YOUR WINNING RECIPE is a way of being that you created as a child . It compensates for not your not being extroverted enough to succeed in the world. Today the recipe allows you to hide inside a socially acceptable way to be – cagey, energetic, independent, powerful, or serious. Or any of the thousands of other ways introverts act to be successful. For example, my recipe is to be methodical by building step by step procedures to cope with life.
In the last three posts we covered three different ways to avoid danger. Facing truth, becoming curious, and being here now can all make you safer by taking your focus off your recipe and putting it on the world around you. Here we will talk about a fourth approach – gaining insight into the deeper goings-on behind the reality that you perceive.
Being able to see behind the curtain is not a skill that your winning recipe wants you to master. All it wants is for you to be the way you decided to be when you were young, so that you could “make it” in the world. At an early age, about all you could do was to perceive externals. You may never have even thought to look beneath the surface of things.
For me, not being able to look beyond the obvious was serious. It almost landed me in a Panamanian jail.
How I Discovered The Insight Solution
AFTER A DEBACLE in Chile (please see Post #13) the Hawaii-based parent company of the small construction company where I worked sold the firm to the three of us who ran it. We moved our operation to the Republic of Panama where we started building earthquake-resistant houses for a government bank.
The Panama job was too small to sustain us so we took on another contract in Jamaica. I was the chief financial officer. Managing both projects quickly became such a nightmare that it brought my winning recipe out in full regalia. Just as my recipe wanted, I riveted my attention on a complex process – that of controlling the finances to keep us in business.
In so doing I failed to pay attention to the looming presence of Manuel Noriega. He was the murderous and corrupt power behind the Panamanian government. One night in an effort to extort $50,000 from us he sent two goons to pick up my passport. I now could not leave the country. His government accused us of fraud in our billings, when in fact it was they who were at fault for withholding a progress payment that we had legitimately earned.
We escaped from the grip of this drug-dealing gangster only by taking the extraordinary advice of our young attorney. He was the aristocratic son of a former president. His advice was to sue Noriega personally before the Supreme Court of Panama. Canal negotiations with the Carter administration in the U.S. were at a critical stage. After many tense weeks we did succeed in scaring Noriega off.
Once again my recipe had caused me to be oblivious to a grave danger. The solution would have been simply to look at things through a different lens. I could have stepped back from the situation to see how dangerous it was to be working in an autocracy ruled by a thug.
Unpacking the Insight Solution
In Panama I suffered from an extreme case of selective perception, seeing only the accounting ledgers right in front of me and thinking that they represented the whole situation.
Psychologists suggest that many things can cause such a narrow perception – your beliefs, past experiences, mood, gender, age, race and religion. But for me, an introvert, my winning recipe surpassed all of those. It had me executing a step by step process instead of looking beneath the surface.
Paradoxically, getting insight into underlying facts often requires not a microscope but a telescope, stepping back to get a wider view. I could have only done that by going outside of my recipe to assess the nature of the man who ran the swamp that my partners and I were in.
Jowly, pock-marked and ruthless, Noriega was a key information source for the CIA. He was making a fortune in drug trafficking, ran the gambling business in Panama, and despite his being largely hidden from public view, was the most important man in the government.
If earlier we had we looked at him through that lens we might never have moved to Panama. Even after we were there, we could well have used our attorney’s political connections to keep Noriega away. Through intermediaries he could have said, “Touch these gringos and I will sue you before the Supreme Court. They are not worth it. Go make your money elsewhere.” In the end that is exactly what he did. But he could have done it in advance if we had looked behind the scenes more closely.
How To See Beneath the Surface
1. Acknowledge that your perception is narrow. Recall your winning recipe (to identify it, please see Post #1) and describe how it is constricting your vision. This may be hard because you are probably so deeply inside the recipe that you think that it is all there is. It is the water you swim in, so the first step is to step back and remind yourself of how pervasive it is.
2. Inventory whatever you know about the externals of your situation. Talk to others and Google public information to get an outside-in view of whatever it is you are facing. In my case this would have involved recounting Noriega’s sordid history. It also would have recognized that in our attorney we had a powerful, well-connected ally who in terms of negative publicity could make it very costly for Noriega to mess with us.
3. Use the externals to project what is likely beneath the surface. The strengths and weaknesses you identify in step 2 above paint a picture of what might not be visible. Flesh it out by describing possible scenarios.
For example, we could have had the insight that Noriega would view us as an easy target. We could also have seen that the Canal negotiations and our attorney’s ability to send Noriega a back-channel message about how disruptive we could be might be an effective way to block him from acting.
Looking below the surface is never easy. But it can yield information if you use a different enough lens – a wider one than your winning recipe.
I Invite You To Gain Insight Today
- What did you discover when you looked below the surface? How did you use that knowledge? If you would like us to consider sharing your story anonymously with The Satisfied Introvert community please email it to me at thesatisfiedintrovert@gmail.com.
- How can I help you overcome selective vision? Please go to the Contact page and enter your name, email, and questions. I cannot answer everyone, but will do my best – especially if the answer could benefit others.
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Welcome to the satisfaction that comes from
seeing beneath the surface, and from your
new ability to avoid the danger
of being blindsided
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