Great people and not-so-great people

All of us meet and talk to people all the time. Any such meeting may last a few seconds (e.g. passing someone by in a corridor and just saying hello) or much longer (e.g. hanging out with friends). However, most, if not all, meetings leave me with some kind of an impression - either positive or negative. Being a person who ends up spending a lot of time random things like this, I thought I would try to categorize the people I meet in two extreme categories. Of course, I do not think that only one meeting is sufficient always to categorize someone in either of these two buckets. Also, I must add that being extreme categories as they are, there will be many people who I will not be able to put in either category. So these categories are mutually exclusive but not collectively exhaustive. In addition to this, it might be useful to keep people in your professional circles out of this because their actions are prone to a lot of other things, such as, conflicts of interest, workplace politics, etc.

Great people and not-so-great people

1. Have a positive outlook towards life and society. They are more likely to focus on things for improvement rather than despairing about the sorry state of affairs or things wrong with the world.
2. Will always play down their achievements and take your achievements in a positive and encouraging light. NSGP will always try to make their (usually small) achievements look great, while ignoring or playing down your achievements.
3. Talk to you at your level vs. NSG will talk down to you from their "supposedly" elevated pedestal.
4. Will always encourage you to achieve more. NSGP will always discourage you simply because they feel insecure about their own position.
5. GP will talk about your great qualities and achievements. NSGP cannot stop talking about themselves (will constantly want to show how great they are).