Quiet...

“So stay true to your own nature. If you like to do things in a slow and steady way, don't let others make you feel as if you have to race. If you enjoy depth, don't force yourself to seek breadth. If you prefer single-tasking to multi-tasking, stick to your guns. Being relatively unmoved by rewards gives you the incalculable power to go your own way.”

        ---- Susan Cain

That quote is taken from Susan Cain's book, "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking."

We live in a world where everyone is interested in talking, but nobody wants to listen. The art of careful reflection is now looked upon as inactivity. The art of careful reflection is seen as an inability to be decisive. An inability to lead and make decisions. As though being quiet isn't a sign that work is being done.

The world of the aggressive, take charge, take no prisoners, lead by intimidation leader has already come to an end. Because the aggressive, take-charge leader of the past was a very different leader than that one of today.

And the wool can no longer be pulled over our eyes.

And it's showing glaringly in the problems we're seeing at the top of the food chain. Unlike the leader of the past, forged from the fires of trial-and-error, having lived and built. Today's fire and brimstone leader is made in the hallways of university. Where the knowledge of "how to lead" is being taught. Today's leader has actually never built anything. They've found something. And they've been placed near the top, to lead it. To bring ideas, mostly having never thought of anything original themselves.

Think of Alexander the Great.

He was skilled. He didn't have followers who knew more than he did. He was a skilled teacher. A skilled leader.

Or Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi?

Or Winston Churchill.

Or Bill Gates.

And I could go on.