The Way of the Wall Street Warrior

CHAPTER 14Don't Walk Around Blind Without a Cane: Wake Up!

You've strutted like a peacock; delivered like a stork, not a pigeon; and quacked like a duck. Sounds like you could be the star in the Aviary Exhibit at the San Diego Zoo.

Not so fast. Chances are, with all your birdbrain activity, you haven't discovered your Achilles’ heel, your Kryptonite … your blind spots. Anyone who drives a car knows what I'm talking about. You're cruising down the street, looking for the nearest gas station before your bowels explode. Some slowpoke ahead of you is sticking to the speed limit, and you solve that problem by starting to turn into the left lane. Then, out of nowhere, a blast of a cacophonous horn, accompanied by a distant, “Learn how to drive, dipstick!” shoos you back to your lane.

That's the infamous automobile blind spot, but it's no different than when you swerve into the oncoming traffic of a big meeting that you aren't prepared for or when you think you're in the fast lane to promotion only to learn you were really on the offramp. Sometimes the blind spot is so powerful that it sabotages your career or chases away the love of your life. Usually they're difficult to locate; otherwise, they'd be called obvious spots.

The self-serving bias, the blind spot bias, and the self-enhancement bias all speak directly to this flaw. They can cause us to create fake news about ourselves, like we're better than we actually are, or smarter, more creative, and more just about anything. Ask ...