My father took me aside when I was 6 years old (I still remember this conversation like it was yesterday), because I was complaining about writing class, and he

My father took me aside when I was 6 years old (I still remember this conversation like it was yesterday), because I was complaining about writing class, and he told me, yes, it's hard, but it's the number one skill you need to succeed in life. He was a tech guy who was made manager of a half-dozen younger engineers at Northrop-Grumman in no small part because he could boil all the tech stuff down into a 1-page report that could be placed directly on the CEO's desk. I still didn't like writing, of course. But I had no idea how right he was. It continues to amaze me how rare proper grammer, coherent sentences, and clear, concise thinking are in the professional world, and how much of a jump start he gave me forcing me to learn those skills, year in, year out.