The Most Underrated Personality Trait

Read time: 6 minutes

Welcome to The Ascend Archives Saturday Edition where I share insights from the brightest minds in business and life and how I'm applying them to my life.

If you were stuck in a third world prison cell and you had one person you could call to break you out, who would you call?

It’s not about the person with the most money or connections. But who can find a way to accomplish something seemingly impossible? Who doesn’t take everything at face value, but questions it? Who is relentless in pursuit of a goal? Simply, who gets shit done?

My answer is my friend, Alex.

Alex is not only one of the most intelligent people I know, but he pairs that with an extreme curiosity and a high bias for action. When I’m struggling with a complex problem, I go to Alex because he’s probably either dealt with a similar issue or has read about something we can use to solve it.

So what’s the point of this thought experiment?

This week, I came across this guy George Mack who writes essays about the top 0.1% of ideas he’s learned. One of which, is the concept of high agency vs low agency people, which sparked my interest because I’ve been thinking a lot about taking action. What makes people willing to take action vs sit on the sidelines? Who are the type of people who fight in the arena, get up on stage, and take the leap of faith vs the people who cheer from the stands, sit silently in the back of the room, and just dream of one day doing the thing?

I consider myself a person who takes a lot of action. If I just sat around in my house all day watching Netflix, then I wouldn’t have much to write about in this newsletter. But having high agency is more than just taking action.

After reading George’s essays and listening to him discuss the topic on a few podcasts, I want to figure out how to improve my agency. He says it’s much easier to see high agency in others than yourself. Once you understand what others with agency are doing, then you can apply that in your own life.

So that’s what I’m going to do today with my friend Alex.

George Mack’s High Agency Indicators

1. They have or had “weird” interests or obsessions

People with high agency usually did something in their teenage years that was not “normal” by societal standards.

Part time or summer jobs for high school kids are pretty normal. Most teenagers work at a summer camp, bus tables at a restaurant, or tutor local kids in the neighborhood. Not Alex.

Alex worked for a small business that did 3D Printing. When I met him during freshman year of college, I didn’t even know what a 3D printer. But he would tell us stories about how every summer, he would work at the shop not for the money, but so that he could get access to the expensive 3D printing machine and make cool stuff.

This among many other examples like participating in Model UN and an Amazon wholesale startup showed Alex was willing to go against the grain from an early age.

2. They make you want to run on the treadmill and not sit on the sofa after talking with them

High agency people leave you with a ton of energy and don’t drain you. You are fired up to go take action after leaving them.

I try to chat with Alex on the phone at least once a month. Sometimes we have specific things to discuss, but most times it’s just catching up on our personal lives, our careers, and interesting ideas we’ve been exploring. These calls that I usually take on a walk, often extend longer than an hour without much effort.

There’s a note in my phone with Alex’s name on it. In it are dozens of ideas, words of advice, book recommendations, and actions I want to take from our discussions. In February, I spent 24 hours with him in New York. I left with enough ideas to last me months and a series of questions that helped get my business to the next level.

Alex is the definition of a treadmill friend.

3. They are interested in niche content and not societal norm content

George argues that ignorance of most things is good. Every day millions of YouTube videos, tweets, and newsletters are published. It is impossible to be “up-to-date” on everything going on in the world.

So when we don’t have an opinion on the U.S. Presidential debate or the most popular TikTok trend, why does society judge us?

It’s much better to consume the information we actually care about and are interested in. Not the content that “keeps you in the know”. Alex is great at this.

One month Alex will be going down a rabbit hole of how to buy land in strategic tertiary markets to build private airports. The next month he is fascinated by the “Fractional CFO” industry and how every small business needs this service. He even dabbles in some real estate, which allows me to finally contribute to the conversation.

This is a good reminder that it’s ok not to be curious about everything; it’s arguably better to only be curious about a few things and focus on that.

4. They have an immigrant mentality

Immigrants are people who had the awareness to spot they were in the wrong place, the resourcefulness to figure out how to move, and the growth mindset to start from scratch in a new place.

Alex has moved around a few times in his life. He left Ohio to attend his state’s rival University of Michigan, studied abroad in Europe, took his first job in Chicago, and a few years later moved to New York for his next opportunity.

But one move he made in college showed his growth mindset and willingness to take action.

Second semester senior year is pretty chill for most college kids. I was a perfect example. With 6 credits needed to graduate, I only had class 2 times per week and spent most of that spring playing NBA 2K18, becoming an elite beer pong player, and soaking up my final college tailgates.

But again, Alex was different.

While I sat on the sofa, Alex graduated early and took an internship in LA at Tesla. He knew he was most likely not going to work there full time, but he wanted to experience Elon Musk had built. He gave up that chill semester in Ann Arbor to move to a city with no friends and work long hours. I can’t recall specifics, but I’m sure he gained a ton of experience that has compounded and impacted his growth over the years.

5. Additional indicators

I could go on with more examples, but for brevity sake here are a few more indicators of high agency people that George mentions.

• Intentionality

• Resourcefulness

• Strong locus of control

• Willing to say no to money

• Bias toward optimism and action

Final Thoughts

Alex and people like him figure it out and get shit done because they are intentional, they take action, and live life on their own terms.

It’s definitely not an easy way to live. It’s scary, it’s risky, and it can be embarrassing at times. But to me, it just seems like such a more fun and rewarding way to live.

Going through this exercise made me realize I want to lean more into what makes me “weird”. Sometimes writing this newsletter, I catch myself thinking, “What do people want to hear about” or “What’s an interesting topic I haven’t talked about in a while”. But I need to resist that urge.

I’m really into storytelling right now. Learning about the structure, how to keep an audience’s attention, and how to convey a message in way that evokes emotion. Becoming a better storyteller isn’t going to make me more money, might not be relevant to most people reading this newsletter, and might not be the most productive thing I can do.

But so what?

Maybe that should be my only focus for the next month. The rabbit holes Alex goes down aren’t directly tied to an outcome. He’s just out there exploring things that interest him. Then, when his intentionality, resourcefulness, and bias for action get added to the mix, great things happen.

George summed it up well: “High agency people are doing life and not letting life happen to them”.

Let’s go do life, just seems more fun that way.

Thank you for reading! As always please reply and let me know what resonated, what didn’t, or what you question. I love chatting about this stuff!

Cheers,

Andrew