1.2 How much time to spend on preparation
To answer this, I’ll give you my version of an apocryphal story about Pablo Picasso.
Late in life, he was stopped by a lady at an airport. Being a huge fan, the lady couldn’t contain herself and asked the artist to make a sketch for her on a handkerchief.
Picasso did so, and handing it over to her said, “That’ll be ten thousand dollars.”
The woman was stunned. “How can it cost that much? It only took you thirty seconds.”
Picasso looked her in the eye with a sharp piercing stare and replied, “Thirty seconds, madam, and a lifetime.”
Your moments in the spotlight are the distillation of all the preparation you make. It’s up to you how good you want that to be, and how much time you wish to invest into it.
There is a theory that you should spend one hour preparing per minute of allocated presentation time. This is probably excessive for most situations: nevertheless, I’d recommend investing at least 20 minutes preparation per minute of presentation.