Famous people by personality type

Ino Tadataka

Surveyor and mapmaker (Japan)

Drew up a long-term plan to survey all of Japan and spent well over a decade completing its map.

Nikola Tesla

Inventor and electrical engineer

Is recorded as working out how his devices would run in his head before building prototypes.

Marie Curie

Physicist and chemist

Kept up painstaking experiments over many years, narrowing her research toward her goal.

Albert Einstein

Physicist

Questioned assumptions that were common sense at the time and built theories from thought experiments.

Seki Takakazu

Mathematician (Japan)

Broke existing solution methods apart and reworked them into general forms.

Charles Darwin

Naturalist

Recorded observations and questions for years and carefully tested his hypotheses.

Oda Nobunaga

Warlord of Japan's Warring States period

Set clear goals and made one decision after another to rebuild whole systems.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Military leader and statesman

Mapped out entire campaigns and personally decided how people and supplies were deployed.

Shibusawa Eiichi

Entrepreneur (Japan)

Launched many businesses at once, bringing people together to build organizations.

Hiraga Gennai

Inventor and author (Japan)

Kept building prototypes and writing across many fields, always thinking up new ways to present things.

Leonardo da Vinci

Painter and engineer

His interests ranged from painting to machines, and he left behind a vast record of his ideas.

Benjamin Franklin

Statesman and inventor

Enjoyed experiments and debate, and brought one clever idea after another into the world.

Yoshida Shoin

Thinker and educator (Japan)

Engaged with each student's aspirations and showed them a direction through his words.

Mahatma Gandhi

Political leader

Held up an ideal and stayed committed to nonviolence over many years.

Kenji Miyazawa

Poet and children's author (Japan)

Sought to express his ideals both in his writing and in how he lived.

Higuchi Ichiyo

Novelist (Japan)

Portrayed the emotional ups and downs of ordinary people in a quiet, understated style.

Vincent van Gogh

Painter

Kept searching for a way of expression true to how he felt, and poured his thoughts into letters.

Hans Christian Andersen

Author of fairy tales

Turned vulnerability and loneliness into stories and wove his values into his work.

Tsuda Umeko

Educator (Japan)

Created a place to learn and kept it running while encouraging the people around her.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Minister and civil rights leader

Used words to unite the feelings of many people and turn them into action.

Helen Keller

Educator and social welfare activist

Spoke about her own experiences, spreading understanding and support among people.

Sakamoto Ryoma

Reformer in late Edo-period Japan

Moved between people on opposing sides and brought about new alliances.

Mark Twain

Novelist

Drew people in with his light, lively storytelling and kept widening his interests.

Robin Williams

Actor and comedian

Lit up the room with improvisation and adapted his words to the people in front of him.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Military leader and first shogun of Japan's Edo shogunate

Built up a track record without rushing and established institutions that lasted a long time.

Ninomiya Sontoku

Agricultural reformer (Japan)

Kept up steady efforts to revive struggling villages, based on records and calculations.

George Washington

Military leader and statesman

Was strict with himself in fulfilling his role and held to the lines he had drawn.

Florence Nightingale

Nurse and statistician

Built up records from the front lines and improved the conditions of the people in her care.

Chiune Sugihara

Diplomat (Japan)

Put his own position on the line and took action to help the people in front of him.

Mother Teresa

Catholic nun

Chose everyday care she could keep up over flashiness.

Okubo Toshimichi

Statesman (Japan)

Decided on new institutions and pushed through the plans to carry them out.

Henry Ford

Industrialist

Broke work into steps, standardized them, and built a system of production.

Margaret Thatcher

Politician

Set out a clear direction and saw it through despite opposition.

Okuma Shigenobu

Statesman and educator (Japan)

Brought people together to create communities and took on the hard work of coordination.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Social activist

Met with people, listened to them, and connected them with the support they needed.

Louis Armstrong

Musician

Warmed up both his fellow performers and the audience, setting the mood of the room.

Miyamoto Musashi

Swordsman (Japan)

Stripped down what he had tested in real combat and wrote it down as a method.

Soichiro Honda

Engineer and entrepreneur

Worked with his own hands on the shop floor, building things that ran to see if they worked.

Orville Wright

Inventor

Built and repaired prototypes again and again, getting a feel for how to fine-tune the controls.

Katsushika Hokusai

Ukiyo-e artist (Japan)

Spent his whole life depicting the beauty of what he saw.

Claude Monet

Painter

Captured the fleeting sensation of shifting light in his work.

Bob Marley

Musician

Shared expression true to how he felt, without pretense.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Military leader (Japan)

Read situations, made his moves on the spot, and won people's hearts.

Amelia Earhart

Aviator

Threw herself into risky challenges and showed what was possible through action.

Ernest Hemingway

Novelist

Put himself in the middle of events, lived them, and wrote from that experience.

Hibari Misora

Singer (Japan)

Adjusted her performance to each audience and captured the mood of the room.

Elvis Presley

Singer

Swept audiences up in an instant with his presence on stage.

Charlie Chaplin

Actor and filmmaker

Honed a physical style of performance and made the audience in front of him laugh.