In a helpful post at the HBR blogs, Tony Schwarz offers executives the same advice:

Saying no, thoughtfully, may be the most undervalued capacity of our times. In a world of relentless demands and infinite options, it behooves us to prioritize the tasks that add the most value. That also means deciding what to do less of, or to stop doing altogether.

Learn to say “no” to get more done.

That’s the value of being an expert.

The trend is clear: design can be one factor that separates you from your competitor (or, conversely, that will separate your competitor from you.)

My friend Mark builds beautiful, hand-crafted furniture in his workshop. He didn’t learn to do that overnight. Kerry makes delightful art in her studio. Each piece takes her weeks (months?) to create and she spent years developing her skill and vision.

Anything you want to do well requires you to show up and work. A strong marriage, raising a child, creating change at your office, building a business. No magic bullets.

If you want to know how successful people got that way, check here.

• Don’t use a PowerPoint template; instead, look for design inspiration on Slideshare. It’s a little like the Internet in general: there’s a lot of bad stuff but some good stuff too. Pay attention to the colors and typefaces. Here are a few of my favorite designs on Slideshare and here are two slidedecks I’ve posted there: Time Management for College Students and Boring to Bold: Presentation Design Ideas for Non-Designers.
• For small rooms, consider light background colors; for large rooms, dark backgrounds.
• Don’t steal images from Google Images (or other places). Either buy them from iStockphoto or get free Creative Commons images from flickr. Compfight is the best way to search the flickr Creative Commons pool. Make sure the images have enough resolution so they don’t have jaggies.
• One idea per slide.
• To see some outstanding presentations–both with and without slides–spend some time watching the videos on TED. It’s an excellent investment of your time. You could also watch a Steve Jobs presentation or two.

Earlier today I posted a slide deck on Slideshare.net, “Boring to Bold: Presentation Design Ideas for Non-Designers,” some thoughts on creating presentations that communicate more effectively than the usual bullet-laden slides that most of us see. Late this afternoon, Slideshare notified me that the presentation had been chosen to be “Featured” on their home page–excellent! Click over to Slideshare to see the presentation.

Like many others, I was saddened to hear the news that Steve Jobs, visionary leader of Apple, passed away last night. He has been called the Edison of our generation and I think that’s an appropriate description. Of all that’s been said so far, this compilation of posts at Cult of Mac says it best.

The balance on the card, prior to the fee, was $56.

I called the company, explained that I would pay the balance today, and politely asked to have the fee removed.

“Sure, Mr. Gowin. We can do that.”

Knowing that customers can and will switch credit cards (it’s easy enough), it’s better for the company to waive the fee than leave a customer frustrated and angry. The customer, in return, feels empowered and is likely to remain loyal.

Two lessons:

1. The long-term relationship is worth more than $20.
2. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

Further down the feeds was Seth Godin’s critique of critics, which reminds me of Anton Ego’s review of his meal at Gusteau’s.

I wonder whether Seth had either of these in mind in his post today.