I can't tell if your tone is sarcastic or not. I will assume it isn't. I understand that obtaining success professionally is much easier than social and male/female dynamics for those who are not naturally socially adept. My purpose for posting is in order to provide a perspective and perhaps some insight to how the dichotomy I refer to above is unsettling.
A real life example. I recently met a senior VP of a scientific company. PhD. He was a speaker at an industry conference on a technical topic. We got to chatting after and continued the conversation with a couple of other folks at a lounge. After a few drinks we exchanged business cards and the other two people excused themselves. As I was getting up to leave the venue he asked if he could stay in touch with me, said that he "liked" me...could we grab coffee some time. So far so good (maybe not by SS standards but...). I found him intelligent and charming and I said sure, that would be nice. Afterwards I didn't text him at all (assuming as I do that a man who is interested in a woman will take the initiative, a., and also b., that he is quite busy.) This guy kept in contact (probably too much contact) via text but we were both quite busy and he was about to leave on a business trip for a couple of weeks to Europe, so the conversation lagged for a number of days. But it was pleasant, get to know conversation of a sporadic nature. No red flags (to me) thus far.
Now to be fair, I was interested in him but I didn't know to what degree because his personality was quite reserved. He was smart, physically attractive (not gorgegous but nice looking), and I was interested in getting to know him better (because sometimes attraction grows). He was a person I esteemed to be worth my time to get to know better.
But as I said he had been out of touch several days ahead of his trip. I didn't bug him, I figured he was busy.
As he was on the phone at Kennedy in the plane waiting to taxi out for his trip a bizarre (to my mind) thing happened. He texted to say he was off to Europe and I responded wishing safe travel. So far the interaction had seemed very normal for between two people before a date (or a second meet, more accurately) had occurred. I figured he would be out of touch for two weeks and if he still wished to get together expected I'd hear back from him once he was back stateside. So I went off to do something and (EEK!) put my phone down or on the charger or God knows what.
Then a few minutes later he began blowing up my phone (as in a barrage of staccato messages, probably 12 or 15) saying: So you do like me? Are you interested? (I had gone somewhere for about 15 minutes without my phone) and then the messages morphed (since he assumed a. I was getting the texts, and b. that I was purposefully disregarding them) into: Are you there? Why aren't you responding? I expect rapid response! Are you interested? Are you there? Where are you? I will call you from Europe! Where are you!...and on and on.
When I saw all these messages on my phone I responded "I'm here". Nothing from him.
Presumably his plane had taken off by then. But my italicized statement in my post above was exactly what ran through my brain.
How is this VP this needy? Why does he appear this desperate? Doesn't he have people skills? How can he expect immediate response and then freak out - doesn't he realize other people have things to do? He manages people...he has somehow risen to a VP level and is doing public speaking...
He came off at first as very self assured and well rounded but in the end was insecure, needy, desperate, and yet a control freak. My guess would be an executive used to "Yes" people all around him asking How High! How High! whenever he said Jump!
Extremely unattractive in the end.
I was stunned and completely like NEXT!!!
I did send him a quick message and said something to the effect of I had stepped away from my phone but saw his messages. I also said that I can't always respond immediately because I have things going on in my own life and that perceived his expectation of immediate responsiveness was an indicator that I would not be able to meet his expectations, so I wished him a safe trip and asked that he not reach out again.
And he is not the only very successful man I have seen with these tendencies. (Altlhough never any others to this degree). If very successful men wants a woman but can't find one...there is always a reason.
Most people assume (as I did) that the very successful must have their act together in all aspects of life (social, etc.) but often they don't. This runs counter to what others expect (based on professional success or perceived high status), which creates additional difficulty for such men in the landscape. That has been at least my observation. These men end up isolated, or can.