little about your work, tease and titillate with alluring, even contradictory comments, then stand back and let others try to make sense of it all. - Robert Greene

Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.

do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?

In our culture we tend to equate thinking and intellectual powers with success and achievement. In many ways, however, it is an emotional quality that separates those who master a field from the many who simply work at a job. Our levels of desire, patience, persistence, and confidence end up playing a much larger role in success than sheer reasoning powers. Feeling motivated and energized, we can overcome almost anything. Feeling bored and restless, our minds shut off and we become increasingly passive.