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The Power Business Writing Guide
Episode 39
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Today at a Glance:
Study the lives and practices of today’s most successful entrepreneurs, financiers, and builders and you’ll find one common trait: a deep, visceral understanding of the importance of powerful, efficient, high-leverage writing.
Why? These leaders know that powerful writing isn't an accident—clear writing is clear thinking.
The four key principles of powerful business writing: (1) Draft Fast, Edit Slow, (2) KISS, (3) Clear Target Reaction, and (4) Storytelling.
The Power Business Writing Guide
Want to accelerate your career? Write better. Period.
Study the lives and practices of today’s most successful entrepreneurs, financiers, and builders and you’ll find one common trait: a deep, visceral understanding of the importance of powerful, efficient, high-leverage writing.
Jeff Bezos famously installed memo writing as a mainstay of Amazon’s business culture. Prior to kicking off a meeting, attendees would be asked to read and digest several pages of written memos from the meeting leads. Why? Bezos deeply believed in the value of these memos, not only for the uninformed participants, but also for the meeting leads to clarify their thinking through the writing process.
Warren Buffett famously writes an annual shareholder letter, distilling insights on billions of dollars in investments into a single memo.
The list of writing advocates goes on and on…
Why? These leaders know that powerful writing isn't an accident—clear writing is clear thinking.
In this piece, I will attempt to deconstruct the four key principles of powerful business writing…
They are as follows:
Draft Fast, Edit Slow
KISS
Clear Target Reaction
Storytelling
I’ll cover each principle and provide some additional learning resources:
Principle 1: Draft Fast, Edit Slow
There's nothing more daunting than a blank page.
We have all experienced it at one time or another—sitting at our desk, staring into the abyss of a blank Word document or notebook page, with no idea where to start. The perfect line is illusive, and everyone knows you need a perfect first line…
The solution?
Play a trick on yourself. Start writing, fast. Get a draft down—and don’t worry at all about the quality (seriously, it’s ok if it sucks).
My friend Julian Shapiro said it best: “Making something bad then iterating until it’s good is faster than making something good upfront.”
Here's a framework that works for me: Write-Rest-Review.
Write-Rest-Review
Get the first draft down as quickly as possible.
Walk away for 5 minutes—go fo
Published on 4 years ago