tl;dr: Introversion is not a set of personality traits, it simply means you are energized from spending time alone. It's not a setback.

I grew up with a hover mom and a beta dad. Life was all about working hard in school and my social life was an extension of my mother's - from the age of six on I played sports with her friends' kids. The picture of my earlier life is probably familiar to a lot of people. Young kid with not much social interaction at home, grows up with solitary interests like reading and playing video games.

And as a teen I was rejected by almost every girl I pursued, overcompensating for shyness with stupid jokes. And they fed me the bullshit line, "someday you're gonna meet the perfect girl! never settle!" For awhile I became the "clown" character people have mentioned.

Around eighteen, things changed. I realized that no matter how hard I wanted to be, I wasn't one of the people who gained energy from being around others. To this day, I balance the time spent hanging with friends, girlfriends, or at parties with time that is just for me. Reflection, introspection.

What changed is I put in the work. I learned to talk to every kind of person, even if they seemed boring or stupid. For those of you who are in that phase of struggling with talking to women -- Gentlemen, it works wonders. Challenge yourself to meet new people (i.e. women) every day and just make a good impression. This last bit involves taking care of your appearance, gym/diet/clothes. I'm not any less introverted than before, just no longer shy.

Since eighteen (almost three years ago) have had three relationships, four or five shorter term hookups and overall a lot more happiness with myself. The red pill I only discovered two months ago, but a lot of water-down versions of its basic ideas hit me organically at eighteen -- the value of what I was, not who I was; women only looking at what they can get from a man; and holding frame. I went from very shy to very confident. People from high school see me and can't believe their eyes -- ten to fifteen pounds extra muscle, a couple inches taller, better posture, broader shoulders, plus the ability to grow some facial hair; went from about a 4 to a solid 7.

Lessons learned -- What to take away from this: Being an introvert is not a setback. We're not all the carefree fratboy legend who says whatever's on his mind and always has a bitch on his arm. Being naturally more reserved can make people place value in your words. Being shy and easily embarrassed is a choice, like being fat -- you're choosing not to work on something that can be overcome.

EDIT: People are spot on here saying that introversion is about where you get energy from. The phrase "learn to be extroverted" doesn't make any sense. You can be a great, charismatic conversationalist that won't change the fact that you'll need to "recharge" now and then. Also went through and corrected some shit, wrote this at 11pm.