Which one are you?

I’ve sat across the table from three thousand company directors, and I can tell you which one costs them the most money.

There’s a psychologist called Hilary Carden who breaks people into four money personalities. The Worshipper, who thinks more money fixes everything. The Avoider, who’d rather not look at the numbers at all. The Vigilant, who checks everything obsessively but still can’t relax about it. And the Status Seeker, who spends to look successful, whether the business can afford it or not.

I’ll tell you mine. I’m somewhere between Vigilant and Worshipper, always checking, always slightly convinced the next deal will be the one that settles it. It never quite is.

Here’s why this matters more than it sounds like it should. Your money personality doesn’t stay in your own head. It runs the business whether you’ve noticed it or not. The Avoider is the director who won’t chase a debt because the phone call feels uncomfortable, right up until the debt’s unrecoverable. The Status Seeker is signing for the bigger van, the smarter office, while the cash flow underneath is quietly straining. The Vigilant is the one who won’t delegate anything financial, and burns out doing the job of three people.

None of these are moral failings. They’re just patterns, and most directors have never once stopped to notice which one they’re running on.

So here’s today’s question, and it’s not a comfortable one. Which one are you? And has it ever cost you money without you realising it was even happening?

Hold onto your answer, because tomorrow I want to tell you about the exact moment one of these patterns gets genuinely expensive, and it’s probably not the one you’d expect.

If there’s anything I can ever do to help you or your business, you know where I am.