We don't need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run.

There is no one more courageous than the person who speaks with the courage of his convictions.

Indeed, your biggest challenge may be to fully harness your strengths. You may be so busy trying to appear like a zestful, reward-sensitive extrovert that you undervalue your own talents, or feel underestimated by those around you. But when you’re focused on a project that you care about, you probably find that your energy is boundless.

Should we become so proficient at self-presentation that we can dissemble without anyone suspecting?

We don’t ask why God chose as his prophet a stutterer with a public speaking phobia. But we should. The book of Exodus is short on explication, but its stories suggest that introversion plays yin to the yang of extroversion; that the medium is not always the message; and that people followed Moses because his words were thoughtful, not because he spoke them well.

Solitude matters. And for some people it's the air they breathe.

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.