The book describes seven fascination advantages, overarching personality traits people can use to help improve their performance and fascinate others.
Fascinate with your highest distinct value
In a crowded, competitive environment, the most fascinating option always wins. Unrecognized greatness achieves nothing. Greatness can win only by being noticed and remembered. And in a competitive and overcrowded world, the same is true for you. You are fascinating. Our research proves it.
Perhaps you’ve heard this story: a priceless painting is sitting up in some forgotten attic, collecting dust for decades. Then, one day, someone stumbles upon it and sets off a million-dollar bidding war. Do you ever feel like that painting, waiting for someone to recognize your potential?
The problem is, you have to be in the right environment for people to notice your unique talents and the great things you have to offer. You need to stay on the lookout for the kind of environment that will maximize your unique contributions. Finding the right environment is crucial to success.
The fascination advantage system
Every single time you communicate with someone, you are either adding value (and reinforcing why they should prioritize you) or taking up space (and reinforcing that your messages are irrelevant spam)
There are three things you must be aware of:
First, you have to overcome the distractions that can keep people from connecting with your ideas. It’s difficult to get someone to pay attention to your ideas if they don’t listen or bother to look at the portfolio you sent them. So, to get your message out there, you have to grab their attention right off the bat.
Second, avoid the competition by creating your own niche. There are plenty of competitive entrepreneurs out there today, each fighting to be the best in their field. But no matter how hard they try, there will always be someone better. You should aim for success by being different and creating a niche that plays to your own unique set of skills.
Finally, avoid being perceived as a commodity. Commodities are replaceable and thus, if you’re perceived as one, you’ll end up losing clients to competitors. To find long-term success, you need a loyal customer base; otherwise, you’ll always be searching for new ones, which is a costly and time-consuming process. You can do this by connecting with your customers and showing them that you care. Reply thoughtfully and start building a loyal fan base.
Fascination improves the performance
Fascination allows you to enter a state of flow, a psychological state in which you can focus on something completely. The stronger your fascination, the more likely you are to enter into this state.
Being in a state of flow allows your brain to perform more efficiently, which improves your performance.
If a simple job already taxes your brainpower, as it did with these novices, more demanding tasks can overwhelm you, leading you to make mistakes or crumble under the pressure. But someone who is fascinated with what they do will enter a state of flow and will still have enough spare brainpower to meet a challenge.
Of course, the activities that are most likely to fascinate you are those that suit your unique personality traits.
There are seven fascination advantages and each of them has a unique way of helping you perform better. Many people struggle to become someone they’re not – to try and get a job or fit into a role that doesn’t suit them. To prevent this from happening to you, recognize one or two of your personal fascination advantages to discover the work that fascinates you and matches your personality. We’re much more likely to excel at a job that fascinates us. In addition, being aware of other people’s fascination advantages and personal traits can help you set up productive teams. This way, you will know how each of your employees can contribute specific skills and strengths to a team.
Power advantage
People with this advantage are very confident and excel at convincing others of their opinion. They are willing to take calculated risks and won’t shy away from making difficult decisions. While the power advantage is helpful in many situations, it’s crucial to a role like that of a CEO, where difficult decisions and convincing others is part of the daily routine. Be careful, though: having too many people with a power advantage in one team can be disastrous, with every group discussion becoming a fight for control.
Passion advantage
People with the passion advantage are friendly, emotionally open and can connect quickly with other people.
Since they tend have high levels of energy, they’re often enthusiastic about ideas or projects, and their enthusiasm can be contagious. People who are high in passion are usually very good at giving presentations and forming relationships with customers.
Mystique advantage
At the other end of the spectrum, people with the mystique advantage are level-headed observers who listen before they speak.
Mystique personalities are often quiet intellectuals who like to think things through before they act. In contrast to passionate personalities, mystique individuals aren’t open with their emotions and you shouldn’t be surprised if they reject your idea of joining in a karaoke duet at an office party.
These people have great time-managements skills and are very analytical. Mystique personalities make great experts, and if you’re looking for someone to fill a scientific role, join the IT department or become a business analyst, look no further. So, passion is about people and mystique is about data. Next, we’ll investigate the main traits of perfectionists and project managers.
Prestige advantage
It is all about striving for excellence and the desire for self-optimization. The most important motivation for people with this fascination advantage is to exceed expectations.
When someone with a prestige advantage gives a presentation, it will usually involve the following:
First, they will study a previous successful presentation, such as Steve Jobs’ presentation of the iPhone. Then, they will stand in front of a mirror and do a few training performances. Finally, after the presentation, they will conduct a self-evaluation; determine what went wrong and how they can improve.
Alert advantage
But when it comes to attention to detail, no one beats the people who have the alert advantage. The alert advantage make these people perfect project managers to stay on time, within the budget and have an eye for details that might otherwise fall through the cracks. As you might sense, this trait comes in handy for anyone involved in quality management.
If someone you’re about to meet sends you a text to say that they’ll be five minutes late it’s a sign that they have the alert advantage. This is the kind of advantage you might also look for in a doctor, so they won’t miss any ominous signs during your next check-up.
Innovation advantage
In Mesopotamia, somewhere around 3500 BC, someone came up with the brilliant idea of the very first wheel. While we don’t know anything about the inventor, it’s a safe bet that this person’s fascination advantage was the innovation advantage.
The innovation advantage characterizes people who are always coming up with new ideas. These people are full of creativity and hold little regard for the status quo.
Just about any great scientific and technological breakthrough can be traced back to people with this advantage, be it that unknown Mesopotamian, Nikola Tesla or Steve Jobs. While other people are busy trying to improve an existing product, innovators will work on developing a new one from scratch.
In leadership positions, these individuals tend to look at the big picture and excel at creating a vision for their team to fill with details. In this environment, they pair well with alert people, who would never miss a single detail that the innovator is after.
Trust advantage
But if you are looking for consistency and dependability, look to those with the trust advantage. It’s always nice if someone in your team has the trust advantage because they work hard and will commit to getting things done. If they are asked to perform a task, you can be certain that they will do it well.
So don’t hold back any longer! Find your environment, discover your fascination advantage and be extraordinary.