“Excellence is a habit”

Apparently that is something Aristotle said. If we are what we repeatedly do, then you are not “excellent” once, by chance, but by training, diligence, muscle memory, and habit. Anders Ericsson talked about “deliberate practice” as a way to really get good at something over time. Malcolm Gladwell popularized it as the “10,000 hour” rule. Cal Newport argues that skills and proficiency create passion, not the other way around.  Good review for his book So Good They Cannot Ignore You here.

If I were to draw it out. Here is my generalization of consultants, lawyers, bankers, and the lowly analyst.  Consultants are PowerPoint.

Lots of reasons for this, and it is a craft.  90%+ of PowerPoints are dreadful: lacking in content, illogical, poorly crafted, not visual, not persuasive, and frankly, boring.  Executives are trained to think about the WHY, and the WHAT.  As a result, PowerPoints need to get to the point, and support all arguments well. Yes, Powerpoints are over-used, but that does not diminish the need for good ones.

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