Lessons Are Everywhere Excellence in presentation and public speaking is something virtually anyone can achieve with persistence. Yet, the art of dynamic presentation as a skill to be studied and acquired is given little attention in formal educational settings. Academic classes and seminars that explore the art of storytelling and creating structured narratives for the world outside of the arts—and designing high-impact visuals to amplify those narratives—largely do not exist. But that’s OK, because you can make vast improvements outside the world of formal education by taking it upon yourself to learn what is not taught in schools. Anyone who is successful in business and in life continues his or her education long after leaving school. The Japanese call lifelong learning shogai gakushu (生涯学習). The spirit of shogai gakushu is that personal growth and learning should continue until the day you die. There is no end to improvement. The idea of intrinsically motivated, persistent self-education has always been important. In the connected digital world of today, it has never been easier to gain access to resources and materials—many or which are very cheap or even free—from all over the world. There are no longer any excuses for torturing your audiences and coworkers with mind-numbing deathby-PowerPoint presentations or dull, dispassionate speeches because you don’t know another way. The examples of people who present differently and effectively and naked are everywhere. I point to many of them on my web site: www.presentationzen.com.
Chapter 7 Continuous Improvement Through Persistence
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