(This is a snapshot of my old weblog. New posts and selected republished essays can be found at raganwald.com.)
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Passionate Communication
What do Steve Jobs and John Abele have in common?
Both founded enormously successful companies: Apple Computer (AAPL) and Boston Scientific (BSX). Actually, both co-founded successful companies. And both are enormously talented communicators. Steve is famous for his "reality distortion field."
I recently attended a breakfast meeting of the Toronto Venture Group where John was the featured speaker. His presentation was riveting. He spoke with passion about his years turning the surgical establishment on its head. To hear him speak, Boston Scientific was David to the establishment's Goliath. He spent decades criss-crossing the globe, relentlessly selling the world on his dream.
He showed us his own heart x-ray. He showed us the basement where Boston Scientific was founded (he called it their "garage"). He showed us a picture of the conference room where he and his partner slept when there were no rooms at the inn. He spoke about values, about management, about integrity, and mostly he spoke about how to share your dream with the world even when the establishment is trying to defend itself against your disruption.
Being passionate about creating new software is about creating new software. But it's also about sharing your dream with people. Even if you're already comfortable with writing, presenting, and selling, invest in yourself and learn even more about selling your dream.
Here are two places to start:
What do Steve Jobs and John Abele have in common?
Both founded enormously successful companies: Apple Computer (AAPL) and Boston Scientific (BSX). Actually, both co-founded successful companies. And both are enormously talented communicators. Steve is famous for his "reality distortion field."
I recently attended a breakfast meeting of the Toronto Venture Group where John was the featured speaker. His presentation was riveting. He spoke with passion about his years turning the surgical establishment on its head. To hear him speak, Boston Scientific was David to the establishment's Goliath. He spent decades criss-crossing the globe, relentlessly selling the world on his dream.
He showed us his own heart x-ray. He showed us the basement where Boston Scientific was founded (he called it their "garage"). He showed us a picture of the conference room where he and his partner slept when there were no rooms at the inn. He spoke about values, about management, about integrity, and mostly he spoke about how to share your dream with the world even when the establishment is trying to defend itself against your disruption.
Being passionate about creating new software is about creating new software. But it's also about sharing your dream with people. Even if you're already comfortable with writing, presenting, and selling, invest in yourself and learn even more about selling your dream.
Here are two places to start:
- Guy Kawasaki. Like many successful authors, he tends to re-write the same book with variations every time. But each new book has at least one revelation that has made me thankful I bought and read it. There's no better place to start than "The Macintosh Way."
- Cliff Atkinson's "Beyond Bullets." Cliff is a PowerPoint specialist. There are very good reasons to hate PowerPoint, but Cliff's unorthodox approach and tips gets to the heart of communication so you can inspire and lead. "Zen and the Art of PowerPoint" is especially provocative.
Labels: passion
