I’ve been thinking an awful lot lately about what I do, how I define and package myself as a product. I’ve never found it easy to articulate exactly what I do. I’ve had a lot of job titles in my time.
This is taken from a presentation I used to give students back in the days when you stood up in front of a full class. But as most of you know the job title doesn’t always tell you the full story.
So why did I post the beginning of “The Prestige” at the top of this? I’m not calling myself a magician but what I seem to do baffles a few people. Let’s examine the text:
“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".
I’ve always thought business development was just about building relationships. Listening to what a client wants and then delivering on it. Turns out the delivery part is hard isn’t it?
“Never show anyone. They’ll beg and they’ll flatter you for the secret, but as soon as you give it up, you’ll be nothing to them. The secret impresses no-one. The trick you use it for is everything”
