this is premium writing, no?

for someone who works on presentations regularly, presentation zen is an awesome resource and inspiration.

you can only imagine how fantastic it was to see Benjamin Zander mentioned in pz’s latest entry. the art of possibility is one of the best motivational books i have read. Zander is a conductor and writes with the heart and soul of an artist; yet you don’t feel like its all airy-fairy, nor feel his ego seep through the pages.

i watched the video in the entry and i cried and i was at work. Zander was working with musicians and he was talking about performing and contribution. as quoted in the entry:

“This is the moment — this is the most important moment right now. Which is: We are about contribution. That’s what our job is. It’s not about impressing people. It’s not about getting the next job. It’s about contributing something.”

and if you go a bit further, you’ll hear:

“Because in contribution, there’s no better and that’s all.”

(what that means to me is that in whatever you do, don’t think about it as a performance which emphasizes improvement, but think of it as contribution, which emphasizes people)

he got me there.

that’s all.