Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage

Self-awareness, in fact, is made up of two components: internal self-awareness and external self-awareness.

(1) power and status differences, and (2) cooperative or competitive interdependence.

Your success is rarely dictated by one single outcome

We see one path that worked for someone else, and then try to replicate that, forgetting that there are infinite ways to get from point A to point B. And there are lots of point B’s.

Cooperative interdependence and competitive interdependence refer to assessments of whether the other person is someone you expect to cooperate with or compete with. This determination also colors the dynamic.

The high-concept pitch is really something that allows you to distill your point into three or four well-placed, poignant words. It delivers all the information your target audience will initially need, in a quick “shock.”

you’re likely to get some dialogue going from a two-sentence pitch. You’re likely to get some questions. That is the point. That is how you move from delight and start to enrich. What you should be doing during the two-sentence pitch is positioning yourself in such a way that it piques some interest in your counterpart and you elicit the types of q

the most successful people perceive their personalities and skills as fluid and are able to represent themselves differently and adaptively.

In cultivating a mind-set for reflective improvisation,