The Founder Archetype Is Defined by Extremes

• Successful founders are rarely normal or average. They often exhibit extreme and seemingly contradictory traits, fitting an "inverse normal distribution" rather than a standard bell curve.
• Common contradictory traits include being both an insider and an outsider, cash-poor but paper-rich, or both charismatic and sullen.
• This is often a self-reinforcing cycle: unusual people are treated as such, which encourages them to act and appear even more unusual, further building their myth.
• Examples range from Richard Branson's cultivated persona to Sean Parker's journey from hacker outcast to tech royalty.