“The Stone Age for Women in Banking”; “The Musical Mt. Everest”—Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

(Rewritten June 8, 2021)

Here are a couple of recent examples of highly effective communicators using a vivid, evocative expression while emphasizing something and thus making their assertion indelible--examples which, I hope, will inspire the rest of us into similarly imaginative analogies, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter. 

• Referring to the near absence of women in banking when she went to work for Morgan Stanley in the 1980s, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat saying on “The David Rubenstein Show”: “When I started at Morgan Stanley, it was 1987, and so it was a sort of Stone Age for...the role of women in banking. The general attitude was that those of us who were there would get married, have kids, and leave...that was the ethos in Wall Street.” 

• Welcoming the famous Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang to her show last fall, the highly accomplished British-Iranian journalist and TV host Christiane Amanpour telling the audience: “The virtuoso has taken on one of Bach’s most glorious and difficult works--the ‘Goldberg Variations,’” and then, turning to her guest, saying: “You’ve been playing the ‘Goldberg Variations’ since you were a kid. They call it the ‘Musical Mt. Everest.’ What is it about this work that really grabs you?”

© Copyright 2021  V. J. Singal