Introvert, Meet Extrovert

Photo by Alma Black on Unsplash

Here’s a fun fact about me: nearly three years ago, I co-founded a natural body care business with someone I’d known only 10 months prior.

I don’t like the word “co-founded”. It sounds too official, too corporate.

Here’s what really happened: the two of us were classmates in a 10-month long herbal apprenticeship program. As the course neared its end, my classmate asked if I’d like to work on our final projects together.

I confess that I didn’t really want to. As an introvert, I’ve always been accustomed to working alone. I like working alone. I’m possessive of my work and protective of the energy I put into creating things. I’m determinedly stubborn in the need to say, “I created this. ME. By myself.”

But as an introvert, I also struggle with saying no.

You could argue this isn’t an introvert trait, per se, but a sign of someone lacking the assertion to speak how they feel.

And that’s not wrong, either, because there have been many instances in my past when I‘ve been too afraid to confront a situation square on and thereby suffered the aftermath of poorly rationalized decisions (case in point: many years ago, I un-invited a new-ish “friend” from our wedding because her personality clashed with my own. My message to her arrived out of left…