Introverts living under the Extroversion Ideal are like women in a man’s world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are.
The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting.
Persistence isn’t very glamorous. If genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, then as a culture we tend to lionize the one percent. We love its flash and dazzle. But great power lies in the other ninety-nine percent.
There are only a few people out there who can completely overcome their fears, and they all live in Tibet.
What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50 percent.
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was four years old!
One genuine new relationship is worth a fistful of business cards.
Introverts often work more slowly and deliberately. They like to focus on one task at a time and can have mighty powers of concentration. They’re relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame.
Figure out what you are meant to contribute to the world and make sure you contribute it.
Introverts need to trust their gut and share their ideas as powerfully as they can.
When you’re more focused in getting your message across than you are worrying about how people are viewing you, that’s huge.
Our culture is biased against quiet and reserved people, but introverts are responsible for some of humanity’s greatest achievements.
We put too much of a premium on presenting and not enough on substance and critical thinking.
All personality traits have their good side and their bad side. But for a long time, we’ve seen introversion only through its negative side and extroversion mostly through its positive side.
We’ve known about the transcendent power of solitude for centuries; it’s only recently that we’ve forgotten it.
Solitude is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement come from an oddly gregarious place.
Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we’ve turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.
If you enjoy depth, don’t force yourself to seek breadth. If you prefer single-tasking to multi-tasking, stick to your guns.
Most people who have grown up introverted in this very extroverted culture of ours have had painful experiences of feeling like they are out of step with what’s expected of them.
I worry that there are people who are put in positions of authority because they’re good talkers, but they don’t have good ideas.