CHAPTER FOUR

Invest Wisely

PROFESSORS SOMETIMES ADVISE graduating students to put some money in the bank and treat it as a “go to hell” account. These funds can help them quit their jobs on very short notice if they are pressured to do something illegal or unethical. This advice sounds clever and practical. But is it good advice for people who see a problem and want to do something about it?

At first, the answer seems to be no. Quitting and telling the boss where to go can be quite satisfying, but it rarely changes anything. Douglas Coupland, the author of Generation X, describes this approach as an “emotional ketchup burst . . . [a] bottling up of opinions and emotions inside oneself so that they explosively burst forth all at once, shocking ...

Get Leading Quietly now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.