★★★★★ 5
There All Along
Format: Kindle
It all came about on a recent trip to Mexico after my wife of ten years forwarded an article about Dr Kaminski’s discovery of a new personality type.
Interested, I dove in to find everything that I read resonated deeply. I looked up the book and bought the Kindle version and it’s been un-put-down able since.
My life hasn’t been without a struggle here and there. The short version is that I put myself through Boise State in their accounting program, did well, and then graduated in ‘89.
Don’t laugh, my parents thought it would be good if there was an accountant out there with “personality.” It was a bad idea but I didn’t want to do something beneath me like paint houses or be a mechanic. So I gave in.
There was an immediate price to pay. My long time girlfriend broke up with me because she wanted us to be more and I felt I had to focus on school and work.
I had decent grades despite my shattered heart and my professors were fairly supportive of me. I received an attractive offer to work in a regional firm but it turned out I not only didn’t like the work but even worse, I couldn’t do it.
In practice nothing made sense. Balance sheets wouldn’t balance. Income statements wouldn’t reconcile with sales and closing the books was hell. It all seemed so unlike the problems in my textbooks. So I continued working in the grocery store for a few more years.
Then in 1992, I met a girl, you know “the one.” Because she was pretty and actually returned my call, I had to have her like she was a possession.
So we dated and got married and I sat for and passed the CPA exam and went on to work as an auditor for the State of Idaho which is a lot of fact checking and report writing. In true fashion I tired of the politics and mostly just having a boss.
Time marched on. We had kids. She knew she’d found her sucker. I quit my job, opened a private practice specializing in bookkeeping and taxes, neither of which I was very good at.
I was good at trying to keep my infinitely narcissistic wife happy keeping up with the Joneses and all the appearances. Through utterly pathetically and foolish means. I got in over my head and embezzled from a client which was discovered although I was never prosecuted, which I correctly predicted.
So it’s complicated and I always wondered why I would do such a thing. The answer is elusive, and obviously it was an unbelievably stupid thing to do but I feel I did it either as a cry for help or because I thought my ex wife was worth doing something so wrong. I think I wanted to get caught so I could get my life right at some point.
I’ve gone with the cry for help answer because no one is worth stealing for.
After $75,000 in child support (which was artificially high due basically to what amounted to extortion from my lovely ex wife - she found out I embezzled to hang on to her then weaponized it against me) and repaying the client I stole from, I started working as a solo painting contractor and never looked back.
Life got good for me after I straightened out and became who I am. My second wife believed in me and supported me unconditionally.
We’re retired now and are moving to Mexico this summer. 2026
I’m now 61, took the test, my score 227/280. Undeniably an Otrovert.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2026
