Winning in Your Genre: A Midlife Story That Fits Your Temperament

One-third of your personality is determined by genetics, and you shouldn’t fight it. Don’t write a romance story when you're built for mystery novels.

Last week, you made the call: reinvention as a remaster or a remix.

This week, we tackle how to do that in a way that suits your temperament, not someone else’s.

Because here’s the mistake most people make when they try to change:

• They follow the guru’s playbook.

• They copy someone else’s success story.

• They adopt the strategies of a prominent entrepreneur or bestselling author.

And they fail or burn out. Because that person’s genre is different from yours.

An introvert following an extrovert’s business model will be exhausted. A risk-averse person copying a risk-taker’s moves produces panic, while a detail-oriented person trying to wing it like a big-picture thinker creates chaos.

You need to write your story in your genre, not theirs.

So far in this series, we’ve covered:

• Midlife Isn’t a Crisis, It’s a Plot Twist

• What’s Fixed and What’s Flexible: The Architecture of Your Midlife Story

• Remix vs. Remaster: Choose Your Own Midlife Reinvention

Your Biogenic Traits Are Your Genre

Remember, only one-third of your personality is determined by genetics. Those are your biogenic traits — your hardware or baseline temperament.

Think of these traits as your narrative genre. For example:

• Introvert vs. extrovert = fundamentally different genres

• Detail-oriented vs. big-picture = different storytelling styles

• Risk-tolerant vs. risk-averse = different comfort with uncertainty

• Need for structure vs. flexibility = different approaches to planning

You don’t change your genre. You write the best story you can within it.

Trying to operate in the wrong genre is why you’re exhausted. It’s why someone else’s “proven strategies” might not work for you, and why you keep feeling like you’re doing it wrong.

You’re not. You’re just trying to write romance when you’re built for mystery novels.

Self-Complexity: Multiple Expressions of Your Genre

A few lessons ago, we talked about self-complexity. That means the more interests you have and domains you explore, the more resilient you become.

But here’s what that doesn’t mean: changing your genre.

Self-complexity means expressing your temperament across multiple domains. It’s not about overriding your wiring, but instead deploying it strategically in different contexts.

For introverts: You can write, consult one-on-one, create courses, and build software — these are distinct domains. But each of those activities is an organic extension of the same temperament, and all are aligned with your need for deep focus and limited social energy.

For extroverts: You can teach live workshops, build and manage virtual communities, conduct group coaching, and host events. These, too, are different expressions of the same temperament, which is energized by interaction and thrives in group settings.

Your genre is the through-line. Self-complexity is having multiple expressions within your genre, not straying outside of it because someone else told you to.

How Different Genres Build Different Businesses

Let’s get practical and use starting your own thing as an example. Different temperaments need to build different kinds of expertise-based businesses. Fortunately, there are multiple models that you can mix and match to adapt to your situation, with no guru magic formula required.

The Introvert’s Expertise Business

Your characteristics:

• Deep focus, needs alone time to recharge

• Prefers creating over presenting

• Thrives with autonomy

• Drained by constant interaction

Business models that work:

• Writing (newsletters, books, courses)

• Async consulting (email or video review-based)

• Digital products (courses, templates, frameworks)

• Small group coaching (limited, bounded interaction)

• One-on-one, high-ticket offerings

What to avoid:

• Daily live content as your primary model

• Constant networking events

• Large group facilitation

• Real-time customer service

Design principles:

• Batch your interaction times

• Build in recovery periods after social activities

• Leverage async communication

• Create once, sell many times

• Use free traits strategically (occasional speaking, limited networking)

I can tell you from personal experience that this works. My business has been built almost entirely on writing over the last 20 years.

But I also overcame my fear of public speaking to add in-person and video speaking engagements in a strategically limited fashion. I also build in intentional recovery time afterwards, because I understand the toll it takes on me.

The Extrovert’s Expertise Business

Your characteristics:

• Energized by interaction

• Thinks out loud, processes through conversation

• Thrives in community settings

• Drained by isolation

Business models that work:

• Live workshops and events

• Community-based memberships

• Group coaching programs

• Podcasting and video content

• Cohort-based courses

What to avoid:

• Pure writing business with no interaction

• Completely async models

• Solo deep work with minimal collaboration

• Isolation-heavy production schedules

Design principles:

• Build community into your model

• Schedule regular interaction

• Collaborate with others

• Favor live delivery over recorded

• Use free traits when needed (deep work sessions, solo creation time)

Other Temperament Dimensions

High conscientiousness (detail-oriented, organized): Systems-building, templates and frameworks, implementation programs, project management consulting

High openness (creative, idea-driven): Strategy consulting, innovation facilitation, creative problem-solving, thought leadership

High Risk tolerance: Experimental business models, new platforms, unproven markets rather than more risk-averse approaches such as proven models, established platforms, validated markets

The point isn’t that one is better than another. The point is that they’re different. And again, you need to design for your temperament, not someone else’s.

When Sociogenic Traits Fight Your Genetic Genre

This is one of the biggest sources of exhaustion and failure.

The problem: Your biogenic traits lean more introverted on the spectrum, needing autonomy and being detail-oriented. But your sociogenic programming says:

“Leaders are charismatic extroverts who network constantly.”

So you try to build an extrovert’s business in an introvert’s body. You force yourself to show up like them. You adopt their strategies. You follow their playbook.

And the result is exhaustion, failure, and the sneaking belief that:

“I’m just not cut out for running my own business.”

You are cut out for it. You’re just trying to do it in the wrong genre.

Common genre conflicts:

• “Entrepreneurs network constantly” (sociogenic belief) vs. your introverted hardware (biogenic reality)

• “Success requires hustle culture” (sociogenic belief) vs. your need for a sustainable pace (biogenic reality)

• “You have to be visible on social media daily” (sociogenic belief) vs. your preference for deep work (biogenic reality)

The fix: Identify which “rules” are sociogenic programming, not biogenic requirements. Find people in your genre who succeeded differently. Give yourself permission to build your business in your actual genre.

Not every successful entrepreneur looks like Gary Vaynerchuk, and let’s give thanks for that. Even better, some look like you.

Sampling from Other Genres (Without Losing Yourself)

You can borrow techniques from other genres. You just can’t live in them full-time.

This is where Dr. Brian Little’s Free Traits Theory becomes tactical.

How to sample strategically:

• Use opposite-temperament behaviors for specific, bounded purposes

• Reserve them only for personal projects that matter specifically to you

• Plan recovery time afterward

• Keep them temporary, not permanent

Examples:

• An introvert does quarterly speaking engagements, then spends a few days recovering alone.

• An extrovert schedules deep work blocks in the morning, then reconnects with people in the afternoon.

• A risk-averse person takes a calculated risk for a specific project, with safety nets in place.

• A detail-oriented person delegates creative work while still maintaining oversight.

The key is always to return to your genre. The sampling is strategic, not a generalized prescription.

Then, when successful people using this strategy feel that low-level discomfort from operating outside their genre, they recognize it as temporary stretching, not permanent misalignment.

Your Assignment: Design in Your Genre, Not the Guru’s

Step 1: Identify Your Genre

Based on your work from What’s Fixed and What’s Flexible: The Architecture of Your Midlife Story, what are your biogenic traits?

• Introvert or extrovert?

• Detail-oriented or big-picture?

• Risk-tolerant or risk-averse?

• Need for structure or flexibility?

• Solo work or collaborative?

Step 2: Audit Current Misalignment

Where are you trying to operate outside your genre?

• Which activities drain you because they fight your temperament?

• Which “shoulds” come from sociogenic programming, not biogenic fit?

• Where are you copying someone else’s genre?

Step 3: Design Your Multiple Expressions

How can you create self-complexity within your genre?

• What different domains can you explore that all fit your temperament?

• How can you build resilience without fighting your hardware?

Step 4: Plan Your Strategic Free Traits

Where will you need to act outside your genre?

• What specific situations require opposite-temperament behaviors?

• How will you build in recovery?

• What makes this worth the energy?

What’s Coming Next

You now understand:

• Your biogenic traits are your genre

• Self-complexity = multiple expressions of your genre, not abandonment of it

• Different genres build different business models

• Sociogenic programming often fights your biogenic genre

• You can sample from other genres strategically, with recovery

• But always return to your own

Next week: “Punch Up Your Story with a Performance Persona”

You’ll learn how to create strategic characters for specific scenes, and how to use free traits deliberately and strategically. This is how introverts can do visibility work without burning out, and how extroverts can do deep work without feeling isolated.

We’re talking about amplifying an aspect of yourself without changing your fundamental genre. Because make no mistake, your genre is your foundation. Everything else is built upon it.

The committee tried to make you write in their genre. The gurus want you to copy theirs.

But your best work is aligned work, and that happens when you create your second-draft self on your own. This is your time, and your story.

Keep going-

Brian

P.S. Ready to transform your expertise into location-independent income and upgrade your life at midlife? Further Premium gives you the complete roadmap of expertise-based models, with business building instruction, financial planning advice, expat guidance, and more.

further: flashback

🎶 Oingo Boingo - Weird Science, Dead Man’s Party, 1985 🎶

Danny Elfman wrote the theme song to Weird Science in his car while driving home after a phone call with John Hughes. Elfman later expressed embarrassment at the video, and after getting ruthlessly roasted by Beavis and Butthead vowed to never play the song again. (YouTube)

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