Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post

impaul99 · 12-22-2007, 07:03 PM

Steve, you forgot some. He was also a magician, waiter, karate teacher, gas station manager and a u-haul dealer. In fact, he claims to have had 35 professions before age 35.

He's obviously a Scanner, like myself, and you. However, from my research on scanners (Rennaisance Men), only a small percentage of the population is wired like us. Ultimately, most of us end up in a counseling, consulting, advising, coaching, personal development field of some sort because we can very easily adapt and learn new things compared to many others. We have the ability to walk into an organization and absorb 80% of how things works in a few days, and then offer advice on how to become more productive. However, I know that not a lot of people are wired this way.

I know of people who's dream in life is to do one thing, and on thing only, never changing anything, just doing that one single thing and just getting better at it every day. I have employees that I've offered advancement opportunities to, but they have absolutely no desire to learn anything to, just want to keep doing the single thing that they already do and if I change any aspect of their job they get really uncomfortable and even pissed off.

I also know a magician who is brilliant at his art of close-up magic, but he is absolutely not interested in learning any part of the business side of things or anything else. His dream in life would be if he was part of a team of some sort where everyone else did all the other parts of a business and he just did the one thing he's good at for the rest of his life.

It's kind of like the polar opposite of a scanner, namely a total specialist. Most people fit in somewhere in between I think.

One thing I do totally agree with. I would never NOT pursue a new career I'm excited about because it might look bad on my resume. That's a total non-issue for me, and I agree that it shouldn't be part of the decision making process for anyone. I've hired many people who have had eclectic backgrounds and careers. Maybe it's because I'm a scanner though, so I understand what they are doing.

12-22-2007, 07:03 PM	#6 (permalink)
impaul99 Banned Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: BC, Canada Posts: 1,935	Steve, you forgot some. He was also a magician, waiter, karate teacher, gas station manager and a u-haul dealer. In fact, he claims to have had 35 professions before age 35. He's obviously a Scanner, like myself, and you. However, from my research on scanners (Rennaisance Men), only a small percentage of the population is wired like us. Ultimately, most of us end up in a counseling, consulting, advising, coaching, personal development field of some sort because we can very easily adapt and learn new things compared to many others. We have the ability to walk into an organization and absorb 80% of how things works in a few days, and then offer advice on how to become more productive. However, I know that not a lot of people are wired this way. I know of people who's dream in life is to do one thing, and on thing only, never changing anything, just doing that one single thing and just getting better at it every day. I have employees that I've offered advancement opportunities to, but they have absolutely no desire to learn anything to, just want to keep doing the single thing that they already do and if I change any aspect of their job they get really uncomfortable and even pissed off. I also know a magician who is brilliant at his art of close-up magic, but he is absolutely not interested in learning any part of the business side of things or anything else. His dream in life would be if he was part of a team of some sort where everyone else did all the other parts of a business and he just did the one thing he's good at for the rest of his life. It's kind of like the polar opposite of a scanner, namely a total specialist. Most people fit in somewhere in between I think. One thing I do totally agree with. I would never NOT pursue a new career I'm excited about because it might look bad on my resume. That's a total non-issue for me, and I agree that it shouldn't be part of the decision making process for anyone. I've hired many people who have had eclectic backgrounds and careers. Maybe it's because I'm a scanner though, so I understand what they are doing.