5 Counter-Intuitive Traits of Extraordinary People

The bar is shockingly low.

Kyle Chastain
5 min readSep 23, 2021

We love to destroy our heroes. Such is the mood of the age, we look for reasons to tear down men and women who do great things in life. If their lives don’t mesh with our modern sensibilities, we take sadistic joy in seeing them crumble.

What does it take to be a great man or woman? This isn’t some esoteric question for scholars and philosophers. The traits you value can make your life rich and full, or leave you empty and meaningless.

In ages past, a person proved their greatness by serving in a worthy cause. By making sacrifices for their family, their beliefs, or their country, a person could build their reputation and secure a place in the halls of communal memory. But with social media, anyone can create and control their public persona.

These days, the bar for becoming an extraordinary person is very low.

As shocking as it may sound, there are only a few traits that separate average people from the extraordinary. They are not easy traits to acquire, but if you do, they can set you apart from the selfie-addicted, inspirational sound bite crowd.

This sets you apart from ninety percent of people

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Kyle Chastain
Kyle Chastain

Written by Kyle Chastain

On a mission to become a better writer and storyteller | Building my "Insight" newsletter to 10k+ | Create the life you want: https://chastain.substack.com/