Why Every Profession Could Benefit From Better Headlines

Here are the main kind of business documents you’ll likely interact with in your career:

✔ Analyses

✔ Emails

✔ Memos

✔ Reports

✔ Policies

✔ Proposals

✔ Presentations

✔ Performance Reviews

✔ Posters

Every single one includes an opportunity for a headline.

Why should you take this advantage of this space? Easy: Because a headline is the single best way to hook a reader.

I know some of you reading this disagree. And to be sure, none of history’s most popular plays, movies, TV shows, or works of art minds this truth. Hamlet. Citizen Kane. “Game of Thrones.” “Mona Lisa” — each of these masterpieces succeeded with a boring title.

My response: If you’re as smart as Shakespeare or da Vinci, then by all means do what you want. If you’re not, then consider this: Whatever your major, there’s a book that, thanks in large part to its catchy title, has pierced the zeitgeist. Here are just a few of the best-known examples:

Your Career	Famous Book
Economics	Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Accounting	How to Lie With Statistics
Computer Science	C++ for Dummies
Politics	The PATRIOT Act
Psychology	Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex
Business	The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Sports	Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
Banking	Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System — and Themselves

Even if you haven’t read these best-sellers, I’d wager that you’ve heard of them. That’s the solitary power of a headline.