ESTP Daredevils
are known for their exciting, action-oriented personalities and their skill at living totally in the moment. They are often called The Doers and it’s not hard to see why. Life is about taking action and spotting opportunities for this type. They enjoy a fast-paced lifestyle with new and exciting challenges at every turn. When it comes to decisions, they focus on logic, facts, and practicality. At the same time, they have a devil-may-care charm that makes them fun and thrilling to be around.
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
Winston Churchill – ESTP
What Does ESTP Stand For?
E = Extroversion. ESTPs focus on the outer world of experiences, people, and events before focusing inwards.
S = Sensing. ESTPs focus more on the concrete, existing world than the world of theories and abstractions.
T = Thinking. ESTPs focus on the impersonal aspects of a decision (pros and cons, logic, cause and effect) before looking at personal impact and emotional dynamics.
P = Perceiving. ESTPs prefer having a flexible, spontaneous lifestyle. They tend to mix work with play rather than finishing one project before moving onto another.
ESTP Motivations and Weaknesses:
- Driving Force: To experience life in a fully immersive way. To chase adventure, make things happen, and seize the day!
- Backup Strength: An analytical and logical perspective on how things work together. A unique ability to find leverage points and troubleshoot in any situation.
- Weaknesses: May be so caught up in the moment that they lose sight of future consequences. May struggle to read-between-the-lines or anticipate the far-reaching effects of current actions.
- Stressors: A rigid, highly-structured schedule, emotionally chaotic environments, micro-management, lack of freedom, controlling relationships, having to sit still for too long.
ESTP Personality Traits:
Every individual has unique factors that make them totally one-of-a-kind. However, these are some common characteristics of average to healthy ESTPs:
- They have a spontaneous, casual approach to life
- They like to take action and make things happen
- They are usually very energetic and quick to respond to incoming data
- They are usually “street-smart” and clever
- They stay calm in crises’ and can think quickly in make-or-break situations
- They have a detailed and vivid storehouse of past experiences and facts
- They are very aware of what’s relevant in any given situation
- They focus primarily on the present moment
- They enjoy taking things apart to figure out how they work
Famous ESTPs:
There are many famous ESTPs that have changed the course of history. Here are just a few:
- Alexander the Great
- Winston Churchill
- Theodore Roosevelt
- George S. Patton
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- John F. Kennedy
- Douglas MacArthur
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- James Randi
- Ernest Hemingway
- Thomas Edison
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Harry Houdini
- Jack Nicholson
- Madonna
- Helen Mirren
- Mila Kunis
ESTP Careers:
Needs: Action, variety, and independence
Despises: Boredom and stagnation
ESTPs are natural born entrepreneurs. They’re quick thinkers with a talent for understanding how to make deals, persuade, and achieve goals in the moment. While the risks of entrepreneurship can be daunting for some, ESTPs enjoy the rush and the challenge. They excel at thinking on their feet and coming up with spur-of-the-moment opportunities and tactics. Careers that allow them freedom to take charge and get things done in their own way will appeal to them. They can be highly productive when they’re allowed to work in bursts rather than at a slow, routine pace. Careers in sales, marketing, and emergency response are ones they excel in.
The ESTP’s weakness is anything that makes them feel bored or trapped. They want to be able to move quickly and take action. They also crave a lot of autonomy, so a job that requires them to be micro-managed or closely supervised will be a no-go for them. Lots of rote busywork and repetitive procedural tasks will send them sprinting for the exits.
Career Suggestions:
- Pilot
- Stockbroker
- Investigator
- Paramedic
- Investor
- Entrepreneur
- Performer
- Carpenter
- Engineer
- Marine biologist
- Salesperson
- Marketer
- Personal Trainer
- Professional Athlete.
ESTP Strengths and Talents:
Realism: I like to call ESTPs the “Ultimate Realists,” and this is thanks to their ability to stay firmly in the moment, focusing on facts, observations, and details. They notice what’s relevant and needed now and quickly spot resources that can be used to make an impact. This can look like rigging up a quick solution with whatever tools or materials are on hand or finding an unconventional way to tackle a problem when time is short. Their practical, no-nonsense approach allows them to make fast decisions that get immediate results, and they rarely waste time on abstract theories when real-world action is needed. For ESTPs, it’s all about what works now, and they have a rare ability to turn even chaotic situations into opportunities.
Problem-Solving: ESTPs have a knack for troubleshooting, even in dire situations. They can easily tune out needless distractions or anxious thoughts to get to the components of a problem. While some types need a lot of time to assess a problem and find a solution, ESTPs are all about expediency and efficiency. They figure out how something works in order to fix it or improve upon it. Often this involves taking the problem apart, looking at it from different angles, and testing different methods to find the most effective, low-effort solutions.
Boldness: ESTPs love a challenge or an adventure. Their minds are wired to look for surprise, incoming events and respond to them effectively. When life feels too predictable or routine they start to feel restless and agitated. Instead, they aim to push themselves to their limits, seizing the day and finding opportunities that make them feel truly alive.
Rationality: ESTPs focus on logic and facts when making decisions. Their mind automatically checks for logical inconsistencies or logical fallacies and tries to avoid them at all costs. They deal with complexity rapidly and rarely get lost in abstract musings. As realists, they trust what can be proven via evidence, real-life experience, and logic.
Humor: When I surveyed ESTPs about their greatest strengths, humor got more votes than nearly anything else. ESTPs love to make people laugh and they have a unique skill for “reading the room” and making wry observations that are both hilarious and astute. Charming and persuasive, they know how to ease the tension with a perfectly-timed witty comment or comeback.
Dominant Function: Extraverted Sensing (Se)
Extraverted Sensing focuses on action and immersion in the present moment. ESTPs are highly attuned to what’s happening now, the resources at their disposal, and the details of the world around them. They’re also highly attuned to their physical body and where they are in space. It’s easy for them to become “one” with their environment and navigate it with ease. This often shows up in being able to drive easily in new locations, find resources to use in crisis situations, or an ability to spot minute details that others miss.
Auxiliary Function: Introverted Thinking (Ti)
Introverted Thinking helps ESTPs to analyze, categorize, and evaluate information. It’s concerned with accuracy and clarity; helping ESTPs to check for logical inconsistencies, loopholes, and solutions that can be applied immediately. It also fuels their curiosity, giving them a desire to learn new facts and see those facts from many different angles. My ESTP husband, for example, read the entire World Book Encyclopia collection as a child so he could understand how everything in the world works. In short, that is the main desire of Introverted Thinking: To know how everything works in detail.
Tertiary Function: Extraverted Feeling (Fe)
Extraverted Feeling gives ESTPs an awareness of others’ emotions and the moods or “vibes” of the room they’re in. Thanks to this ability, they can easily read the room, rub shoulders, create witty banter, or spark a positive connection with another person. ESTPs enjoy swapping jokes, making people smile, laugh, argue, flirt, or have any kind of intense (usually positive) reaction to them.
Inferior Function: Introverted Intuition (Ni)
Introverted Intuition is the part of the ESTP’s mind that they tend to feel less sure about. This function focuses on inner ideas, future possibilities, and abstract thinking, which can be tricky for ESTPs. They might find it hard to plan far ahead or think about how their actions today could affect the future. Instead, they prefer focusing on what they can see, hear, and experience right now. But as they grow older, they might start using this part of their mind more, which helps them become better at planning and predicting what could happen next.
Your Important ESTP Links:
24 Signs That You’re an ESTP, the Daredevil Personality Type
The Flirting Style of the ESTP Personality Type
10 Reasons Why ESTPs Make Amazing Friends
The Shadow of the ESTP Personality Type
The Top 7 Gift Ideas for ESTPs
The Myers-Briggs® Personality Types of the Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) Characters
The Top 3 Emotions of Every Myers-Briggs® Personality Type
The Surprising Things You Notice, Based On Your Personality Type
How Rare Is Your Myers-Briggs® Personality Type?
Here’s the Marvel Lady You’d Be, Based On Your Myers-Briggs® Personality Type
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