Are you hardwired for success?

You are hardwired for success but it all depends on what you're attempting to do. Not everyone is good at everything. A few people will be reasonably good at most things they try, but true focused success in one particular endeavor may elude them compared to others who are more specifically hardwired for the task.

The word "hardwired" is the key to unlocking your potential for success.

Nature vs Nurture

Although how you are hardwired is crucial to your odds of achievement, let's not forget the importance of education and training. Someone might be born with the natural talent to become a great musician, but at some point they need a teacher to show them the difference between an F-flat and a B-sharp (10 points for Gryffindor if you know the answer).

→ More Information: We've discussed the difference between nature and nurture and how experience and opportunity play a vital role in shaping the unique person that you have become.

There is a bit of confusion, and often a bit of argument as well, when discussing how much of what makes us unique and if that is baked in at birth. Conversely, can we quantify the impact our life experiences have on shaping the person we become?

This article focuses on determining how your innate hardwired "nature" contributes to your likelihood of being successful in your professional endeavors as well as your personal ones, too.

Your Personality Profile

Your personality profile as specified by your Core Values Index™ psychometric assessment defines how much of four broad personality types exist within your personality. The particular ratio of these types — what we call core value energies — are described in your CVI profile as a set of scores from 0 to 36 with their sum equaling exactly 72.

If one or two core value energies are high within your psychometric profile, the other two will be proportionately lower. There are millions of combinations of these core value energies possible within an individual, but it is the combination of your CVI profile and your life experiences that truly make you unique.

You are a unique combination of your natural and hardwired psychometric profile and your life experiences.

Accounting or Graphic Design

Life experiences no doubt play a big part in your professional endeavors. You won't make a very good doctor if you don't graduate from medical school.

Conversely, if you are a highly analytical person who loves facts and numbers and mining the depths of a topic's body of knowledge to its fullest extent — the kind of person who makes elaborate spreadsheets for fun — do you have a high likelihood of success in the field of graphic design or the arts?

Probably not.

It's not to say that your innate and unchanging nature — your psychometric profile — determines what you can or cannot do. Rather, your psychometric profile determines the kind of activities where you are likely to find the most joy and gratification. It also describes the way you prefer to go about things.

For example, I have a Core Values Index profile of 27-Innovator, 17-Banker, 15-Builder and 13-Merchant. This means I go about things from a problem-solver's perspective. My default approach entails finding the best solution to a challenging problem by undergoing a fair bit of research to make sure the solution is ideal, not just the quickest or most emotionally appealing to the group.

Going against my psychometric profile means doing things that I either don't enjoy or seeking to accomplish them in a manner that is against my hardwiring.

No matter how many training courses I attend or how much mentoring I receive from an industry veteran, I will never be a successful car salesman because that activity does not align with how I am hardwired. I am hardwired to be a successful project manager, however.

The question is: In which professions or activities are you hardwired to have the greatest success?

Success is Personally Defined

To determine where you have the greatest opportunity to be successful has one important prerequisite: first, know yourself.

The first step is to complete your Core Values Index psychometric assessment. Read your report, then check out your included Personalized Career Guide.

These two reports will describe the type of activities in which you will find the most enjoyment.

You are much more likely to be successful engaging in an activity that makes you happy.

You will also find out how you prefer to communicate, your ideal method of learning, and even how you respond to conflict and stress. There's a lot of personal value to your CVI report, not just career planning.

It is important to know that through the CVI, you will not learn if you are hardwired for success — it's not a binary decision. Instead, you will learn what makes you happy and why, and through that knowledge you can determine the path where you have the greatest chance of fulfillment and what the Japanese call "ikigai" — reason for being.

Core Values Index™ and CVI™ are trademarks of Taylor Protocols, Inc.