Your Ultimate Success Plan

Chapter 8Assertive, Not Aggressive: Nobody Likes a Bitch

We despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life, but we despise no less the coward.

—Theodore Roosevelt¹

Mission Statement

You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

Let’s face it: Nobody likes a bully, and no matter how powerful one thinks he or she is, what goes around comes around. I am reminded of the infamous “Chainsaw Al” Dunlap, a “corporate decimator-for-hire” who was brought into one financially ailing company after another to “rescue” their operations, when all he really did was apply a fanatic focus on the companies’ numbers, sacrificing everything else. His slash-and-burn tactics when he ran the appliance giant Sunbeam ...