May 15, 2007
As part of the preliminaries he posed a question to his readers:
So, while we are still getting the sets and costumes ready, let me issue another small challenge. Think about, when you can, something very simple and yet very deep -- and that is this: What are you good at? That's not necessarily even what you get paid for.
What are you good at? Can you teach it?
Think it over.A seemingly simple question that I found remarkably difficult to answer.
It's not that I'm not good at what I do, it's that it's difficult to boil it down to its essence in a way that is relevant beyond the "job."
Starting at the top, I am a designer. My particular specialty is graphic design for print. It encompasses advertising, sales materials, trade shows, and even the coupons in the Sunday paper insert. I create the graphics, I build the layouts, I write the copy.
I could probably teach some of that to almost anyone but the that is not really what I do. Those things are are really the how.
The what is some ways much more complicated and much more simple. The simple one word answer is teaching.
The more complex explanation is that I distill a message down to it's core. This could be as mundane as the value proposition of a given product or as sweeping as defending our Constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech.
The next step is to identify and understand exactly who it is who has to understand the message. And beyond that to understand how to present that message in way that the target will receive it willingly. If I do this well, I can teach them something about a product or an idea.
Understanding and effectively presenting the core of an idea. Teaching. That is what I do well.
Can I teach it?
I think I can. If you made it to the end of this post with an understanding of what it is that I do, I'm off to a good start.
Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 12:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Powered by Minx 1.1.4-pink.
