Summary

The author begins this chapter with the story of Owen Thomas, a popular student of co-author Adam Grant. Owen, the author writes, was well-liked and successful, but committed suicide as a result of football-related brain injury. Adam, she also writes, blamed himself for not noticing Owen’s struggles, but found a way to open the door to helping any other students with emotional difficulties: offering his cell phone number at the start of each class, giving what the author describes as a “button” to push in case they experienced a need to reduce stress. The term “button,” the author adds, came from a scientific study that proved merely giving subjects a means to reduce stress helped them do so, even if they did not use it.

This, the author continues, is the principle behind what she calls “the...