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

and he told me how shy he’d been
when he first came to the United
States—how he put himself in situations,
like summer camp and business
school, where he could practice acting
extroverted until it came more naturally.
These days he has a successful
consulting practice, with clients that include
Yahoo!, Visa, and Microsoft,
teaching some of the same skills he
labored to acquire himself.
But when we began talking about
Asian concepts of “soft power”—what
Ni calls leadership “by water rather
than by fire”—I started to see a side of
him that was less impressed by Western
styles of communication. “In Asian cultures,”
Ni said, “there’s often a subtle
way to get what you want. It’s not always
aggressive, but it can be very determined
and very skillful. In the end,
much is achieved because of it.
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