Ballerinas are graceful creatures, their beautiful movements seem to glide effortlessly. Just like photographers who can capture thousands of emotions in one picture. Or the chefs that make delicious food that is a treat to your eyes and makes you crave for more.

What they share is not just their talent and skill, but also the art of how to present their skill and make it a hit.

So while I may not be a ballerina, or a chef – I know one thing for sure –  that mastering a skill is way beyond learning just the skill. Mastering a skill is not only mastering the technicalities, it’s more about how you present your work and getting an audience to appreciate that.

Presentation counts… a lot. It can really make or break your work. Presentation may be many things – it could be how you hold yourself, confidence in what you say or even how you display your work for others to see.

I’ve seen many people who have done their work with all their talent and skill, and then presenting/selling that piece may not be so good. Or there is someone who may have done an average job, but he knows how to present it and sell the idea better than you can ever imagine.

And believe it or not the second kind of people do well while the former are left wondering if their work isn’t good enough (which is not true, they just can’t it get their work to enough people).

(Remember that presenting a work well, but with no quality whatsoever does not work. Don’t do that. It’s neither good for you nor ethical.)

Looking back at my time as a writer, I can say that the pieces that did the best were the ones, which had a good message, was concise and people were made aware about it.

Presenting your work is not restricted to only showcasing something. It goes onto include how your work communicates with the environment.

It’s like riding a bicycle. Balancing the bicycle is only half of the work. How you ride it on the street with people all around and dogs chasing you is the other half of the work. And that’s the tougher half.

So how does this apply to you?

Whenever you decide to learn anything, you have two criteria to fulfill:

1. Learn the technicalities
2. Learn to use the technicalities in real life

One looks effortless, when both of them are achieved.

Many people focus on being good at one thing, but neglect on doing the other half of work. That’s when you see the results and say to yourself, “This is not as easy as I thought. This is hard work.”

Yes it is. Because you didn’t master both halves of your skill – that’s what makes it seem difficult.

Recap for memory:

To master a skill, you need to learn both the technicalities and how to use them in real life. If you focus on one or neglect the other half of work, your skill set won’t be complete and it will seem difficult when you get started.