One of the recent speakers at my Vistage CEO peer group said this slowly and emphatically:

People don’t listen very long.

This has been resonating in my mind ever since he said it, because it’s true, and increasingly so. Yet many meeting presenters, businesses, friends, writers, etc keep on talking long after the listeners have stopped listening. Make your point clearly, quickly, and compellingly or you’ll probably be tuned out.

This means caring more about what the listener gets to hear than about what you get to say, and that’s not easy.