How to be a Presentation God: Build, Design, and Deliver Presentations that Dominate!

3.1. EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS

We've changed our expectations. We know what we've got to lose. We've mourned the old days, when our clients did business with us because they knew our old Aunt Ethel. Now Aunt Ethel can only get us a horse in the race, with no guarantee that we'll win. It's time to expand our horizons, to let go of locality and think bigger. Small-town business is great, but when small-town values become a comfort zone that smothers dreams and creativity, we need to branch out. The Presentation Revolution isn't about slick psychological manipulation; it's about improvement, each and every day, so that the best ideas, the best values, and the best people achieve success.

If we're going to expand our horizons, we have to lighten up. Not too long ago, people woke up to a day of hard labor, scratching the dirt, breaking the stones, surviving against all odds. This was accurately called work.

Nowadays, we make delicate keyboard strokes on ergonomically curved keys. We move a mouse a little to the left, a smidge up, and gently click. At times, we rise and walk to the bathroom. What we type, what we click, what decisions we make . . . are the things we get paid for now.

I'm not belittling what we do for a living. However, we need to recognize that we live in an "idea economy," one in which we get paid for our thoughts. Robots do a growing amount of mindless tasks on our behalf everyday. We cannot outmuscle them; we can only be paid for what they cannot do. We must stop referring ...