[SoftTalker]

I’m not sure if suffer is the right word. Some people prefer a quiet life and accept what comes with that, because that’s what they want. And that’s fine.

Of course if you want to live a quiet life and avoid socializing very much, and want to be a successful independent contractor, those might be fairly incompatible goals.

[shadowerm]

This all really has nothing to do with extroversion to me.

We are talking about what is essentially sales and marketing skills.

I am the life of the party but I would never try to freelance because I hate sales and marketing so much.

This is all really asking how to start a business without having to do sales and marketing. Obviously, that is not going to work.

One can either gain these skills or do something else.

[ghaff]

There are some correlations. But I agree that you can be extroverted (whatever that means exactly) but most sales and marketing roles (which vary quite a bit) just don't appeal.

[SoftTalker]

All true but I think an introvert is going to have difficulty taking on a "face of the company" sales and marketing role. That just naturally requires a lot of extrovert personality traits.

[ghaff]

Certainly. I have heard of a number of senior execs who really hated public speaking (even when they were very good at it given sufficient rehearsal). But I agree in general. If you have a public/customer-facing role you're going to find it exhausting and probably not going to be great at it if it is uncomfortable/unpleasant.

I'm certainly not the classic stereotype of the outgoing sales rep (whether that's a fair stereotype or not) but that didn't keep me from attending a ton of conferences, customer meetings, and giving public presentations.