Back in my teens,
on a family trip to Florence,
my father took me to the Uffizi Gallery.
He loved art and he loved Italy,
and he was excited to share
as much as he could with me that afternoon.
The Uffizi is a huge museum,
and we raced through the halls,
with my father pointing out paintings by
Tintoretto, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci,
Piero della Francesca, Botticelli, etc.
I remember the feeling of being
whisked from room to room,
but decades later, I can’t remember a single painting.
(Photo above with my father in 2015.)
By contrast, not long after this trip,
I had to do a school paper on a painting.
My father brought me to the
Frick Museum in NYC where we lived.
And he suggested I do my paper
on Bellini’s famous work:
St. Francis in the Desert.
(You can look it up online.)
For a long time, we stood side by side
in front of the painting
as he pointed out all the details:
the stigmata, the angled body position of St. Francis,
the glow of light, the range of animals
and detail of trees and leaves,
the composition with rock in forefront and town in distance,
and the importance of perspective and depth.
To this day, decades later, I can still recall it all.
A few weeks ago, I shared this story
with a Rock The Room® VIP client
who was packing far too much
into his upcoming presentation.
Whenever you communicate,
it’s tempting to rush someone through
all you have to share,
whisking them “from room to room”…
trying to cover it all.
Yet consider the value
of what happened at the Frick.
Consider focusing on less,
taking your time and really diving deep.
Years later, people will be more likely
to remember it all…and you.
Risk Forward & Rock On,
