Leonardo da Vinci
Their List First, Painting Last
Before you ask, swap your list for theirs
Leonardo's letter to Ludovico Sforza (c. 1482, draft in the Codex Atlanticus); Richter, no. 1340
A man of thirty needed work and had many skills. This asks which one the letter should lead with.
What actually happened?
Around 1482 a man of about thirty wrote to Ludovico Sforza, the effective ruler of Milan, asking for work. A draft survives in the Codex Atlanticus; we cannot be sure it went out as written. It makes ten claims. Nine are about war: light bridges, ways to break fortresses, mines, armoured carts, guns, ships. The tenth is about buildings and water in peacetime. Painting appears only in the last sentence, beside sculpture: "I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze or clay, and also in painting whatever may be done". Leonardo then stayed in Milan some seventeen years.
Lead with what they lack this year
Italian states were then at war with one another, and a ruler's most pressing want was someone who could solve war problems. Nine of his ten claims face that. There is no opening line announcing that he is a painter.
Applying to a firm that is being flooded with complaints, say first that you can cut the complaints, and only then give your background.
Your best thing need not go first
What later made him famous was painting, yet it sits in the last sentence. Painting was no less important to him; the buyer simply was not shopping for a painter. Show you can solve today's problem, and let them discover the rest.
A designer applying to a start-up opens with how she lifted sign-up conversion and leaves the portfolio for the second page.
Every claim answers a specific trouble
Crossing a river, storming a wall, surviving a siege, fighting at sea: each line is a scene the other side might walk into. He did not write 'I can do these things'. He wrote 'when this happens, I have a way'.
Open your quote with the three problems you heard on the call, not with your list of services.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: You have plenty of skill, and still nobody comes to you, or what you send gets no answer.
Ask first: What is keeping them up at night this month? Which one of my skills reaches it?
Where it goes wrong: Treating it as hiding your real talent. He hid nothing: painting is in the letter, just behind what they wanted first, and in Milan he went on to paint The Last Supper.
Lines to keep
Write what they lack before what you have.
Your best skill need not go first.
Every line should answer one of their troubles.
Same situation, other people are asking
I said it and not one person took it seriously.Maybe I just don't have it.I did the work and somebody else got the credit.How many people would I actually need before this pays for itself?Nobody is looking at my work · all 12 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.