What is the personality type of Jeff Bezos? Jeff Bezos is an INTP 3wing4.
Jeff Bezos is an:
- INTP (Introversion — Intuition — Thinking — Perception)
- 3wing4 (Enneagram Type 3 with a secondary 4-wing)
- Sp/Sx (Self-preservation primary and a Sexual instinct secondary)
- Task/Project (Gets a strong biochemical reward for executing tasks and a medium-strength reward for starting up projects)
- Performance Trauma Person (His brain dumps all the negative energy in the performance — or “hightened state” — structures of the brain)
- Confidence/Pleasure fix (As opposed to an “Insecurity/Questioning fix”)
I outline how this entire personality type theory works in the following post. Here is a Youtube video I made on the subject. I also analyze Elon Musk with this same system.
The INTP 3wing4
The INTP 3wing4 is the marriage between a hardcore scientist (INTP), the slick businessman (Type 3), and the creative artist (Type 4). The INTP gives a strong desire — and ability — to be calm, rational, objective, and efficient. The Enneagram Type 3 wants success at any cost at any price. The Type 4 gives depth and divergent thinking.
In the INTP-A vs INTP-T system, Jeff Bezos would definately be an INTP-A. This is the only addition to Myers-Briggs since its creation that has gotten any traction whatsoever. Here are some resources:
- Assertive Logician (INTP-A) vs Turbulent Logician (INTP-T) (16 Personalities)
- INTP: The Thinker (Very Well Mind)
- Type 3 description (Eclectic Energies)
- Type 4 description (Eclectic Energies)
INTP
The INTP is made up of four components.
Introverts generate energy when they are by themselves, and lose energy when they are with people. The energy of an Introverts is directed inwards, instead of outwards (of an Extrovert). Introverts like to do one thing at the time, instead of many things simultaneously. Generally, Introverts have more depth, and Extroverts have more breadth.
iNtuitives are much more abstract in their thinking, they are drawn to systems, concepts, patterns, ideas, tendencies — the big picture stuff. Intuitives are self-conscious by nature, and use their internal language engine to translate their thoughts into acceptable speech patterns. Intuitives are much more imaginative, can get lost in thought, and bounce from subject to subject in a conversation. This can be annoying for a level headed Sensor. Sensors stay on one subject until it is done. Intuitives get off on processing information.
Thinkers are good at understanding and manipulating the inanimate world, items, machines, structures, mechanical and mathematical systems (like computer programming). They very often feel like people are too emotional and should think things through with their logical mind. Thinkers are not “sensitive”, and are better at handling confrontations and dealing with disharmony than Feelers. They are seen as “tough”, and “durable”, and sometimes a little dry & boring.
Perceivers perceive structure as being more limiting than enabling. They prefer to keep their choices open so they can cope with many problems that the know life will put in their way. They get their sense of control by keeping their options open and making choices only when they are necessary. They are generally curious and like to expand their knowledge, which they will freely acknowledge as being incomplete. They are tolerant of other people’s differences and will adapt to fit into whatever the situation requires.
Once you understand these four components, the INTP type starts to “make sense”. Here is a good infographic:
I have seen Jeff Bezos typed as an ISTJ, and I can understand why. But the ISTJ is essentially an effective bureaucrat, a robotic task execution machine. These a great at maintaining an existing system, not inventing something new. Here:
Why is Jeff Bezos most commonly typed as ISTJ? The guy is as INTJ as you can get, at least as N as you can get. He envisioned the amazon dream well before most people had internet access, and didn’t make profit until recently. Always future and big oriented. ISTJ would freak out, esp with $.
Reddit post by Minute-Chef
Jeff Bezos has been extremely visionary and future oriented (intuitive traits). An ISTJ would freak out at running at a massive loss for all these years. It’s true.
Also look at the sheer number of industries Amazon has gotten themselves into. Jeff Bezos has put his money and reputation on the line in all these industries. He has taken a huge amount of risk.
The standard ESTJ/ISTJ CEO would not take his company in this direction. UFC president Dana White is an ETSJ 3wing2, if that interests you. Jeff also doesn’t have the mannerisms or the speech patterns of an ISTJ. The interview below was done in 1999, before he became ungodly rich.
The body language of an ISTJ is much more stern & rigid than what he demonstrates here. Also notice that his speaking speed goes up and down, the pace is not the same throughout the sentence. This is generally an intuitive trait. Also, did you see that mad gleam in his eye? His Type 3 desire for success of fusing with his Confidence fix.
3wing4
So the Enneagram 3wing4 has the Type 3 as its main type, and the Type 4 as its secondary type. The easiest path towards understanding the 3wing4 is to understand these types separately.
The Type 3 brings toughness, high drive, and desire to successed at any cost. The Type 4 gives sensitivity, integrity, complexity, raw emotion, and divergent thinking. In many ways, the Type 3 and the Type 4 are actually opposites of each other. But in the 3wing4, the Type 3 will win the struggle since it is dominant.
If you are new to the Enneagram, then read this Wikipedia article about it. Here is a detailed description of its historical roots.
Type 3: The Achiever
Threes are self-assured, attractive, and charming. Ambitious, competent, and energetic, they can also be status-conscious and highly driven for advancement. They are diplomatic and poised, but can also be overly concerned with their image and what others think of them. They typically have problems with workaholism and competitiveness. At their Best: self-accepting, authentic, everything they seem to be—role models who inspire others.
The Enneagram Institute
- Fear: Of being worthless.
- Basic Desire: To feel valuable and worthwhile.
Key Motivations: Want to be affirmed, to distinguish themselves from others, to have attention, to be admired, and to impress others.
Everyone needs attention, encouragement, and the affirmation of their value in order to thrive, and Threes are the type which most exemplifies this universal human need. Threes want success not so much for the things that success will buy (like Sevens), or for the power and feeling of independence that it will bring (like Eights). They want success because they are afraid of disappearing into a chasm of emptiness and worthlessness: without the increased attention and feeling of accomplishment which success usually brings, Threes fear that they are nobody and have no value.
The problem is that, in the headlong rush to achieve whatever they believe will make them more valuable, Threes can become so alienated from themselves that they no longer know what they truly want, or what their real feelings or interests are. In this state, they are easy prey to self–deception, deceit, and falseness of all kinds. Thus, the deeper problem is that their search for a way to be of value increasingly takes them further away from their own Essential Self with its core of real value.
The Enneagram Institute
Examples of Type 3s:
- Adolf Hitler was an INTJ 3wing4
- Tom Cruise is an ESTP 3wing4
- Dana White is an ESTJ 3wing2
- Barack Obama is an INTP 3wing2
Type 4: The Individualist
Fours are self-aware, sensitive, and reserved. They are emotionally honest, creative, and personal, but can also be moody and self-conscious. Withholding themselves from others due to feeling vulnerable and defective, they can also feel disdainful and exempt from ordinary ways of living. They typically have problems with melancholy, self-indulgence, and self-pity. At their Best: inspired and highly creative, they are able to renew themselves and transform their experiences.
The Enneagram Institute
- Basic Fear: That they have no identity or personal significance.
- Basic Desire: To find themselves and their significance (to create an identity).
Key Motivations: Want to express themselves and their individuality, to create and surround themselves with beauty, to maintain certain moods and feelings, to withdraw to protect their self-image, to take care of emotional needs before attending to anything else, to attract a “rescuer.”
While it is true that Fours often feel different from others, they do not really want to be alone. They may feel socially awkward or self-conscious, but they deeply wish to connect with people who understand them and their feelings. The “romantics” of the Enneagram, they long for someone to come into their lives and appreciate the secret self that they have privately nurtured and hidden from the world.
If, over time, such validation remains out of reach, Fours begin to build their identity around how unlike everyone else they are. The outsider therefore comforts herself by becoming an insistent individualist: everything must be done on her own, in her own way, on her own terms. Fours’ mantra becomes “I am myself. Nobody understands me. I am different and special,” while they secretly wish they could enjoy the easiness and confidence that others seem to enjoy.
The Enneagram Institute
Examples of Type 4s:
- Johnny Depp is an INFJ 4wing5
- Kanye West is an ISFP 4wing5
- Michael Jackson was an ISFP 4wing3
- Jon Jones is an INTP 4wing3
Jeff Bezos has demonstrated an “extreme” desire for success from the very beginning. He has also demonstrated a clever, artistic, and creative mind with how many markets Amazon has gotten into (successfully). This points to him being a 3wing4.
Sp/Sx
There are three instinctual variants. Just like with the Enneagram, everybody have a primary and a secondary type. The third one is virtually non-existent. Jeff Bezos is a Self-preservation primary and a Sexual instinct secondary.
- Click here for a short description of the three instincts.
- The quotes below are taken from this article on The Enneagram and the Instinctual variants.
The Self Preservation Instinct
People who have this as their dominant instinct are preoccupied with the safety, comfort, health, energy, and well-being of the physical body. In a word, they are concerned with having enough resources to meet life’s demands. Identification with the body is a fundamental focus for all humans, and we need our body to function well in order to be alive and active in the world. Most people in contemporary cultures have not faced life or death “survival” in the strictest sense; thus, Self-Preservation types tend to be concerned with food, money, housing, medical matters, and physical comfort.
Their focus of attention naturally goes towards things related to these areas such as clothes, temperature, shopping, decorating, and the like, particularly if they are not satisfied in these areas or have a feeling of deficiency due to their childhoods. Self-Pres types tend to be more grounded, practical, serious, and introverted than the other two instinctual types. In their primary relationships, these people are “nesters”—they seek domestic tranquility and security with a stable, reliable partner.
Enneagram Institute
Self-preservation primaries have a more narrow attention field. Tunnel vision, in a sense. At low psychological health, they tend to become selfish and occupied with physical health. They are calm, rational, long term thinkers.
The Sexual instinct
The key element in Sexual types is an intense drive for stimulation and a constant awareness of the “chemistry” between themselves and others. Sexual types are immediately aware of the attraction, or lack thereof, between themselves and other people. Further, while the basis of this instinct is related to sexuality, it is not necessarily about people engaging in the sexual act. There are many people that we are excited to be around for reasons of personal chemistry that we have no intention of “getting involved with.” Nonetheless, we might be aware that we feel stimulated in certain people’s company and less so in others.
The sexual type is constantly moving toward that sense of intense stimulation and juicy energy in their relationships and in their activities. They are the most “energized” of the three instinctual types, and tend to be more aggressive, competitive, charged, and emotionally intense than the Self-Pres or Social types. Sexual types need to have intense energetic charge in their primary relationships or else they remain unsatisfied. They enjoy being intensely involved—even merged—with others, and can become disenchanted with partners who are unable to meet their need for intense energetic union. Losing yourself in a “fusion” of being is the ideal here, and Sexual types are always looking for this state with others and with stimulating objects in their world.
Enneagram Institute
The Sexual instinct desires strong one-to-one connection. It values emotional intensity. If unchecked, it can trade long term benefit for short term pleasure. People without a Sexual instinct can come across a little “slow”, or “boring”. The Sexual instinct makes you present. A more accurate name for the “Sexual instinct” might be the “Intensity instinct”.
Task/Project
Every living person on Earth have a primary and secondary attribute in these three things:
- Task execution
- Self-discovery
- Starting up projects
The structure is similar to the instinctual variants, in that regard. In this post I outline how this system works and how it came about.
Jeff Bezos is a Task execution primary and a Project secondary. This means that he gets a strong biochemical reward (in his brain) for executing tasks, and a medium-strength reward for starting up new projects.
Entrepreneurs that start and sell are usually Project primaries. Entrepreneurs that start and keep are usually Project secondaries (like Jeff Bezos). Task execution is a very common trait among these people, as well. This increases the actual reward they get (or “rush) for finishing tasks.
Task execution
The “Task-execution attribute” is pretty straight forward. People with this affinity get a strong biochemical reward for executing tasks. They get “high” while doing them, because they are locked inside a behavioural loop that is predictable and pleasurable (a nice combination). These are the “workaholics”.
People with this affinity tend to have a more narrow attention field. They can get “tunnel vision” — because that is how you finish tasks. I have found a direct correlation between this affinity and success in school and business. This affinity becomes very important when you are supposed to do boring and mundane things. And also, what is working a job if not the completion of a series of tasks? These people are task-execution machines and the highest earner of the group.
The Six Layers of Human Personality Type
Project
“Project” primaries are always starting up new projects. I am a project secondary myself. How do you think this website came about? Although it might seem similar, it is not the same as a new “hobby”. One of these projects might last from a couple weeks to a couple years. This is how people end up creating a new career. They start making a bit of money and start to scale up.
Here is my description of Elon Musks project attribute. If you pursue a new project for two years in a row and nothing comes of it. No friends, no dates, no money, or other useful opportunities — evolution will decide this project is fruitless and you will move on. You will lose all motivation and move on to something different. I’ve had many projects like that myself.
Most entrepreneurs are Project primaries. Especially the ones that start up new projects/companies/organisations — all the time. Starting up a company and staying with it the rest of your life is not an indication or a Project affinity. That is simply a life decision and a career path. Hobbies can stay with you for decades, these projects never do.
The Six Layers of Human Personality Type
Performance Trauma Person
There are three types of “Trauma Personalities”:
- Task Trauma Person (stores negative emotions in the task execution networks of the brain)
- Social Trauma Person (stores negative emotions in the social structures of the brain)
- Performance Trauma Person (stores negative emotions in the “performance”, “high pressure”, or “hightenes state” structures of the brain)
You can read my full explanation of how this theory came about here. Here is a Youtube video I made on the same topic.
Jeff Bezos is a very private man, he only talks about his businesses in interviews. How to achieve goals, things of that order. He avoids revealing personal information about himself. This makes him harder to type.
The easiest way to determine what type someone is, to look at their anxiety level during various activites. Jeff Bezos has been a task execution machine since day 1, so he is probably not a “Task Trauma Person”.
As this would give gim a higher level of “irrational” anxiety every time he performs a boring or mundane task. I’m a Task Trauma Person myself, and I get anxiety every time I check my email, pay my bills, or deal with any kind of bureaucracy.
When I look at Jeff Bezos in inteviews, that engange the social people-oriented structures of the brain, I do not see an increase in anxiety. And this would be the case, if he was a Social Trauma Person. If anything, he is exuding confidence and well-being (the opposite of anxiety). Elon Musk is a Social Trauma Person. Here is my analysis of him with this system.
The only option left is that Jeff Bezos is a Performance Trauma Person.
Performance Trauma Person
A “Performance Trauma Person” is someone who store most of their negative energy in the “performance” or “hightenes state” regions of the brain. These people can get into the zone, but only during certain activities. They shy away from high pressure situations and activities.
These people often have anxieties built up around sex that go bayond what’s normal. And since they don’t feel “good” during sex, it is harder to perform. Creating another negative memory, eroding confidence further. It becomes a negative cycle, a worm eating its own tail.
This type of “Performance Trauma” setup is essentially the anti-dote to being an adrenaline junkie. These people shy away from any “intense” situation, because it fills them with anxiety. These people can become dry, predictable, bureaucratic, and boring. This this type of setup does seem to increase long term thinking. These people do well in an office environment. Or within a larger company structure.
Since I have been a hardcore MMA fan for 15+ years, I’ve come across many fighters with this setup — and they struggle to perform when the lights are on. They have a hard time getting into “the zone”.
The Six Layers of Human Personality Type
Confidence/Pleasure fix
Every living human being on Earth has — what I call — a “Core Fix”. The “Core Fix” is the foundation of your entire personality. Like the foundation of a house. Or the bottom of a pyramid. There are two options:
- Confidence/Pleasure fix
- Insecurity/Questioning fix
You can read about both of them here.
As I mention in the introduction, there is a new addition to Myers-Briggs called “A vs T” system, or “Assertive vs Turbulent”. “Assertive” means you have a Confidence fix, and “Turbulent” means you have an Insecurity fix. Here is the best article on that subject:
What I am trying to say is that the systems mirror each other, they reinforce each other.
The woman pictured below probably has a Confidence fix, for example. Look closely at her eyes.
Confidence/Pleasure fix
The “Confidence/Pleasure fix” wires confidence, pleasure, feelgood, and relaxation into the core parts of ones personality. It is the foundation that everything else is built upon. Confident people like themselves more, feel less stress, and are generally happier. This trait is better for dealing with danger and high pressure situations. Most leaders have a “Confidence fix”. It is generally advantageous when dealing with people.
People with a “Confidence fix” can struggle with motivation. Insecurity is the biggest motivator of all time. They already like themselves, so why bother? Over time, this can lead to an inproductive lifestyle.
This trait has two main vices. The first one is laziness. The other is arrogance, overconfidence, and narcissism. You can become an unbearable self-centered asshole, especially men — who on average are wired to be more confident than women. Selfishness could be considered as a third vice.
This type of fix peaks in high school, while the other fix peaks at 40. That’s a very general statement, that is more true than it is false. This type tends to be self-sufficient, individualistic, and somewhat anti-authoritarian. They also tend to be more “charming”, “funny”, and “smooth”. They tend to be rulebreakers and a little “naughty”. Virtually all “effective assholes” have a Confidence fix. Like Steve Jobs.
The Six Layers of Human Personality Type
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The summary is that Jeff Bezos is an:
I outline how this whole personality type theory works in the following post. Here is my Youtube video about it. I also analyze Elon Musk with the same system.
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Celebrity Personality Types 