There’s no shortage of ways to classify different personality types from something simple like introvert/extrovert to a more complicated test like the Myers-Briggs.  But have you ever heard of this one:  Mammal Brain/Reptile Brain/Thinker Brain?

Neither had I until Ron LeGrand explained it to me.  If you’ve never heard of Ron, he’s a multi-millionaire real estate investor.  I heard he recently bought his own personal jet airplane.  So when it comes to making money online or off, I tend to listen to what he says.

This is my recollection of how he explained it.  There are 3 types of people in the world:  76% are mammal brains, 14% are thinker brains, and 10% are reptile brains.

Mammal brains are the type that follow-the-herd.  They swap hours for dollars, watch a lot tv and believe all the bad news they read in the newspapers.  They wouldn’t want to try anything different for fear of failure and criticism.  Not surprisingly, they get the same mediocre results as the rest of the mammal brains.

Thinker brains are the analytical types.  CPAs and engineers for example.  They analyze and reanalyze to make sure everything is just right…and then crunch the numbers one more time just to be sure.  They wouldn’t want to risk making a mistake.  Many thinker brains are very successful.

Reptile brains are the entrepreneurial types.  They’re independent and could care less what the herd is doing.  They make quick decisions with incomplete information and don’t care about making mistakes.  They don’t have the patience to wait until everything is just right before getting started. They’ll fix things as they go along.

So which group do you think tends to make the most money?  Reptile brains of course.  It turns out most of the CEOs in the Fortune 500 are reptile brains.  They have to make quick decisions with incomplete information all the time or risk losing ground to competitors who do make quick decisions.

It makes sense because you won’t be successful until you stop thinking about and actually do something.  And before you do something you must make a decision which requires you to think.

Mammal brains hardly think at all.  They have jobs and let other people do their thinking for them. There’s nothing wrong with being a mammal brain.  We need worker bees, but mammal brains generally aren’t financially successful.

Thinker brains will eventually make a decision but only after they run the numbers a dozen times.  They often think too much and by the time they make a decision, the opportunity has disappeared.  The world needs thinker brains too.  They’re great at building skyscrapers and bridges and many thinker brains are very rich.

But reptiles are the best when it comes to making money because they’re quick to make a decision and take action.  They’re more concerned with missing an opportunity than they are with failing.  They learn from their mistakes and all this action makes them more likely to succeed.

Look at the world around you and see if this makes sense to you.  It makes perfect sense to me.

I’m primarily a reptile brain now but I used to be more of a thinker brain.  I was afraid to make mistakes and didn’t like being criticized.  But I noticed that as long as I learned from my mistakes I succeeded more quickly and the fear of failure disappeared.

My whole attitude towards failure and criticism has changed from a fear of it to a point where I feel like something is wrong if I’m not failing and being criticized.  It’s positive reinforcement.

“To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” - not sure who said that but I like it.

So what are you?  A mammal brain, thinker brain, or a reptile brain?

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