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I've never given a speech without being terrified first.

Susan Cain

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Susan Cain
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: March 20
Lawyer
Non-Fiction Writer
Writer
Never
Terrified
Speech
Given
Firsts
Without
First

More quotes by Susan Cain

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The pressure to entertain, to sell ourselves, and never to be visibly anxious keeps ratcheting up.
Susan Cain
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Shyness is inherently uncomfortable introversion is not. The traits do overlap, though psychologists debate to what degree.
Susan Cain
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I'm insatiably curious about human nature. I feel very lucky that as a writer I get to learn so much about it just to do my job right.
Susan Cain
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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.
Susan Cain
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...if you can think of meetings you've attended, you can probably recall a time - plenty of times - when the opinion of the most dynamic or talkative person prevailed to the detriment of all.
Susan Cain
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Scores of studies have shown that venting doesn't soothe anger it fuels it.
Susan Cain
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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.
Susan Cain
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We know from myths and fairy tales that there are many different kinds of powers in this world. One child is given a light saber, another a wizard's education. The trick is not to amass all the different kinds of power, but to use well the kind you've been granted.
Susan Cain
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Love is essential, gregariousness is optional.
Susan Cain
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It's not that there is no small talk...It's that it comes not at the beginning of conversations but at the end...Sensitive people...'enjoy small talk only after they've gone deep' says Strickland. 'When sensitive people are in environments that nurture their authenticity, they laugh and chitchat just as much as anyone else.
Susan Cain
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...remember the dangers of the New Groupthink. If it's creativity you're after, ask your employees to solve problems alone before sharing their ideas. If you want the wisdom of the crowd, gather it electronically, or in writing, and make sure people can't see each other's ideas until everyone has had a chance to contribute.
Susan Cain
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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.
Susan Cain
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It's never a good idea to organize society in a way that depletes the energy of half the population.
Susan Cain
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Figure out what you are meant to contribute to the world and make sure you contribute it
Susan Cain
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I've wanted to be a writer since I was four years old!
Susan Cain
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(Finland is a famously introverted nation. Finnish joke: How can you tell if a Finn likes you? He's staring at your shoes instead of his own.)
Susan Cain
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What if you love knowledge for its own sake, not necessarily as a blueprint to action? What if you wish there were more, not fewer reflective types in the world?
Susan Cain
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Introverts are offered keys to private gardens full of riches. To possess such a key is to tumble like Alice down her rabbit hole. She didn't choose to go to Wonderland - but she made of it an adventure that was fresh and fantastic and very much her own.
Susan Cain
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...true self-esteem comes from competence, not the other way around.
Susan Cain
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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.
Susan Cain