Curious Friday : How to become a Millionaire by following the principles of powerful and Effective Business Writing and more.
Episode 01 : These principles will make you the expert of business writing and your career will be sky-rocketed .
Today at a Glance :
One Quote : The Secret to Success by Bob Dylan.
One Article : How you can become a Millionaire by following the most effective principles of Business Writing.
One Tweet : Sahil , on how to find and Operate in your Zone of Genius -The most effective Twitter Thread .
One Quote :
“What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” ~ Bob Dylan.
This powerful and effective quote from Bob Dylan teaches us the real definition of being successful and Happy. We should do what makes us happy and what we love .
One Article :
Business writing is not a single day game . You need to stick to this game if you want to drive extraordinary outputs .
The principles of business writing are very underrated - You probably write on the job all the time: proposals to clients, memos to senior executives, a constant flow of emails to colleagues. But how can you ensure that your writing is as clear and effective as possible? How do you make your communications stand out?
Think before you write :
Before you put pen to paper or hands to keyboard, consider what you want to say. “The mistake that many people make is they start writing prematurely,” says Garner. “They work out the thoughts as they’re writing, which makes their writing less structured, meandering, and repetitive.” Ask yourself: What should my audience know or think after reading this email, proposal, or report? If the answer isn’t immediately clear, you’re moving too quickly.
“Step back and spend more time collecting your thoughts,”
Be direct on what you are writing . First thing is to make your point clear.
First structure down the points that you want to write on your proposals , memos , articles , or anything and then write it very passively and calmly.
By succinctly presenting your main idea first, you save your reader time and sharpen your argument before diving into the bulk of your writing.
So , without any further ado , let’s jump into some of the key points to learn how to write powerful business writing effectively.
What do Bezos , Musk , Gates ,Buffet and other business leaders have in common among them ( besides Money) - a perfect skill of powerful business writing .They know that business writing is not an accident- a clear business writing means a clear thoughts .
The principles of effective business writings are :
Draft fast , Edit Slow.
KISS
Clear Target Reaction
Effective Storytelling.
Let's cover each and every principle in detail.
Draft fast and edit slow :
This is the most effective technique to write a powerful and effective business writing , whether it be a memo , a proposal , a business email or anything like that .
There is nothing as daunting as a blank page .
So , draft fast , get rid of the backspace button from your computer and your mind . Continue to keep flowing ideas and creative concepts from your mind and let them flow into the piece of paper . Keep on writing as long as creative ideas popping from your mind , keep on drafting a specific section of your writing .
And after you’ve finished drafting everything , take a nap and let your subconscious do the work for you.
This will induce more new ideas in you and will help you to write better .
After that , edit slowly , criss-cross the wrongs and commit the rights in your paper . By editing your words passively and calmly more of the ideas will show up in your head .
Julian said it right - “Making something bad then iterating until it’s good is faster than making something good upfront.”
Follow the Write-Rest-Review Framework :
In this framework , I first write down all my ideas into a piece of paper and draft it as fast as possible and I don’t get irritated even when it gets stuck .
After drafting up everything , I go for a walk , grab a coffee , take a rest or something like that - and then I edit slowly and calmly . In this way I review everything where there are flaws and where I need to improve my writing and help me make better business proposals.
KISS - (Keep It Simple and Stupid) :
By keeping your blogs ,articles , business proposals simple , it makes more engagement with your writing and more people are going to open it.
Simple things make everyone understand very easily and make them catch up with your email.
Most people assume that writing those long and complex words will impress everyone and will make them follow your way of learning - but that’s wrong .
Writing exaggerating words will make your article less likely to be understandable and more likely to be complicated .
So try to cut the fluff in your business writing and write more simple and short words .
Great business writing is simple and direct. There's no fluff or hand waving—it's tactical.
A few actionable tips to tighten and simplify:
In school, we were taught to heap descriptors into our writing—we were told it made it more vibrant.(It also helped fill out the word or page count we were forced to hit!)
In the real world, those fluff words are assassins of punchy, powerful business writing.
Review your draft with an eye towards removing any unnecessary words & sentences.
Some common fluff:
• "I think X"
• "very" (or similar adverbs)
• Acronyms
• Jargon
• $10 words (fancy for no reason)
Be ruthless in identifying and eliminating the fluff words & sentences.
Keep everything short :
Short is the new normal . By keeping your content short and to the point , will make the reader clearly understand the points and concepts that you are drawing upon them . This will make your writing more elaborative and possessive.
Use short sentence structures.Space sentences or paragraphs out to make the writing more optically pleasing.Great business writing should be engaging to the eye.
Clear Target reaction :
A great business writer has a clear target reaction - a very subjective clear purpose and aim.
Before you write you business writing , just ask yourself :
What is the purpose behind this writing
What I want from the reader as a response
What value and key takeaways does the audience have after reading this ?
Is Your message coming out very loud and clear?
If yes , then well and good - continue punching.
And If No , then try some more tweaks and turns .
Storytelling :
It is the most foundational skill in getting the most out from your business writing - but unfortunately we don’t learn this skill anymore in our modern school society .
If it goes in good hands it could make your destiny more beautiful.
It's no coincidence that the greatest CEOs & founders are the greatest storytellers.
High-leverage storytelling is a supercharger for all endeavors.
Humans are great storytelling creatures—we developed around campfires. Lean into it.
Adding a story to a memo on a dry topic , proposals , and business email can bring the entire piece to life. Simple, crisp stories enhance the power of the message.
Show some emotions from your writing with the help of amazing storytelling techniques. This will always make your writing better .
One Tweet :
This is the most effective and one of the most Important Twitter threads I’ve ever come across . Sahil , gives the most valuable threads and in this one he talks about how anyone can find and operate in their zone of Genius.
This is a must read one . You will love this .
That’s it for today’s Newsletter . I hope I was able to provide some valuable and qualitative piece of content for you .
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