Greene states people tend to see themselves as great, often leading to an over-inflated ego. He tells the reader to look for signs of grandiosity in other people and themselves, using Michael Eisner as an example of a grandiose figure. In the early 1980s, Michael Eisner had a promising career as the president of Paramount Pictures. He then got the chance to become the CEO of Walt Disney Company and saw an opportunity to turn it into a great company once again. With Frank Wells’s help, he oversaw a string of successful movie releases, and Disney’s animation studio underwent a famed renaissance in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

However, Eisner began making decisions that went against the advice of Wells and others. Greene points out his error of placing the European Disney Park in Paris instead of Barcelona without researching French culture, leading to an underwhelming opening in 1992. He also got rid of Wells and fired Jeffrey Katzenberg at his height, following his work on The Lion King in 1994. His cruel treatment of Wells’s replacement Michael Ovitz, the failure of the Disney website Go, and Katzenberg’s lawsuit against Disney, among other things, would eventually cause Eisner to resign in 2005. Greene states that Eisner let his success at ABC, Paramount, and his early years at Disney go to his head and made himself believe that he had succeeded all on his own, not considering the help he had from others.

Greene argues that grandiosity is becoming more of a problem due to more people being spoiled as children, social media feeding people’s egos and narcissism, and people believing themselves to be better than authority figures and experts. Grandiosity can lead people to become powerful and influential leaders, and they use myths such as destined grandeur, a false tie with the common person, promises to save people from their problems, illusion of success, and disregard for the common rules. Greene encourages the reader to avoid grandiosity by examining themselves, focusing on their goals diligently, remaining aware of their flaws and limits, challenging themselves continuously, and having a healthy level of confidence.

Greene says that men and women are both conditioned to value one gender aspect of themselves over the other but tells the reader to connect with the other gender aspect—feminine or masculine—to gain more nuance and realize their full potential. He tells the story of Caterina Sforza, an Italian noblewoman who was taught by her father to fight and ride horses; he also introduced her to the arts. Years after she married Girolamo Riaro to form an alliance, her father was murdered. Seeing her husband’s weakness, Caterina chose to confront her family’s and husband’s enemies herself. 

Her determination and resilience, even though she was pregnant at the time, amazed people. After her palace in Rome was attacked and her husband was killed, she challenged the attackers and was able to stall them until an army from Milan rescued her and her children. She fell in love with Giacomo Feo, who was assassinated, then married Giovanni de’ Medici before he, too, died. When Cesare Borgia attacked her palace, Caterina tried to charm him, which almost worked but ultimately, her forces were overpowered. Borgia raped and tortured Caterina. The French captain Yves d’Allegre freed her, and she lived the rest of her life privately in Florence before dying in 1509. Greene argues that due to her father’s upbringing, Caterina was able to blend the beauty, grace, and fashion of her feminine side with the bravery, swordsmanship, and resilience of her masculine side, making her a well-balanced woman for her time.

Humans are born with both masculine and feminine traits, but social conditioning usually causes people to repress one side of themselves. Women are expected to be kind, docile, and dependent, while men are expected to be tough, unemotional, and aggressive. Greene uses Carl Jung’s concept of the Anima as a man’s feminine side and the Animus as a woman’s masculine side. He then explores the different projections men and women tend to have of the opposite sex. Women, he argues, tend to have projections such as “The Devilish Romantic,” “The Lovable Rebel,” and “The Superior Man,” while men tend to have projections such as “The Elusive Woman of Perfection,” “The Fallen Woman,” and “The Woman to Worship Him” (341-47). These projections tend to arise from the parenting styles of the other-sex parent. Greene says that many believed that people were born male and female but then split in half. He then tells the reader to blend the masculine style of quick-thinking and aggressive energy with the feminine style of empathy, careful planning, and nonviolent conflict resolution to help them reach their potential.