In the world of Excel education, there’s a glaring contrast between what’s commonly taught and what truly matters in the real-world application of Excel. People often ask me: “What’s the difference between your pitch and the countless Excel webinars, training courses, and popular content out there with millions of views?” This article aims to answer that question using an analogy from athletics.
Imagine a competitive sport like pole vaulting, tennis, or high jump. The purpose of competition is clear: to win. Athletes develop their skills, practice strategies, and refine their craft to outperform their rivals. Winning is tangible—measured in points, heights, or trophies—and visible to everyone.
Now consider the role of the coach. The coach instructs the athlete to train at the gym to build strength and endurance. The gym, with its sophisticated machines and equipment, is vital for preparation. However, here’s the crucial distinction: knowing how to operate gym equipment does not win you competitions.
The Gym Equipment vs. The Real Competition
When an athlete runs toward the pole vault bar, their ability to vault higher than competitors has nothing to do with how well they know the buttons, knobs, or features of their gym equipment. Success comes from how the training—physical, mental, and strategic—has been applied to the real-world challenge.
This contrast mirrors what I see in today’s Excel education landscape. Most popular content focuses on the “gym equipment”: new features, flashy tools, and literal on-screen demonstrations. Social media, webinars, and YouTube tutorials emphasize the latest functions like Power Query, dynamic arrays, and lambda functions. While these tools are powerful, knowing how to use them is not the same as understanding how to win in a real business setting.
Literal vs. Lateral Thinking
The Excel training world suffers from an obsession with literal thinking: recording what’s on the screen and packaging it as content. Excel’s interface lends itself to this approach—users can easily showcase functions and tools visually. However, winning in real-world business processes often requires lateral thinking, which doesn’t fit neatly into a screen recording.
Let’s use another analogy: playing chess.
When I was a child, I played chess with a neighbor who always beat me. I understood how each piece moved and even had favorite pieces like the knight and bishop, but I lacked any grasp of strategy. I thought moving certain pieces earned me points, completely missing the objective: checkmate. Similarly, many Excel learners focus on features and functions without understanding the overarching strategy of solving business problems.
The Fosbury Flop: A Lesson in Creative Thinking
In the 1968 Mexico Olympics, Dick Fosbury revolutionized the high jump by introducing the Fosbury Flop. Instead of using the traditional Western Roll, Fosbury leaned back and curved his body over the bar, leveraging a completely different set of muscles and mechanics. This outside-the-box approach set a new standard, and today, no serious high jumper competes without using the Fosbury Flop.
This quantum leap wasn’t achieved by perfecting the Western Roll—it came from creative thinking and challenging conventional methods. Similarly, mastering Excel isn’t about memorizing functions or features. It’s about applying creative, strategic thinking to solve real-world problems.
Why the Obsession with Features?
Social media and marketing heavily influence the focus on Excel’s “gym equipment.” It’s far easier to sell a flashy new feature than to teach the nuanced, strategic thinking needed to implement scalable solutions. Tutorials on Power Query, XLOOKUP, and dynamic arrays dominate because they’re tangible and visual. But business leaders don’t care about features—they care about results.
Management values solutions that:
• Improve productivity.
• Reduce manual work.
• Centralize processes for scalability and collaboration.
These goals require more than technical knowledge; they demand an understanding of organizational pain points and the ability to align Excel’s capabilities with those needs.
My Story: Triple Your Pay with Excel
In my consulting work, I’ve seen this principle in action. In four separate cases, my clients unilaterally decided to triple my pay—not because I knew the latest Excel features, but because I delivered solutions that solved systemic business problems.
These results didn’t come from obsessing over the “gym equipment.” They came from focusing on the competition: understanding my clients’ challenges, thinking creatively, and delivering value.
An Invitation to Explore
To illustrate this difference, I’ve developed exercises like the Gordon Ramsay experiment. These challenges reveal the gap between those trained through social media-driven Excel techniques and those prepared for real-world requirements. If you’re curious, I invite you to try these exercises for free and see the contrast for yourself.
The Decision Is Yours
Are you training to master Excel’s bells and whistles, or are you preparing to win in the real world? If you choose the latter, you’ll discover that the path involves more than features and functions—it requires strategic, outside-the-box thinking.
The choice is clear: stay in the gym, tweaking knobs and buttons, or step onto the field and compete for the gold.
This is a podcast by Hiran de Silva. Narrated by Charlie.
Add comment