The Gift of Introversion

2. Rosa Parks
Parks became one of the most historically important figures in 1955 after refusing to
give her seat up for a white man. In the introduction of her book Quiet: The Power Of
Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain states:
I had always imagined Rosa Parks as a stately woman with a bold temperament,
someone who could easily stand up to a busload of glowering passengers. But when she
died in 2005 at the age of 92, the flood of obituaries recalled her as soft-spoken, sweet,
and small in stature. They said she was ‘timid and shy’ but had ‘the courage of a lion.’
They were full of phrases like ‘radical humility’ and ‘quiet fortitude.’
3. Bill Gates
The founder of Microsoft, philanthropist, and world's richest person, was
once asked how to succeed in a predominantly extroverted world.
“Well, I think introverts can do quite well. If you're clever you can learn to get the benefits
of being an introvert, which might be, say, being willing to go off for a few days and think
about a tough problem, read everything you can, push yourself very hard to think out on
the edge of that area. Then, if you come up with something, if you want to hire people,
get them excited, build a company around that idea, you better learn what extroverts do,
you better hire some extroverts (like Steve Ballmer I would claim as an extrovert) and tap
into both sets of skills in order to have a company that thrives both in deep thinking and
building teams and going out into the world to sell those ideas.”
4. Steven Spielberg
Even one of the most successful, wealthiest, and influential personalities in Hollywood is
an introvert. Director and producer Steven Spielberg has admitted as much and says he
would prefer to spend time getting lost into movies.
5. Sir Isaac Newton
One of the most important figures in science, his Principia formulated the laws of motion
and universal gravitation. Isaac Newton was known to be "a deeply introverted
character and fiercely protective of his privacy."
6. Eleanor Roosevelt
Though she a shy and retiring individual, Eleanor Roosevelt "was a woman who gave
348 press conferences as First Lady, was a United Nations delegate, a human rights
activist, a teacher, and a lecturer who averaged 150 speaking engagements a year
throughout the 1950s."
7. Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told The New York Times in 2010 that Zuckerberg, the
founder and CEO of the social network site, "is shy and introverted and he often does
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