Social Intelligence
The New Science of Human Relationships
Chapter One
The Emotional Economy
One day, late for a meeting in midtown Manhattan, I was looking for a shortcut.
So I walked into an indoor atrium on the ground floor of a skyscraper, planning
to use an exit door I had spotted on the other side that would give me a faster
route through the block.
But as soon as I reached the building's lobby, with its banks of elevators, a
uniformed guard stormed over to me, waving his arms and yelling, "You can't walk
through here!"
"Why not?" I asked, puzzled.
"Private property! It's private property!" he shouted, visibly agitated.
I seemed to have inadvertently intruded into an unmarked security zone. "It
would help," I suggested in a shaky attempt to infuse a bit of reasoning, "if
there were a sign on the door saying 'Do Not Enter.'"
My remark made him even angrier. "Get out! Get out!" he screamed.
Unsettled, I hastily beat my retreat, his anger reverberating in my own gut for
the next several blocks.
When someone dumps their toxic feelings on us-explodes in anger or th ... read full excerpt from: Social Intelligence ebook
