In today's
encore selection -- from "What
Psychopaths Teach Us About How to Succeed" by Kevin
Dutton. We share some observations on the similarity
between successful people, such as surgeons or CEOs, and
psychopaths. In fact, one prominent venture capitalist states
that the three characteristics most predictive of success in
executives are determination, curiosity and insensitivity.
(Full disclosure -- I have been a CEO for much of my
career):
"Traits that
are common among psychopathic serial killers -- a grandiose
sense of self-worth, persuasiveness, superficial charm,
ruthlessness, lack of remorse and the manipulation of others
-- are also shared by politicians and world leaders.
Individuals, in other words, running not from the police. But
for office. Such a profile allows those who present with these
traits to do what they like when they like, completely unfazed
by the social, moral or legal consequences of their actions.
...
"If you are
violent and cunning, like the real-life 'Hannibal Lecter'
Robert Maudsley, you might take a fellow inmate hostage, smash
his skull in and sample his brains with a spoon as
nonchalantly as if you were downing a soft-boiled egg.
(Maudsley, by the way, has been cooped up in solitary
confinement for the past 30 years, in a bulletproof cage in
the basement of Wakefield Prison in England.)
Look for "MatchBook"
on the title's Kindle Amazon.com page. What is MatchBook? If
you've already got the PRINT edition, you can now get the
Kindle edition for $2.99!
"Or if you are
a brilliant neurosurgeon, ruthlessly cool and focused under
pressure, you might, like the man I'll call Dr. Geraghty, try
your luck on a completely different playing field: at the
remote outposts of 21st-century medicine, where risk blows in
on 100-mile-per-hour winds and the oxygen of deliberation is
thin. 'I have no compassion for those whom I operate on,' he
told me. 'That is a luxury I simply cannot afford. In the
theater I am reborn: as a cold, heartless machine, totally at
one with scalpel, drill and saw. When you're cutting loose and
cheating death high above the snowline of the brain, feelings
aren't fit for purpose. Emotion is entropy -- and seriously
bad for business. I've hunted it down to extinction over the
years.' ...
"Psychopaths
are fearless, confident, charismatic, ruthless and focused.
Yet, contrary to popular belief, they are not necessarily
violent. Far from its being an open-and-shut case -- you're
either a psychopath or you're not -- there are, instead, inner
and outer zones of the disorder: a bit like the fare zones on
a subway map. There is a spectrum of psychopathy along which
each of us has our place. ...
"[In a test
designated as Case 1, subjects were told they could save five
lives, but to do so they had to flip a switch that would kill
one person. In Case 2, they could also save five lives, but
they could only do so by pushing another person to his death.]
Just like most normal members of the population, psychopaths
make pretty short work of the dilemma presented in Case 1. Yet
-- and this is where the plot thickens -- quite unlike normal
people [who have difficulty with Case 2 because it is more
personal], they also make pretty short work of Case 2.
Psychopaths, without batting an eye, are perfectly happy to
[push that person to his death].
Kindle Books about
Narcissists, Psychopaths, and Abusive Relationships - click on
these links:
"To compound
matters further, this difference in behavior is mirrored,
rather distinctly, in the brain. The pattern of neural
activation in both psychopaths and normal people is well
matched on the presentation of impersonal moral dilemmas --
but dramatically diverges when things get a bit more
personal.
"Imagine that I
were to pop you into a functional MRI machine and then present
you with the two dilemmas. What would I observe as you went
about negotiating their moral minefields? Just around the time
that the nature of the dilemma crossed the border from
impersonal to personal, I would see your amygdala and related
brain circuits -- your medial orbitofrontal cortex, for
example -- light up like a pinball machine. I would witness
the moment, in other words, that emotion puts its money in the
slot. But in a psychopath, I would see only darkness. The
cavernous neural casino would be boarded up and derelict --
the crossing from impersonal to personal would pass without
any incident. ...
" 'Intellectual
ability on its own is just an elegant way of finishing
second,' one successful CEO told me. 'Remember, they don't
call it a greasy pole for nothing. The road to the top is
hard. But it's easier to climb if you lever yourself up on
others. Easier still if they think something's in it for
them.'
Abused?
Stalked? Harassed? Victimized? Afraid? Confused? Need HELP? DO
SOMETHING ABOUT IT! You OWE IT to yourself and to YOUR LOVED
ONES! Save $63!!! BUY SIXTEEN
e-books about toxic relationships with narcissists
and psychopaths - for the PRICE OF A SINGLE PRINT
BOOK! Click on
this link:
http://www.ccnow.com/cgi-local/cart.cgi?vaksam_SERIES
"Jon Moulton,
one of London's most successful venture capitalists, agrees.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times,
he lists determination, curiosity and insensitivity as his
three most valuable character traits. No prizes for guessing
the first two. But insensitivity? The great thing about
insensitivity, Moulton explains, is that 'it lets
you sleep when others can't.' "