| f you picked up this book in the hopes that it might explain how to get ahead in life by intimidating others, I'm afraid you've made a bad choice. If that's your aim, you might find The Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf, or Mao Tse-Tung on Guerrilla Warfarc more to your liking. As you will see on the following pages, To Be or Not to Be Intimidated! is a guide to defending yourself against intimidating people.
Be forewarned: More often than not, those who feign indignation over the mere mention of the word intimidatron are the very people who are most likely to use it against you. So, make no mistake about it, what I have to say in this book irritates a lot of people-especially self-righteous, self-anointed saints who are masters at intimidating others. They would prefer that most people not understand that intimidation is a common thread thatruns through every business situation and a crucial factor that decides the outcome of many of life's most important events.
At the top of the list of master intimidators disguised as (selfanointed) saints are chest-pounding critics, syndicated columnists, and TV commentators, ever on the alert for an opportunity to seize the moral high ground. Rest assured that authors, filmmakers, and public figures in general ftnd it a distracting but significant challenge to fend off their intimidating mischaracterizations and misleading comments.
What is a tortoise to do about such a relentless onslaught of distortion and truth-twisting, of having to listen to "the truth you've spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools?" Ayn Rand offered perhaps the most rational solution for dealing with slanderers when she said, "Freedom comes from seeing the ignorance of your critics and discovering the emptiness of their virtue." Thankfully, I long ago adopted her advice, and highly recommend that you do the same with regard to those who would try to misrepresent either your words or actions. |
