Susan Cain: belief

Transcript context

…Speaking of that, it reminds me of, I don't know if this was in your book or a different book, there's some data that shows salespeople that are more introverted are actually more successful. Does that ring a bell? I think that the most recent study I've seen shows the most successful salespeople are ambiverts, because they're extroverted enough to close the deal, they're introverted enough to do the listening that good salesmanship usually requires. But having said that, you could be successful any which way. And in Quiet, my book, I profiled a guy who was like, I don't remember the exact detail, but something like the leading salesperson of the year of Cutco Knives, and he talked about how he would just go and do these deep listening sessions with his customers and really figure out what they needed, and they trusted him because he was authentically, curiously listening to them. So yeah, which is to say there's, whatever strength you have, you figure out how to maximize it. That resonates with product work. A lot of people, a lot of the part of the job of a product leader is to figure out what to build, and a lot of that is talking to users, research and things like that, and actually listening. And so it's interesting how similar that sales anecdote is to being a great product person. Something that this brings up for me is the importance of saying no to things as an introvert that are not things that bring you energy, and will distract you from this sort of thing. And I know Tim Ferriss is writing this new book called The Notebook. I was listening to your interview with him, that's why I had his in my mind. But I guess, is there anything you've learned about just, or any tactics you've learned about saying no to things that one will de-energize you and two, just allow you to go deep on stuff that you want to go deep on?…

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