Jamie Kern Lima sold her company to L'Oréal for a billion dollars and mentioned it casually at a retreat while others loudly bragged about email lists. Ramit Sethi argues that quiet confidence beats noise, and the most impressive people don't need to shout about what they've done.
I was at an author retreat a few years ago and everyone was going around the table introducing themselves and it became a bit of a male show-off contest. I was observing it like this, like, oh my God. There was a young woman at the end of the table who introduced herself and she said something like, "I'm here, I'm starting to work on a new book and I recently sold a company," and she just moved on. To her friend's credit, right next to her, her friend said, "No, no, no, no, no, go back. Tell them who you sold the company to and tell them for how much." This woman had sold her company for something like a billion to a major conglomerate like L'Oréal. And she just said it very calmly. The entire room went silent. And I thought, this is one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. Everyone is bragging about how many people they have on their email list. And here we have an entrepreneur that went on QVC for years. Her name is Jamie Kern Lima. You may have seen her around. She's awesome. And she just quietly lays down the law for how successful she was. And I just saw her again and I told her, Jamie, do you remember how you introduced yourself a few years ago? She said, no, I don't remember. And I recounted this story to her. When you're in these rooms where people start bragging and bragging, sometimes the most impressive people of all are the ones who actually are not bragging, but they are quietly successful. They know what they have accomplished.
