What I have learned from and liked about Susan Cain’s Quiet – The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, a highly rewarding read:

~ It is fine to just be, you don’t have to act all the time.
~ Being an introvert does not make public speaking an easy experience.
~ “…how did we go from Character to Personality without realizing that we had sacrificed something meaningful along the way?”
~ Substance and thought are much more important than presentation.
~ Solitude and creativity are happy bedfellows.
~ Open-plan offices and brainstorming are not as great as some make them out to be.
~ Patience and persistence are underrated.
~ “We fail to realize that participating in an online working group is a form of solitude all of its own.”
~ Sensitivity to novelty can tell you a lot about yourself.
~ We are becoming less empathetic – some suggest that “social media, reality TV, and ‘hyper-competitiveness'” might be responsible.
~ Without sensitive people “we will, quite literally, drown”.
~ “The trick for introverts is to honor their own styles instead of allowing themselves to be swept up by prevailing norms.”
~ Conviction and caring might be more powerful than dynamism and charisma.
~ Acting out of character can pay off, if done for the right reasons.
~ Ask yourself what was important to you when you were a child, what kind of activities do you perform with a passion, what do you envy, and you might recognise the right reasons for you.
~ Good ideas don’t always come in eloquent packages.