Catalyst Atlanta Speaker Spotlight // Susan Cain

We are so excited about Catalyst Atlanta 2012. If you haven't entered for a chance to win new kicks or a dream vacation do so NOW! You also get 35+ songs as a FREE download gift from us & a few of our favorite musical artist friends.

Continuing through to October we will be featuring a different speaker answering some questions about the MAKING of a leader. We are really pumped for YOU to get to know these leaders on a deeper level & have them answer some tough [and some fun] questions about leadership. We had such a great response from our speakers we are excited to be able to share two speaker spotlights with you each week, on Tuesday & Thursday.

New York Times bestselling Author, QUIET: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can't Stop Talking. Susan Cain is the author of the New York Times bestseller QUIET: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can't Stop Talking. Her writing on introversion and shyness has appeared in the The New York Times; The Dallas Morning News; O, The Oprah Magazine; Time.com; and on PsychologyToday.com, and she recently spoke at TED2012, Microsoft, Google, and the U.S Treasury. She has appeared on CBS "This Morning," as well as NPR. A former Wall Street lawyer, she has taught negotiation and communication skills at law firms, universities, and corporations, including Merrill Lynch, Shearman & Sterling, and the University of Chicago. She is an honors graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School. Susan lives in the Hudson River Valley with her husband and two sons.

1. Who is someone that inspires you today to be a better leader?
Gandhi said: "In a gentle way, you can shake the world." I've adopted that as my own credo.

2. As you look at the process for yourself of how you've been made into the leader you are now, what stands out?
We make too much of "natural" leadership qualities. Some people do seem to be born with the effortless abiltiy to inspire. But for most of us, leadership means embracing a worthy cause or idea. If the idea is worthy and your conviction is deep, people will follow -- even if you're not the tallest, loudest, or most charismatic person in the room.

3. Do you have a nickname? how did you get it?
My husband calls me Susita. Also, "Bichuch" - the name of the shtetl (small town) where my beloved grandfather grew up in Eastern Europe, before he moved to the U.S. as a young man to become a Rabbi.

4. What did you want to be when you grew up?
I've wanted to be a writer since I was four. Then, when I graduated from Princeton, I decided it was time to put away the dreams of youth - and I went to law school. I enjoyed being a lawyer very much, but in my Wall Street law firm, I always felt like a stranger in a strange land. At age 33, I finally returned to the writing life. And I will never leave.

5. If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would you choose?
I'm going to answer this question in an unusual way. The answer is: My husband and sons -- the same people I am already lucky to dine with every night. I know this question is meant to draw out the names of the famous people who inspire me. For me, the natural thing would be to name writers or musicians whose work expresses on the deepest possible level what it means to be human: for example, the musician Leonard Cohen, or the mythologist Joseph Campbell. But I have little need to meet these people in real life. I think that artists and writers express their truths through a particular medium for a reason. The medium itself is sacred. And it's enough.