ELEVEN. CH. 14: WHAT’S IN A WORD

There’s a line most people never cross. A line between brilliant—talented, competent, impressive—and something harder to name.
&nbsp;The place where impact feels disproportionate to credentials. Where presence bends rooms, ideas, and outcomes. Where you can’t quite explain it, but you feel it.
This book is about that jump.
The force of an eleven, beyond anything the scale was built to measure.
We’re trained to chase strengths, traits, types. But the real differentiator isn’t personality. It isn’t skill. It isn’t even intelligence.
It’s intensity.
How your core traits behave under pressure, in ambiguity, in crucibles where clarity disappears, certainty becomes a liability, and experience no longer guarantees advantage.
When pressure strips away the traits that work eighty percent of the time, the question isn’t: How strong am I? 
It’s: Which strengths activate—and at what intensity—when the stakes skew, when the rules break, when nothing is linear anymore?
Drawing on a decade-long study—21,000 hours, 8,000 surveys, 600 teams, 200 interviews—Smith and Marcum map the human elements that outperform expertise, outlast turbulence, and remake possibility when everyone else is still defending the model.
&nbsp;Not the powers we admire on posters.
The powers that hold their shape under emotional, social, and creative load.
&nbsp;You can train skill. You can rehearse a script. But under real pressure, you don’t rise to the moment. You default to your core.
This book shows you how to build a core powerful enough to hold, and a force strong enough to fix, break or make what comes next.

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There’s a line most people never cross. A line between brilliant—talented, competent, impressive—and something harder to name.  The place where impact feels disproportionate to credentials. Where presence bends rooms, ideas, and outcomes. Where you can’t quite explain it, but you feel it. This book is about that jump. The force of an eleven, beyond anything the scale was built to measure. We’re trained to chase strengths, traits, types. But the real differentiator isn’t personality. It isn’t skill. It isn’t even intelligence. It’s intensity. How your core traits behave under pressure, in ambiguity, in crucibles where clarity disappears, certainty becomes a liability, and experience no longer guarantees advantage. When pressure strips away the traits that work eighty percent of the time, the question isn’t: How strong am I? It’s: Which strengths activate—and at what intensity—when the stakes skew, when the rules break, when nothing is linear anymore? Drawing on a decade-long study—21,000 hours, 8,000 surveys, 600 teams, 200 interviews—Smith and Marcum map the human elements that outperform expertise, outlast turbulence, and remake possibility when everyone else is still defending the model.  Not the powers we admire on posters. The powers that hold their shape under emotional, social, and creative load.  You can train skill. You can rehearse a script. But under real pressure, you don’t rise to the moment. You default to your core. This book shows you how to build a core powerful enough to hold, and a force strong enough to fix, break or make what comes next.

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ELEVEN. CH. 14: WHAT’S IN A WORD

ELEVEN. CH. 14: WHAT’S IN A WORD