by the time I hung up, I had talked myself out of it, so thank goodness. The next morning Sherry sent me an email and I ran into my office and said, "It's real. I'm really speaking. We don't have to buy tickets." And it's been magical just thinking about this because this room is so important, so important. And just being here this week, I've realized how much more important it is because rarely do you find a group of people like this. To say that you're successful entrepreneurs is such an understatement. What do you guys think about when you think successful entrepreneur, what do you think about? What are the words that come up?

Speaker 3: Millionaire.

Alex Charfen: Millionaire. Okay. That's a good one. What else? What about the person? Tell me about the person.

Speaker 3: Self-reliance.

Alex Charfen: Self-reliance. That's a good one. What else?

Speaker 4: Accomplished.

Alex Charfen: Accomplished. What? Well, the positive stuff. Successful entrepreneur, right?

Speaker 4: Passionate.

Alex Charfen: Passionate.

Speaker 4: Change the world.

Alex Charfen: Change the world. Self-direct. Is this a fair list right here? Entrepreneur or maybe like this? Would you guys say this describes an entrepreneur? Okay, so on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being highest, how many of you would say you're a 10 out of 10 on most of these? How many? Right? 10 out of 10, how many disagree? How many are like not a 10 out of 10 maybe you're in the eight or nine range. Okay, cool. But we've got a room full of 10 out of tens, right? For most of these. So myopic means really tunnel vision, right? How many of you can get tunnel vision when you have a goal? Right? So now what gets said about the kid who is a 10 out of 10 with that? Huh?

Speaker 4: ADHD.

Alex Charfen: ADHD. What else? Troublemaker. What else?

Speaker 4: Obsessive.

Alex Charfen: Obsessive. Watch, if I click just one time, intense turns to aggressive, right? Intelligent turns to arrogant. Focus turns to obsessive, aware turns to sensitive, right? Relentless turns to cutthroat. Confident turns to conceded. Restless turns to hyperactive. Hyper, right? Driven turns to hyperactive, paranoid, anti-social, risky. Is this an entrepreneur as well? Fair, interesting. Right? Because isn't it kind of fair to say that this is a personality and this is kind of the outcome of the personality and maybe there just really is an entrepreneurial personality type. For those of you in the US yes, my life's work shares an acronym with early pregnancy test.

We couldn't change it because you know why? We had to use the right words. See the entrepreneur is he who undertakes. Only recently have we referred to entrepreneur and business person as mutually inclusive. The entrepreneurial personality type has existed forever. I mean the person who is intense and wants to do and change and challenge the status quo. This is a different type of person. In fact, I would challenge all of you right now think back through your lives. Can all of you remember the small handful of people that got you through? Do you know what I'm talking about? You go all the way back. It wasn't everyone, right? Was it one, two, three, four? Usually not more than five in a room like this. And what was the commonality? What made them like you? Why was it you related so well? Because they were just like you. See, there's a subpopulation that modern science is overlooked.

Why? Because we are so deficit based. We don't look at anything that could actually be positive about human beings. Is that fair? Right, because the industry of what is wrong with you is a $400 billion a year industry just in the US. The industry for what is right with you is StrengthsFinders by Gallup. It's about a 200 page book. That's it. See, the entrepreneurial personality type is a subpopulation that's existed forever and if any of you believe that modern science couldn't have missed this population, consider this. Up until three or four years ago, every clinical trial that the FDA did in the United States, they allowed pharmaceutical manufacturers to accept women from the results. You guys do this crazy thing menstruating, you know what that does? It messes up all the hormone results.

What are you thinking? Clinical trial. My results are bad. Just so I can throw you out. It's funny, up until you realized that up until four or five years ago, 100% of women involved with those medications were misdiagnosed. The only way they could get the right amount is luck. So Ambien prescriptions were sometimes 3 or 400% of the dose. So modern science misses more than it sees. And the fact is that this personality type exists and we all know him. Because how many of you have ever felt singularly alone like a party of one? You are unique. There's no one else likes you, right? Did you see every hand in the room go up? You're not alone, right? See, throughout history, every name that matters to be remembered, every person you've ever remembered, who were they for you? I know who they were for me.

Einstein, Pythagoras, Socrates, Aristotle, they called to me. They called me Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson. You know what I'm talking about. You know that these people mean something to you and it's someone for everyone in this room. You bought the book, you held onto an immense something because throughout history, everyone whose name matters to be remembered, every one who has been remembered has been like us. And for every one of us who society's constructs have convinced that we are singularly unique and all alone. We have to recognize that not only are we in a club, we are in the most important club in history. That's why you're in this room, because the entrepreneurial personality type is the person that changes the status quo, challenges what's happening, makes things move forward and evolves humanity. And we are the only thing that ever has. Because see this personality type, when we really think about it, there's different parts that make us different.

And when we look at the attributes of the EPT, I want you to understand we all have these now, high sensitivity and awareness. How many of you relate to that right off the bat, right? This is that skill set that allows you to feel the energy in the room. How many of you know that, right? You know what's going on. When you were a kid, you knew people were contradicting themselves. This is what lets us really see opportunity, but man, we have this little concept in our company. Pressure and noise. How many know what that means without me telling you, right? It's all the stuff that gets together and what does high sensitivity become? High sensitivity. The world starts yelling at you. Everything's loud, right? Colors are loud. Just speakers are too loud, everything's too loud. What's the next one? This next attribute of the entrepreneurial personality type.

How many of you are future-focused? What do we call these people when it's positive? What do we call people who are future focused when it's working well? Visionary. What do we call them when it's not working well? Daydreamer, right? Same thing, same exact attribute. What makes us successful is what gets criticized. What makes us successful is what's diagnosable, right? High processing capacity. Who has that? When it's really working it presents in two ways. Now, one is how many people in the room know so much about a subject that when you're around other professionals in that subject and they realize you're not one of them, they think you're weird, right? How many of you have that subject? Right? And then the second way that it presents is people say stuff like, "Hey, your mouth moves faster than you think. You're at the solution. We didn't know there was a problem."

How many have that, right? Now high processing capacity under pressure and noise. You can't see the forest for the trees. You get to go into data holes. You start just absorbing everything. How many have done that? Right? These are really distinct characteristics of our personality type. How many of you are highly adaptable? How many of you have been called a chameleon? Put your hands up high. Look, the whole room. Now what does high adaptability look like under pressure and noise? We adapt and adapt and adapt and adapt and adapt and figure it out one day we're somewhere that's so far from where we originally and intended to be. We have to self-destruct.

I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands. I'll just make the assumption we've all been there and then the next attribute, intense focus on a result. I love that we've talked about Thomas Edison so much. I have a title on Instagram that says Thomas Edison was homeschooled. He really was. 10,000 tries to make a light bulb. Is that intense focus on a result? Can you imagine what would happen to Thomas Edison today? "Officer, I've got this neighbor blowing crap up in his garage." Really, it's been 4,000 times. He is an obsessive nutjob, doesn't come out, doesn't shave. By the way, this is all true about Edison, works for 24 or 48 hours at a time, right? Won't sleep. Edison would have been locked up, we'd be sitting here in the dark. Am I wrong? The next one, bias for improvement. Guys, you know bias for improvement.

This is a Meta program that runs in every one of your heads and you can't turn it off. It's that thing that when you walk into the store for you, whatever matters to you, right? Some people, it's an ice cream store. Some people it's a dry cleaner. Some people it's every store you walk into, by the time you're at the cash register, you've redesigned it, right? How many? Now, what does bias for improvement look like when pressure and noise ratchets up for us? Who can guess? Huh? You just keep changing everything. It's constant change. We often say entrepreneurs are addicted to change and programmed to accept failure because we will just bias for improvement, changing, changing, change, without measuring anything to see if we're moving forward. The next one, experiential or experimental learners. So Socrates talked about this, that which a man does, he shall learn, right?

If you do it, you will learn it. How many of you, you can learn by reading I know and you can learn by watching people on stage and you can absorb information, but in order to really trust it, to really think it will happen, you have to see it. How many? How many of you, if you've seen it the next second you go, "Yeah, it probably wouldn't happen again." Right? We're skeptical. So experiential experimental learners allows us to be testing and moving and changing things and experiencing things and getting out in the world, but with high pressure and noise, we are skeptical. We don't trust anyone. In fact, the entire world can turn against you. How many have been there like it was the same way, right? Same world. It's just looks at it a different way. The next, perceiving unique connections, this is that skill that when you walk in a room and everyone sees a problem in one way, you can immediately identify a different way to look at it.

You share it and it's accepted. How many, right? Under high pressure and noise, it's all connections or not connections. Your head's racing. You can't really see where things should stop or start. How many of you have been there? It's amazing what happens with just a little pressure and noise to drive for gained advantage. This is that question in our heads that says, "How do I get ahead?" But with pressure and noise, what does gained advantage look like? Destruction, cut-throat, mean, angry. How many of you have been called some of those things, right? On a good day then that's one innate motivation. You all know what innate motivation is. Psychology tells us extrinsic, intrinsic motivation. Innate motivation is that engine that turned on and doesn't turn off. You guys know what I'm talking about? Psychology doesn't talk about the fact that how many of you in the room can turn it off?

Let's see, hands high, none. It's just there and it's amazing because when we are in the right space, does innate motivation get things done? We can change the world, but with high pressure and noise, what does it look like? Huh? Innate motivation. You are a chaos. You're spinning your wheels and not going anywhere. How many know that feeling? Right? It's a terrible metaphor, but that's that innate motivation. I don't know where to put it. See these attributes are who we are, but what we don't understand is the same thing that makes us so strong, allows us to go out and change things in the world is what causes us to appear broken and challenged.

Because the same way that drive for gained advantage can make us look cut-throat. It can make us look symptomatic and there's a lot of talk about that these days. In fact, when we look at these attributes, when there's high pressure and noise, they all create challenging behaviors. The very same thing that made you successful creates a challenging behavior, but under low pressure and noise, this is how we move forward like crazy. And the challenge is how do you control the pressure and noise in your life?

Jeremy: Thanks for checking out this week's episode guys, and if you're looking to go further, if you're really aiming for clarity and you want to know exactly what you need to do to create momentum based on where your business is today, right now, head over to billionairecode.com/apply-now. That's billionairecode.com/apply-now.