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The Dark Triad

You just bought 6 boxes of girl scout cookies from your friends for their daughter. 
A boy scout comes to your door selling popcorn and you buy a bag. 

The struggling college student knocks on your door and gets you to subscribe to the newspaper -- a printed one no less. 

The head of a company gets you to join his organization for less pay and the promise of huge upside potential. 

Ok. I know I just made a leap there.

But in the world of influence, you have to recognize what type of agent (the seller) is doing the influencing. What I've learned is if you can recognize whether the personality is one of the dark triad -- run! 

The dark triad consists of 3 personality traits:
  1. Machiavellianism - I used to call this Minnesota -nice. These people are manipulative and play nice in the pursuit of self-interest. Bro hugs? Ask yourself, "Does he really like me that much?" 
  2. Narcissism - Admire me! Pay attention to ME! Count the number of times the word, "I" is used. Maybe the company name is that person's name in large Tahoma font. These folks are pretty easy to identify -- they are usually spray tanned.
  3. Psychopathy - These people have little concern for others and their welfare. For some reason, my mind always goes back to villains in the episodes of Criminal Minds. The words "dangerous lunatic" may come to mind here.
If you are lucky, you may have been victimized by one person with all 3 personality traits. But in the world of selling, I'm sure you've run into the person that has at least one of them.

I know that I've been sold and duped more than once by a few of these folks.

That said, look deep for the person that you can trust and has integrity. It's hard to find them I know. Especially when it's people with the above personality traits that continue to bombard us and have made us natural skeptics. 
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