After reading the "Addictive Personality" article that Professor Wlaschin posted in his last blog post, I found it very interesting that many successful and extroverted type people have similar personality traits compared to addicts. Addicts are people who are seen to be impulsive, emotionally and socially avoidant, angry, and irresponsible and that does not seem like the personality of someone who is capable of a large company. One would think that they are responsible, reliable, hard-working, and think about major decisions before making them.
The difference between addicts and many successful leaders is that the people who are successful in life are able to harness their addictions for the better and use them to get ahead in life. Their risk-taking personality can encourage them to take a chance on things that most people wouldn't such as a risky business venture. Their need to earn rewards motivate them to work harder in order to get what they want.
Although sometimes he used his addictive personality for the worst, if Sigmund Freud had not used his addictive and obsessive personality for the better, where would we be in psychology today?
This is alarming! At first I was worried I might be an addict but as I kept reading, I'm glad to discover that there is a way to harness this trait. I especially enjoyed how you ended with that question. For some reason, I found myself thinking the same thing.