Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving Approximately 4 -6 percent of the population
Quick, ingenious, stimulating, alert, and outspoken. Resourceful in solving new and challenging problems. Adept at generating conceptual possibilities and then analyzing them strategically. Good at reading other people. Bored by routine, will seldom do the same thing the same way, apt to turn to one new interest after another.
ENTPs love excitement and challenge. Enthusiastic and ingenious, they are talkative, clever, and good at many things and constantly strive to increase their competence and personal power. ENTPs are born enterprising. They are fascinated with new ideas and are alert to all possibilities. They have strong initiative and operate on creative impulse. ENTPs value their inspiration above all else and strive to turn their original ideas into reality. They are inquisitive, versatile, adaptable, and resourceful in solving challenging and theoretical problems.
Alert and outspoken, ENTPs can easily see the flaw in any position and often enjoy arguing for fun on either side of an issue. They have excellent analytical abilities and are great strategic thinkers. They can almost always find a logical reason for the things that they want. Most ENTPs like to test the limits around them and consider that most rules and regulations are meant to be bent, if not broken. They are sometimes unconventional in their approach and enjoy helping others to push past what is accepted and expected. They like to live freely and look for fun and variety in everyday situations. ENTPs deal imaginatively with social relationships and often have a great number and variety of friends and acquaintances. They can display great humour and optimism. ENTPs can be charming and stimulating company and often inspire others to become involved in their projects through their infectious enthusiasm. They prefer to try to understand and respond to people rather than judge them.
Possible Blind Spots
Because ENTPs value creativity and innovation above all else, they sometimes ignore the standard way of doing something simply because it is not original. Their intense dislike for the routine and predictable can make it difficult for them to notice the necessary details. They sometimes neglect the needed preparation when, in their zeal to take on something fresh, they dive in too quickly. And once major problems are solved, they are often off to the next exciting adventure rather than sticking around to see the original project through. They need to work toward making commitments to fewer projects so they will complete more of the ones they start.
Often, ENTPs talk so quickly, and so much, they don’t allow others to contribute. They are honest and fair but can be blunt and tactless in their ready criticism of others. ENTPs need to consider the feelings of others as valid and important, even if they don’t share them. While they can be charming, funny, and entertaining, they can also be insincere. ENTPs need to resist the urge to simply adapt and perform, and instead share their genuine emotions.
ENTPs’ reluctance to commit to one thing stems from the important to them. Admitting to themselves what they really fear that they may miss other, more appealing opportunities. Their desire to remain open and responsive to new challenges can make them undependable and inconsiderate of the plans and schedules of others Thinking through how their actions affect others will help them be more dependable.
ENTPs’ natural quickness and ability to anticipate what is coming means they occasionally assume erroneously that they knew what the person was going to say, and may jump in to finish their sentences. Taking the time to pay closer attention to what is actually going on in the real world around them and listening carefully to the input and reactions of others will help them avoid appearing arrogant and rude.
– The Visionary
– the inventor
– the originator
– Innovative
– Ingenious
– Quick
– Basically optimists
– Good at acquiring friends
– See world as audience
– Entertaining
– Love excitement
– Love a challenge
– Alert
– Strong initiative
– Creative impulse
“Clever” is the word that perhaps describes ENTPs best. The professor who juggles half a dozen ideas for research papers and grant proposals in his mind while giving a highly entertaining lecture on an abstruse subject is a classic example of the type. So is the stand-up comedian whose lampoons are not only funny, but incisively accurate.
ENTPs are usually verbally as well as cerebrally quick, and generally love to argue – both for its own sake, and to show off their often-impressive skills. They tend to have a perverse sense of humor as well, and enjoy playing devil’s advocate. They sometimes confuse, even inadvertently hurt, those who don’t understand or accept the concept of argument as a sport.
ENTPs are as innovative and ingenious at problem-solving as they are at verbal gymnastics; on occasion, however, they manage to outsmart themselves. This can take the form of getting found out at “sharp practice”– ENTPs have been known to cut corners without regard to the rules if it’s expedient — or simply in the collapse of an over-ambitious juggling act.
Both at work and at home, ENTPs are very fond of “toys” – physical or intellectual, the more sophisticated the better. They tend to tire of these quickly, however, and move on to new ones.
ENTPs are basically optimists, but in spite of this (perhaps because of it?), they tend to become extremely petulant about small setbacks and inconveniences. (Major setbacks they tend to regard as challenges, and tackle with determination.) ENTPs have little patience with those they consider wrongheaded or unintelligent, and show little restraint in demonstrating this. However, they do tend to be extremely genial, if not charming, when not being harassed by life in general.
In terms of their relationships with others, ENTPs are capable of bonding very closely and, initially, suddenly, with their loved ones. Some appear to be deceptively offhand with their nearest and dearest; others are so demonstrative that they succeed in shocking co-workers who’ve only seen their professional side. ENTPs are also good at acquiring friends who are as clever and entertaining as they are. Aside from those two areas, ENTPs tend to be oblivious of the rest of humanity, except as an audience – good, bad, or potential.
Success
The secret to success for an ENTP is learning to: Prioritise, focus, and follow through especially with commitments made to others
The Visionary
As an ENTP, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you take things in primarily via your intuition. Your secondary mode is internal, where you deal with things rationally and logically.
With Extraverted Intuition dominating their personality, the ENTP’s primary interest in life understands the world that they live in. They are constantly absorbing ideas and images about the situations they are presented in their lives. Using their intuition to process this information, they are usually extremely quick and accurate in their ability to size up a situation. With the exception of their ENFP cousin, the ENTP has a deeper understanding of their environment than any of the other types.
This ability to intuitively understand people and situations puts the ENTP at a distinct advantage in their lives. They generally understand things quickly and with great depth. Accordingly, they are quite flexible and adapt well to a wide range of tasks. They are good at most anything that interests them. As they grow and further develop their intuitive abilities and insights, they become very aware of possibilities, and this makes them quite resourceful when solving problems.
ENTPs are idea people. Their perceptive abilities cause them to see possibilities everywhere. They get excited and enthusiastic about their ideas, and are able to spread their enthusiasm to others. In this way, they get the support that they need to fulfil their visions.
ENTPs are less interested in developing plans of actions or making decisions than they are in generating possibilities and ideas. Following through on the implementation of an idea is usually a chore to the ENTP. For some ENTPs, this results in the habit of never finishing what they start. The ENTP who has not developed their Thinking process will have problems with jumping enthusiastically from idea to idea, without following through on their plans. The ENTP needs to take care to think through their ideas fully in order to take advantage of them.
The ENTP’s auxiliary process of Introverted Thinking drives their decision making process. Although the ENTP is more interested in absorbing information than in making decisions, they are quite rational and logical in reaching conclusions. When they apply Thinking to their Intuitive perceptions, the outcome can be very powerful indeed. A well-developed ENTP is extremely visionary, inventive, and enterprising.
ENTPs are fluent conversationalists, mentally quick, and enjoy verbal sparring with others. They love to debate issues, and may even switch sides sometimes just for the love of the debate. When they express their underlying principles, however, they may feel awkward and speak abruptly and intensely.
The ENTP personality type is sometimes referred to the “Lawyer” type. The ENTP “lawyer” quickly and accurately understands a situation, and objectively and logically acts upon the situation. Their Thinking side makes their actions and decisions based on an objective list of rules or laws. If the ENTP was defending someone who had actually committed a crime, they are likely to take advantage of quirks in the law that will get their client off the hook. If they were to actually win the case, they would see their actions as completely fair and proper to the situation, because their actions were lawful. The guilt or innocence of their client would not be as relevant. If this type of reasoning goes completely unchecked by the ENTP, it could result in a character that is perceived by others as unethical or even dishonest.
The ENTP, who does not naturally consider the more personal or human element in decision making, should take care to notice the subjective, personal side of situations. This is a potential problem are for ENTPs. Although their logical abilities lend strength and purpose to the ENTP, they may also isolate them from their feelings and from other people. The least developed area for the ENTP is the Sensing-Feeling arena. If the Sensing areas are neglected, the ENTP may tend to not take care of details in their life. If the Feeling part of them is neglected, the ENTP may not value other people’s input enough, or may become overly harsh and aggressive.Under stress, the ENTP may lose their ability to generate possibilities, and become obsessed with minor details. These details may seem to be extremely important to the ENTP, but in reality are usually not important to the big picture.
In general, ENTPs are upbeat visionaries. They highly value knowledge, and spend much of their lives seeking a higher understanding. They live in the world of possibilities, and become excited about concepts, challenges and difficulties. When presented with a problem, they’re good at improvising and quickly come up with a creative solution. Creative, clever, curious, and theoretical, ENTPs have a broad range of possibilities in their lives.