quiet-the-power-of-introverts-in-a-world-that-cant-stop-talking-susan-cain

somebody says, ‘I’m bored. Why don’t
we go to Abilene?’ When they get to
Abilene, somebody says, ‘You know, I
didn’t really want to go.’ And the next
person says, ‘I didn’t want to go—I
thought you wanted to go,’ and so on.
Whenever you’re in an army group and
somebody says, ‘I think we’re all getting
on the bus to Abilene here,’ that is
a red flag. You can stop a conversation
with it. It is a very powerful artifact of
our culture.”
The “Bus to Abilene” anecdote reveals
our tendency to follow those who
initiate action—any action. We are similarly
inclined to empower dynamic
speakers. One highly successful venture
capitalist who is regularly pitched by
young entrepreneurs told me how frustrated
he is by his colleagues’ failure to
distinguish between good presentation
skills and true leadership ability. “I
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