Introvert Entrepreneur seems like an oxymoronic term.  Can an introvert really be an entrepreneur?  Well, Beth Buelow makes an excellent case for it in her book titled with the same term. I heard about Beth Buelow from one of my favorite podcasts, The Creative Penn, when she was interviewed by Author-Entrepreneur Joanna Penn. That interview intrigued me about this concept. So, I decided to read her book and listened to Beth’s own podcast to learn more.

Buelow goes into details on how introverts can use their natural gifts of listening, independence, research, and focusing one task at a time to succeed as an entrepreneur.  She adroitly address the challenges that introverts face from their reluctance (and sometimes even hatred) of sales, marketing, and networking.  As well as dealing with fears and self-doubts that comes with starting your own business.

So, I gave up. I stopped trying to force it. I finally realized that I was not going to choose my niche; it was going to choose me. I decided to see who I attracted when I showed up authentically, open, and curious.

Introverts and independence go hand in hand. It doesn’t mean that other people aren’t important to us; we simply are more deliberate (and even curious) about who we invite into our inner world. We see it very simply: people in = energy out. We can absolutely love and adore those people, and they can still exhaust us.

Those two quotes were worth the price of the book.  Buelow covers the strengths and weaknesses of introverts when it comes to entrepreneurship in those aforementioned quotes.  The native inner strength of understanding in letting a niche discover you instead of trying to create your own niche and the weakness of an insistent need for independence because of how people can drain an introvert’s energy. Reading the context behind both of those quotes reveal how well Buelow knows her subject and the advice given goes well beyond the surface level or pop psychology/self-help talk.

The Introvert Entrepreneur is a book I will highly recommend for introverts who are (or want to become) entrepreneurs and for extroverts who want to learn more about how introverts work and succeed in entrepreneurship. I will be referring to this book on a regular basis and using the many lessons from it for my own introverted author-enterpreneur career.