Typecasting Yourself
By Isaiah O’Connor
Today I am going to be asking what I believe to be an important question when looking at your career or at starting a business.
Am I typcasting myself?
What do I mean by that? First of all, let us look at what typecasting is. Typecasting is something that is usually used to describe actors who are known for playing a certain type of character, and then subsequently only cast as that type. Take for example Bela Lugosi, he had played Dracula and due to his naturally strong Hungarian accent and his natural stage presence caused him to be only cast in horror films. He was not happy with this state of affairs and said;
“I’d like to quit the supernatural roles and play just an interesting, down-to-earth person.”— Bela Lugosi
Obviously typecasting was a detriment to his career.
Now at the same time, there was another actor who was typecast as a Hollywood monster that being Boris Karloff who played Frankenstein’s Monster. He liked it because he out found out that it was his niche and even said;
“Certainly, I was typed. But what is typing? It is a trademark, a means by which the public recognizes you. Actors work all their lives to achieve that. I got mine with just one picture. It was a blessing.”— Boris Karloff
Now when I started researching this blog I had only thought of typecasting as being a negative thing, however, it can be both a blessing and a curse. It seems to depend on if it is something that you can become passionate about or not. If it is not something you can become passionate about, then, it can become a curse as you will feel stuck in that role.
On the other hand, if you can find yourself becoming passionate about it, it can become the niche you serve and allowing you to stand out from the crowd. Your attitude and passion are the deciding factors.
Now let us take this back into the realm of business and careers. When you are looking at your next career move, be it jumping into entrepreneurship or moving to a new job it is very easy to typecast yourself. That is to say, you assume that the only thing you are good at and have to offer is what you have done before, or have a talent in.. It has been my experience that this is almost never the case.
For further reading, you can check out my blog post on the subject, by clicking here. Typecasting Yourself
For my previous podcast click here. Jack Of All Trades
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Your Friendly Neighborhood Entrepreneur,
Isaiah O’Connor
