What's Stopping You?: Why Smart People Don't Always Reach Their Potential, and How You Can

Understand Their Weaknesses

If you recognize the difficulties others face you can immediately develop sympathy for them, which – if you are freer than them of such pressures – liberates your responses. You have also garnered your most important piece of intelligence about this person: their weakness. Sun Tzu would be proud, although he would also implore you to act in your long-term interest, which may not involve an instant full-frontal attack.

But what if you are convinced your tormentor has no pre­ssures – that he or she leads a gilded existence? Then you simply haven’t looked hard enough, largely because your RAS has been incorrectly tuned. Obsessed by their impact on you, you haven’t noticed the manipulator as a person – trying to achieve ...