How to Earn People's Interest in Your Ideas and Projects (Sam Horn)

Here are my notes from today's Exploring Leadership Colloquium at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.  The speaker was Sam Horn, author of Got Your Attention! and other books.

It immediately reminded me of Hooked, by Les Edgerton, which is about "writing fiction that grabs readers at page one...".  The connection between the two was the fish on the cover of both books. Apparently (I'm skeptical), people have shorter attention span than fish.  Luckily we have more brain power.  The point is that whatever you're trying to sell, whether it's an idea or a product, you've got about 60 seconds.  By then, the decision makers you're trying to convince have already made up their mind.  If you didn't hook them by then you've lost.

Click on the image to enlarge.

As a side note, and while this is not the first time I've noticed this, professional speakers like to pepper their talks with quotes from famous people.