An Inspired Chat with Eric Gee

Eric Gee shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi Eric, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Dodger baseball. I’m a born and bred Angeleno, which means I’m a Lakers/Bruins (obviously)/Dodgers diehard. It also means that I love a winner, and unfortunately, the Lakers are meh–coincidentally my feelings on the state of post-90s NBA basketball in general–and my Bruins, at least in football, would be happy to make it into the O’Reilly Auto Parts Bowl (not a real bowl game). But my Dodgers? We have the best player who’s ever played. We’re defending World Series champs (maybe back-to-back depending on when this gets published. And, I grew up down the street, literally, from Dodger Stadium (my grandmother’s house was a five-to-ten minute walk from the stadium gates). Plus, I can honestly say I’ve never left a game early.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
“I was a bad student” is my common answer when asked about my early school years. However, I was “gifted”, or at least designated so by my teachers, my test scores, and my smart-alecky mouth, and I had a personality that was long on enthusiasm and short on patience. I could be a teacher’s best friend or worst enemy, alternating between charismatic participant and equally charismatic dissident depending on my passion for the lesson or assignment. As my brother once perfectly encapsulated: “If Eric doesn’t like doing something and it takes longer than fifteen minutes, he’s not going to do it.”

Fortunately for me, my erratic academic performance and even more erratic behavioral performance (not everyone can say they were sent to the dean at four consecutive schools) was commonly excused as precociousness (some might call it obnoxiousness). I was lucky to have teachers that understood me, or at the very least were patient enough to give me space to learn in my own way. I later came to realize that not every student has that luxury.

Let’s face it, school is designed for certain types of people. For everyone else, it’s an exhaustive marathon of tedium, awkwardness, and social castigation. We’re often told that it’s a phase that we’ll grow out of, but why should we grow out of something we are, just to be something we’re not? It hurts to be misunderstood, but it hurts even more to be gaslit into believing your value differences are an illusion, and if you’d only conform to someone else’s standards of happiness you’d, in fact, be happy too.

That is why I’ve devoted the last two decades of my life to helping people forge a path to success that works for them. I founded an education company with individualized growth as its mission statement. I’ve coached teachers on how to work with their students’ personal needs, and provided business professionals, in leadership and non-leadership roles, with the tools they need to attain collaboration, productivity, and personal growth within their team.

As creator of youtopiaproject.com and the Youtopia 16 assessment, more than half a million users have benefited from my teachings since the website’s creation in 2016.

My book, The Power of Personality, is the culmination of decades of research and application. I’ve personality-typed over fifty thousand people during my career, which is no small sample size. Good thing I have a strong memory! The main takeaway? Our relationship to others will only be as healthy as our relationship to ourselves.

Random things about me:

I’m a classically-trained pianist, backyard-trained BBQ dilettante, three time fantasy football champion, professional mentor, amateur magician, and infinite Pez dispenser of saccharine bits of 80s and 90s pop culture. I’ve also managed a golf course, hosted a pre-podcast radio show out of a dilapidated radio station in East Hollywood, coached high school basketball, designed the leadership structure of a boy scout troop using my personality-typing method, lectured at businesses and universities, and graduated from UCLA where I studied English literature and screenwriting.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
As a life coach that specializes in helping people understand people via personality types, it’s only fitting that I give a personality type-ish answer (shameless plug, T-minus one second…). In my book, The Power of Personality, I talk about many things (even scatology and the mating habits of the banana slug get a mention), but one of the things I love to talk about are common mistakes when it comes to personality typing, i.e., understanding people.

I’m not going to tear down my favorite personality assumption (extroversion vs. introversion) right now, but I will say that the most common mistake we make is accepting superficial differences (neat vs. messy, talkative vs. shy, etc.) while assuming that at our core, we all share the same values.

Problem is, we don’t. And when someone who values family most of all (this is a fairly large percentage of people) comes into contact with someone who values information and theory (a much smaller percentage of people), there is bound to be conflict, sometimes to the highest degree. Even now some people are reading this and yelling out loud, “everyone values family the most!” To which I always respond, “when’s the last time you heard about Einstein’s family?”
It seems odd to judge a person because they prioritized work over family when said person’s work helped–and continues to help–millions of families throughout the world.

It’s not just about accepting core value differences. It’s about appreciating them. Not only will that restore any bonds that have been fractured, it will make them stronger.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Your over-sized polos and saggy jeans might’ve seemed ridiculous five years later, but they’ll be “cool” again in twenty five years.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Whose ideas do you rely on most that aren’t your own?
My dad once told me, “Don’t worry about what other people think. At the end of the day, no one gives a shit anyway, so you just got to do what you want to do.”

In the moment, he was making fun of me wearing size 38 jeans (I was a size 28), but I think there’s an eternal truth there!

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What will you regret not doing? 
Loving more, hating less, and writing. Writing ’til the keys on my keyboard are so worn down you can tell what letters I use most (my answer my surprise you).

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.projectyoutopia.com/university
• Instagram: @the_power_of_personality
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-gee-3565a79/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eric.c.gee/

Image Credits
Saad Ansari