Ranjay Gulati

She said, absolutely, I was scared.

But just because you're scared doesn't mean you do nothing.

And that kind of stuck in my head.

I was at one level ashamed of myself, but I was also kind of in awe of my mother.

I hid that story.

Honestly, I never told anybody that story till I wrote this book because I was a little ashamed of my own self in this context.

So you know, Dan, the first essay I could find on courage was written by Aristotle, who was describing the ideal soldier.

Way back then, he made a distinction between courageous and reckless.

In fact, he had cowardice at one extreme, reckless at the other extreme, and courage was in the middle.

It was intentional, thoughtful action.

Now, there's a bit about Monday morning quarterbacking here, because if the action works out, then it was courageous.

If it didn't work out, then you say reckless.

So I grant you that.

But in her mind, she realized, she said...

If I hadn't gone to him right away, what was his next move?

His next move was to take the gun out.

And she said the next move was not to point it at her because he needed her signature.

He was going to point it at me.

And she said, then I knew I had to sign the document.

So she said, I had a very narrow window.