An apt post to follow the one on the difference between hone and home is this one about the views of billionaire Warren Buffet expressed in a LinkedIn video posted by entrepreneur Michael Hood.
In the video, Buffet—who knows how to use the word hone—advises young people to “focus on learning how to write and speak clearly.” He equates the ability to communicate with the ability to earn money:
“The one easy way to become worth fifty percent more than you are now…is to hone your communication skills— both written and verbal.”
Students tend to tune out this sort of advice when it comes from their English teachers. The fact that so many highly visible celebrities scorn Standard English doesn’t help. Actually, nonstandard language seems to be a requirement for some kinds of celebrity.
Young people whose career plans lie in the direction of developing innovative ideas, however, need more than ideas.
According to Buffet,
“If you can’t communicate…nothing happens. You can have all the brainpower in the world, but you have to be able to transmit it. And the transmission is communication.”