Surrounded By Idiots

Erikson interviews colleagues and acquaintances of different personality types to demonstrate how they have understood and applied the lessons from his book. He relays an interview with a CEO, Helena, who feels she has a “Red” personality. In their conversation she admits that, as Erikson predicts in his work, she finds Blues too slow, Yellows too talkative, and Greens to be overly conflict-avoidant. Being a Red personality, Helena confesses that she is prone to making spontaneous decisions which do not always turn out well.

Helena shares that the book helped her and her staff be more understanding of each other; she hopes that they know that she does not mean to seem angry or intimidating. Helena shares that her husband has an opposite personality which sometimes creates conflict between them, as she is fast and takes initiative while her husband is slower.

In his next interview Erikson talks to Hakan, a Yellow personality who works in television. Hakan shares that he believes he is a Yellow because he is very creative, socially outgoing, and loves public speaking. Hakan defends Yellows’ penchant for making decisions based on their intuition, rather than logical facts, and claims that his talkative nature is generally appreciated by those around him.