Contrary to what many believe, the problem with mid-wits isn't their intellect. They're smart enough to succeed in any career or business.

They lack two important traits:
1. The ability to source and parse good information from bad
2. The willingness to go against the grain

The primary challenges of the Information Age are sourcing useful information and determining the validity and utility of that information.

If your information inputs are poor and you never realize it, it's all garbage in, garbage out.

Generally, if you find almost all media, entertainment, and pop culture to be uninteresting and/or annoying, you're headed in the right direction.

Also, stop following the news while we're on the subject. It's not useful and it doesn't matter.

What really stands out to me with regard to media lately is how loud and in your face everything is. It seems like everyone is mainlining caffeine.

Never forget you can control the volume and pace of many things, especially negotiation.

One of my favorite things to do on client calls is to slow things way down. Often you'll get some jittery salesman or executive on the other end who wants to speedrun the entire negotiation. When you control the tempo, you control the orchestra.