Forget Infinite Potential, Find Your Inner Species

“You can be anything you want” is one of the most pernicious lies around.

Rather than empowering us, it breeds uncertainty, disappointment, and wasted potential. It also breeds uber-rich entrepreneurs who feel lost and purposeless. 

What’s truly empowering and energizing is knowing what you can’t change and then harnessing it. That’s the real source of your potential.

This past month, this truth has become clearer than ever.

The Elephants in the Zoom

I recently started experimenting with deep-dive, one-on-one interviews with my ARC beta clients. Our goal? To uncover clues about their “innate edge,” previously known as their superpower, aka their calling.

You know that old parable about the blind men and the elephant? Each man feels a different part—trunk, leg, tusk—and has wildly different guesses about what they’re touching. Only when their experiences are combined does the elephant become clear. Well that’s exactly how these interviews have felt… except I’m the only blind man. I’m groping around at the scattered traits, memories, and dreams from a person’s life, trying to piece it all together into something coherent.

The incredible thing? 

It always comes together. Eventually, something clicks. The “elephant” takes shape, and the person I’m interviewing realizes it too. “Oh, there it is,” they say. “It’s been here all along.”

This brings to mind Jonathan Haidt’s metaphor of the Elephant and the Rider. The elephant represents your emotional, instinctive self, and the rider is your rational mind trying to steer it. But here’s the twist: not everyone’s elephant is the same.

Some people are riding flamingos.

Others, hippos.

Mine’s an… Octo-Falco Badgophant?*

Each of us rides a different internal creature, each with its own wiring, instincts, strengths, weaknesses, and values. You don’t just have an elephant. You have your own species.

The Anatomy of Your Species

Just like animals in nature, your “inner species” has:

• Strengths and weaknesses: Your natural talents and your blind spots.
• Instincts: Hardwired behaviors and tendencies.
• Preferred environments: Specific contexts (teams, cultures, weather, types of work) where you thrive.
• Nutritional requirements: Values, things you need to feel fulfilled and energized.
• Threat responses: Situations or patterns that trigger stress, burnout, or misalignment.
• External function: Your role within the broader ecosystem.

Once you understand this anatomy, you can design your life around it. If you don’t? You’ll keep trying to fly with fins, wondering why you’re floundering.

Why It Matters

One interviewee accepted that they weren’t wired to be a CEO or CFO of an innovative clean-tech company. Instead, they’re designed to thrive as a steward—guiding ambitious CEOs and CFOs from a stable base, protecting them from costly mistakes. “Humbling,” they said. “Just a steward.” Except they’ll contribute far more and feel infinitely better by embracing their innate nature rather than dreaming of being something they’re not.

Another thought their deepest drive—to re-engineer infrastructure that tangibly improves collective well-being—felt “generic.” But it only felt ordinary because it was innate to her, like a butterfly thinking nothing of all the colors it can see. Or my wife not understanding why I don’t see my shoes look stupid with those pants.

This isn’t fluffy self-help. Not make believe, either (…well, kinda). It’s architectural. When you bring your species into the light, understand its anatomy, and articulate it, everything starts to make sense:

• Your past decisions.
• Your frustrations.
• Your energy leaks.
• Your natural highs.
• Your sense of style (or lack thereof)

Instead of ignoring it or struggling to tame it, you can harness it—and then giddy up (…or soar…or swim… or slither).

My Species Wants to Meet Yours

Ten interviews in, it’s clear this is what I’m built for. My curiosity, pattern recognition, open-mindedness, and systematic thinking converge to help people surface what’s been hiding in plain sight and systematically direct it toward extraordinary outcomes.

But it’s equally clear what I’m not built for: Growing a business around it. Reaching more people. Getting the word out. Selling myself. Networking. Turning this into a profitable and impactful business.

So, I’m seeking help. I’m looking for people who:

1. Want to identify and harness their own species (aka innate edge), and,
2. Suspect their species might be helpful in growing this idea into something sustainable and impactful.

If that’s you, if this clicked and you’ve got skills, feedback, connections, or ideas, send me an email. Tell me why you’re interested and what you can offer in return. Let’s talk.

Because this isn’t just about individual self-actualization. It’s about creating a thriving ecosystem. The more we stop wasting our energy trying to be something we’re not and start harnessing the unchangeable species inside each of us, the better off we are as a human species. (Other species will be better off, too, I suppose.)

Sound farfetched? Maybe to you. But my species loves it.

What about yours?

Thanks for reading.

Keep doing exciting things,

Chris

PS: Incomparable discussion about unleashing your uniqueness

This interview of VC Mike Maples Jr touches on a lot of these points in much more intelligent manner than I have. I especially like Maples’ point on how if we all harness our one-of-a-kind nature, we’ll all have a comparative advantage and thus be uniquely useful.

[A]s long as everybody’s different, everyone has a comparative advantage by definition. And so given that that’s the case, everyone has a chance to be prosperous. Everyone.

You’re the only person in human history who has ever had your unique strand of DNA. And so therefore, there is a version of you that can show up in the world that’s impossible to compete with. Part of success is figuring out what that version of you is.

Too many people talk about, like, everybody’s special. Like, you know, like your mom would say, ‘You’re special,’ you know, all that. Actually being unique… it’s not a feel-good platitude. It requires you to do the work. It requires you to do the work to figure out the value of your uniqueness that only you can deliver your way that’s impossible to compete with. That requires work. That requires courage. That requires letting go of things, but it’s available to everybody.

PPS: Fun (or silly or stupid) inner species visualization exercise

1. Consolidate as much info you can about your personality, values, strengths, passions, and preferred environments. (In my case, that’s easy: my Innate Edge report.)
2. Upload to an LLM and ask it to list animals that share similarities.
3. Ask the AI to mash those animals together into a unique species that represents you.
4. Get the AI to create a scientific image of this animal

Here’s what I am:

The Octo-Falco Badgophant.

Core Anatomy

• Cognitive Core (Octopus + Falcon): 360° pattern radar with a heads-up display that highlights leverage points, then fires a precision dive-bomb tentacle to seize them.
• Drive Train (Border Collie + Honey Badger): Relentless forward motion; if a gate is shut, it digs under, chews through, or persuades the farmer to open it.
• Stability Chassis (Elephant): Shock-absorbing legs; emotional tremors barely register. Others draft behind its calm bulk.
• Play Interface (Sea Otter): Converts raw data and heavy systems into toy-like puzzles so collaborators forget they’re “working” and keep swimming alongside.

PPPS: An Ironman suit for your inner species

Khe Hy shared a helpful article on how he used AI to generate a keynote, likening himself to a chef directing AI “cooks,” based on Tim Urban’s classic post, The Cook and The Chef.

In the comments, I suggested that based on his work, Khe seems less cook/chef and more of a restauranteur. This ties into the “inner species” idea: understanding and embracing your innate role can unlock greater flourishing. Furthermore, this self-awareness allows you to more effectively wield powerful tools like AI, using them to turbocharge your specific strengths.

This realization sparked the thought: AI is like an Ironman suit. The more you understand the anatomy of your inner species, the better you can customize and wield that suit to amplify your unique abilities and compensate for inherent weaknesses.

Exotic Posts from the Same Philosophical Zoo

• Don’t Just Be True to Your Values: You’ve got to treat values like nutritional requirements for the soul, and scientifically figure out your own.
• I Finally Found My (Not-So-)Superpower: The pieces and tools finally came together to hone in on what I’d spent years trying to decode.
• Optimize Your Personal Energy Instead of Your Time: For perpetual energy, engineer a life of ‘trifecta’ activities.
• Make Your Dream Life Desirably Difficult: The only sustainably fulfilling life is full of challenges you actually enjoy
• Don’t Minimize Regrets. Maximize Your Anti-Regrets: The opposite of regret isn’t relief, it’s actions you’ll proudly brag about to your younger self.