9 ESTP Strengths and Weaknesses + 4 Tips for Personal Growth

Knowing the key ESTP strengths and weaknesses allows you to get a better insight into the Entrepreneur type and learn how they go through life.

Their fun personality is equipped with unimaginable energy levels and a distinctive charm originating from their authenticity and excellent social skills. But if the ESTPs’ energy isn’t matched, they might seem impulsive and impatient.

Whether you’re an ESTP looking for ways to highlight your strong suits and understand your points of improvement or someone who wants to learn more about this personality type, read along to find out how Entrepreneurs are wired through these 9 ESTP strengths and weaknesses.

5 ESTP Personality Type Strengths & Advantages

Our deep dive into the mind of the ESTP personality type begins with the positives—let’s see what their strengths are:

#1. Boldness

One of the main strengths of ESTPs is their courageous, extroverted lifestyle. Whether we’re talking about their willingness to take risks or their directness in communication, fear is not something that will stop them from taking any intended action. Instead, they build confidence through overcoming challenges.

Entrepreneurs find joy in pushing themselves and breaking their limits. If you’re an ESTP, chances are you don’t follow roadmaps—you create them. Whereas some of the other personality types, like the ISFJs, might treasure the tried-and-tested pathways in life, ESTPs are always seeking and roaming through uncharted territories.

They are not the type to shy away from a challenging situation. Instead, they have a natural gift for evaluating what the issue is quickly, enabling them to form a practical plan to deal with it efficiently, which leads us to our next talking point—ESTP’s practicality.

#2. Practicality

Entrepreneurs probably wouldn’t be so bold if their spontaneous courage backfired too often. Nevertheless, they manage to stay safe and successful on their adventures due to their incredible practicality.

Nothing escapes the keen eye of the ESTP personality type, who is also equipped with a quick reaction time. Add the fact that their dominant cognitive function is Se (extraverted Sensing) to this mix, and you’ll understand how Entrepreneurs explore the world relying on their five senses.

They constantly crave empirical stimuli that help them hone their practical skills. Rather than being prone to overthinking, ESTPs solve problems quickly before they ever become a strain on their mental health.

Practicality often plays a major role in the ESTPs' career paths as well. For example, Entrepreneurs might prefer a hands-on job like being a police officer, professional sports player, or musical artist rather than a desk job, such as working as a librarian or psychologist.

#3. Directness

ESTPs are direct and like to speak in a straightforward way. They have no problems approaching someone they find interesting or confronting those who irritate or disrespect them.

They effortlessly break the ice and look for common ground with any of the 16 personalities that share their sensing personality traits.

The Entrepreneurs’ natural ability to perceive everything within their surroundings, which we mentioned, involves identifying non-verbal social cues that help them discover if the conversation has taken a U-turn and act on it immediately.

Generally speaking, ESTPs prefer discussing practical things to delving into abstract and philosophical topics.

Their practical nature steers the conversation toward sharing and comparing their personal experiences with others. They also like to indulge in any topic that deals with concrete issues, as they gain the most knowledge from logic and evidence.

#4. Originality

ESTP’s love for breaking the rules, finding new solutions, and diving into the unknown fuels their originality. Their brain works in unique ways that help them come up with authentic ideas—ones that not many people may have thought of before them.

There’s a belief that creativity is nothing but connecting existing pieces into something new. Based on that theory, authenticity is a natural product of the ESTPs’ numerous adventures. Each experience helps them tweak their way of thinking, opening them up to developing refreshing outlooks.

Another way of expressing their originality is through communication. Their originality plays a role in their adaptability to different types—they are never the same when talking to two different people. However, this doesn’t mean they’re being fake. Instead, various types emphasize some of the many unique traits that Entrepreneurs choose to address at the spur of the moment.

#5. Charisma

Entrepreneurs are one of the most charismatic types, thanks to their tertiary cognitive function— extraverted feeling (Fe). Basically, all their other strengths are compiled into this one.

Their boldness (and practicality) helps them grab the attention of everyone in their environment, and their direct approach removes all obstacles to engaging in a conversation with anyone.

Finally, their uniqueness will keep the conversations going, and the creative ways of doing even the most mundane of activities are always interesting to behold and often present a source of the funniest ESTP memes.

As ESTPs can pick up on social, verbal, and nonverbal cues on the spot, they naturally know what to say and how to behave. Rather than scaring people off with their unusual demeanor, they often include them in their unforeseeable quest.

Let’s continue our deep dive into ESTP strengths and weaknesses with a list of this personality type’s most common flaws.

4 ESTP Personality Type Weaknesses & Disadvantages

Now that we understand some of the finest qualities that make the ESTP personality type shine, let’s go over some of the areas they can work on:

#1. Insensitivity

Insensitivity is a major weakness of the ESTP type. Since they live in the moment, they have a hard time committing to one thing or person. While they care about the people around them, Entrepreneurs find listening to personal drama and giving advice somewhat exhausting and uncomfortable. So, their directness can make them sound insensitive.

A part of the reason they struggle with emotional outbursts is the subjectivity factor. Unlike facts, they can’t always experience emotions through their own senses, which makes them difficult to view through someone else’s lenses.

Facts and logical dilemmas are visible and thus feel more real, making it easier to assess and interact with them than emotions.

ESTPs’ lack of sensitivity is also reflected in keeping promises to others. It’s not that they don’t care; it’s just that they quickly lose interest and feel the need to move on to something new.

#2. Defiance

ESTP’s love for adventure and rule-breaking can be a thrill to watch, but their strong personality and free-spirited behavior might lead to complicated relationships.

While Entrepreneurs are well aware that the rules exist, they might try to ignore them and be subtle about breaking them—or, at least, that’s what they’ll believe. They might even find their defiance to be an amusing challenge that adds fuel to their competitive nature. A good example is Bart Simpson from the iconic TV show “The Simpsons,” who’s basically a poster child for a fictional ESTP character.

For them, defiance is a natural response to dull chores and daily obligations. Basically, in the ESTP’s mind, repetition equals torture. What makes them seem insensitive in private also causes them trouble in school or any workplace that demands doing the same thing over and over again, so they resist structure and repetition and make their own rules.

#3. Recklessness

The constant urge to do something new and wild that makes Entrepreneurs feel alive prompts them to raise the bar, slowly taking larger and larger risks. And while it’s all fun and games to them, they have a tendency to overestimate their confidence in their calculations and end up with a problem.

What they perceive as confidence and “betting on themselves” can look like recklessness to others, as their lust for embracing the present moment prevents them from thinking about the bigger picture. Think of 50 Cent, a famous ESTP rapper, who is known for living a dangerous life full of reckless decisions he discusses in his discography.

ESTPs’ need for new challenges might lead to hot-headed and impulsive behavior that could get them in trouble once the thrill passes.

But for them, thinking too much before doing what they want takes the joy out of the act, so they don’t hold themselves back. Instead, they dive in head first.

#4. Impatience

ESTPs hate any form of waiting as it directly contradicts their “spur-of-the-moment” persona, which continually craves spontaneous engagement and action.

The impatience of the ESTP personality type is also reflected in their tendency to leave tasks unfinished—especially the ones that require extended and repetitive effort. Moreover, the leading cause of Entrepreneurs becoming so impatient and unable to wait things out is boredom.

Once the new, shiny adventure becomes familiar, it loses its appeal, and the ESTPs start perceiving it as a chore. As a result, they lose interest in it and turn their heads to something new.

Now that we have a better understanding of the main ESTP strengths and weaknesses, let’s discuss how they could improve themselves with some tips and strategies.

4 Tips & Strategies for ESTP Personal Growth & Development

Let’s take a look at four expert tips that can help Entrepreneurs leverage their strengths and weaknesses in the best way:

#1. Learn to Think About the Consequences

While ESTPs can make the present moment feel incredible and adventurous, they often forget about the possible consequences of their actions. As a result, Entrepreneurs find themselves in sticky situations that could have been prevented if they played it a bit safer and more calculated in the long run.

To avoid such issues, ESTPs should practice looking at the bigger picture and balance their approach to life by thinking more before they act. An Entrepreneur will greatly benefit from not only thinking about potential outcomes but also pondering the repercussions and how (un)avoidable these troubles are.

One of the most practical ways to address impulse activities is through regular meditation. Even short meditations can help ESTPs calm their mind and access a state of tranquility that will help them introduce a sense of stability to their lives.

#2. Cultivate Compassion

Compassion is a feeling of connectedness that arises naturally once we experience an emotional understanding with someone else.

However, ESTPs usually analyze everything through logic, frequently omitting emotions from the equation as a result of the impatience that steers their communication style. While they find this approach practical and direct, others might see it as offensive or insensitive.

Now, despite not paying that much attention to feelings, Entrepreneurs value their social circle, so they should work on cultivating compassion to keep them close.

One of the best ways to tackle this issue is to imagine how someone’s feelings would be affected by replacing “they” with "me." By personalizing the issue, ESTPs will be able to get a better grasp of how their actions or words might hurt people around them.

#3. Embrace Waiting

Impatience can cause great stress and anxiety that makes Entrepreneurs aggravated, causing their other weaknesses to come to the surface.

If you’re an ESTP reading this, slow down!

Not every moment has to be exciting. In fact, the dull moments in life are what makes special occasions so interesting and amusing. Also, while you’re able to do risky things and instantly be fully aware of your surroundings, that doesn’t mean everyone can.

Work on your patience by reminding yourself that people are different, and you need to match their tempo as much as you expect them to match yours. Also, try to understand why it’s important to cultivate patience.

To successfully practice waiting, Entrepreneurs can think of it from a practical point of view. They could ask themselves, “Is my impatience accomplishing anything here? Will it change anything or solve any problems?” If the answer is no, it becomes easier to accept and focus on other things while waiting.

#4. Understand the Need for Rules

As a spontaneous, adventurous, and risk-loving personality, an Entrepreneur has a natural disdain for rules. However, whether they like it or not, they, too, belong to a society, and these environments are built (and maintained) through a set of rules. And ESTPs often get in trouble because they break these rules and regulations!

But, from an ESTP’s perspective, it often doesn’t feel like they’re breaking rules—just ignoring those that don’t make sense to them. Their struggles with following rules often correlate with a lack of understanding of why those rules are even in place. Why should they comply with them? ESTPs need to find practical reasons to help them understand the need for specific rules.

Learning how to comply with most rules will greatly benefit an ESTP’s life in more ways than one. Firstly, they will get better results at work as their strong suits, like practicality and originality, will help them outperform expectations.

Additionally, following rules can help them create a healthy outline or structure in their daily professional and personal lives and avoid coming across as reckless and insensitive, essentially making the most out of both male and female ESTP strengths and weaknesses.

Key Takeaways

• Boldness, practicality, directness, originality, and charisma are some of the greatest ESTP strengths.
• The main ESTP weaknesses encompass insensitivity, defiance, recklessness, and impatience.
• Cultivating compassion, learning how to be more patient, and understanding the need to follow the rules are some of the best ways to leverage the ESTP strengths and weaknesses to help them grow.

ESTP Strengths & Weaknesses FAQ