Whether the problem is debt, infidelity, indiscretion, or merely an embarrassing email sent to the wrong reader, we have all found ourselves in bad situations of our own making. And whether that puts you in a delicate position or a full-blown crisis, it can sometimes feel as if there is no way out. Enter Judy Smith. America's number one crisis management expert, Judy Smith is on speed dial for some of the highest-profile celebrities, politicians, and corporations in the world. But though her business is helping her clients recover from widely publicized personal and professional setbacks, her expertise is applicable to us all. In "Good Self, Bad Self, "Smith shares her methods, gleaned from years of professional experience, for smoothing over a bad situation while providing the tools to prevent similar incidents from ever happening again.

The way to get through a personal or professional rough spot is by understanding the traits that can lead to our wildest successes and most painful failures. Smith has learned to identify high-risk situations that often lead to marital, financial, professional, or personal imprudence; her ability to anticipate potential personal disasters has allowed her to coach people prior to, as well as in the wake of, crisis.

She has identified seven traits that are often found at the root of a crisis. These traits can be positive and extremely useful but can cause problems when they fall out of balance. Drawing on more than twenty years of professional experience, Smith explains how to prevent these characteristics from interfering with your life. They are:

- Ego

- Denial

- Fear

- Ambition

- Accommodation

- Patience

- Indulgence

Smith uses examples from high-profile cases to illustrate how celebrities, businesses, and individuals have become victims of their own bad behavior when they let one of these traits fall out of balance. Exploring the underlying factors of some very public and often unpleasant scandals, Smith shows how different situations could have been prevented by recalibrating one (or more) of those seven vital characteristics. As she shares her method of repairing the damage that these situations can cause, Smith also explains what we can all be doing in our own lives to prevent a crisis from getting started. Nobody's perfect, and the same character traits that bring us success can lead to our downfall. It is the way each of us deals with personal character flaws that dictates whether we're going to succeed or fail. In "Good Self, Bad Self, "Judy Smith distills years of experience to share the tools we all need to face our mistakes and ultimately overcome them.