My Personality
As Naledi Mokoena reflected on her journey with HarvestBox, she began noticing that her decisions were shaped not only by business information, but also by her personality.
Naledi was naturally energetic and people-focused. She enjoyed meeting customers, sharing ideas and building partnerships. In uncertain situations, she preferred to take action and learn along the way.
These qualities had helped HarvestBox gain its first customers and supporters. But they also came with blind spots.
Naledi sometimes agreed to opportunities before considering the operational details. She became impatient with long planning sessions and occasionally avoided financial tasks because they felt slow and uncomfortable.
The same traits that helped her move quickly could also cause her to move too quickly.
Recognising Natural Patterns
Naledi began paying attention to how she responded in different situations.
When an exciting partnership appeared, her instinct was to say yes. When a decision involved uncertainty, she trusted her intuition. When conflict arose, she tried to restore harmony—sometimes without addressing the real issue.
None of these responses was automatically good or bad. What mattered was whether they suited the situation.
Understanding her personality gave Naledi a moment of choice. Instead of reacting automatically, she could decide how she wanted to respond.
Before accepting a new opportunity, she introduced a short checklist covering customer fit, cost and team capacity. For important financial decisions, she asked a detail-focused team member to review the figures with her. During difficult conversations, she prepared the key issue she needed to address rather than avoiding discomfort.
She was not trying to become a different person. She was creating ways to use her strengths without being controlled by her blind spots.
Working With Yourself
Personality awareness is not about placing yourself in a box or using a label to excuse your behaviour. It is about recognising the patterns that influence how you communicate, decide and act.
As you explore your own way of operating, consider:
- Which qualities help you create momentum, solve problems and connect with others?
- When might those same qualities lead you to hesitate, rush, overthink or avoid action?
You may be naturally cautious and thoughtful, which can support good decisions but make experimentation difficult. You may be highly independent, which helps you take ownership but makes delegation harder. You may generate ideas easily but struggle to finish what you start.
Awareness allows you to build useful support around these patterns.
For Naledi, understanding her personality brought greater confidence. She could lean into relationship-building and decisive action while creating safeguards for planning, finances and difficult conversations.
Entrepreneurial competence is not only about what you can do. It is also about understanding how you do it—and shaping a way of working that brings out your best.
When you know yourself, you can stop working against your natural tendencies and start leading them with intention.
Until next time, Instant Startup community!
