THE VIRUS
To most people who met him, Jamie Bender seemed like a decent enough guy. But he had a few major flaws. At the top of the list was an inability to deal with confrontation. His deep fear of failure and rejection had trailed him his entire career, and as he grew older, it seemed to be gaining ground.
But Jamie was brilliant in a variety of ways. He tested off the charts in standardized tests to get into B-school. More important, he had developed a control of his emotions and a personal charm that masked his insecurities, and he had learned to leverage these skills in every way possible. In other companies where he had worked, these were enough for him to get by, even succeed. After all, in the right environment, Jamie was extremely ...