

Steve Jobs' Greatest Presentation (five lessons for making an unforgettable pitch) - nickb
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jul2007/sb2007076_474371.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5

======
staunch
Sometimes CEOs give boring presentations on revolutionary products. More often
they give boring presentations on boring products. Steve Jobs has a huge
advantage when it comes time to show his work because he produces such earth-
shattering stuff. His salesmanship is the the icing on the already-delicious
cake.

~~~
weel
Jobs does often end up being in the position where he can sell some pretty
awesome products, but he's also adept at finding reasons to find things
awesome in the first place. If he'd sold OSX by dryly listing its features,
you might think "ah, UNIX, yeah, probably good idea, failed before with AUX,
though". But when Jobs described OSX to people, they came away thinking "wow,
this is a major leap in operating systems design." Part of this is pure
charisma and great delivery. Another part of it is just a knack for picking up
on genuinely great aspects of a product that others might not think to
highlight.

------
Goladus
_The takeaway? Build up to something unexpected in your presentations._

That's the only takeaway?

Jobs appeals to nostalgia and positions Apple as the heroic company making the
world a better place for people to live in. It's emotional and genuine if
perhaps a little exaggerated. That it builds up with dramatic tension is just
the basic foundation of the speech. It's the details and romanticism that put
it over the top.

~~~
gyro_robo
Which is why I don't get the whole "charisma" or "reality distortion field"
claims. He's just this guy, you know?

------
brlewis
Point 3 about vocal variety is not as easy to do as you might think. You need
practice. Toastmasters is a great organization for learning to speak well in
front of groups, prepared or extemporaneous.

My club meets in Boston near Downtown Crossing on second and fourth Wednesdays
at noon. Or look on the Toastmasters International web site
(<http://www.toastmasters.org/>) for a club near you.

<http://ourdoings.com/oratory-authority/>

------
dfens
The advice of having one point per slide and using an image instead of lots of
text should be in a message that pops up everytime someone starts Powerpoint.

