In the world of Excel, almost everyone thinks they know what clever looks like.
Ask around and you’ll hear familiar responses: Power Query, pivot tables, dynamic arrays, flashy dashboards. These answers are shaped by hearsay—what people see on social media, YouTube, webinars, or the last Excel training course they attended. They’re rarely based on a deep understanding of what really creates value at scale.
The Disruption
The “Triple Your Pay” challenge is deliberately disruptive. Its message is simple: stop, take a breath, and ask yourself—are you quite sure you know the limits of Excel? Because what you believe is clever may be nowhere near the true frontier of what’s possible.
And this isn’t just academic. It’s practical, proven, and demonstrated in live sessions and explainer videos. In fact, the difference between the best you’ve seen and what’s possible might be just three clicks away.
That’s the disruption. You see it, and you don’t want to believe it.
But when it’s demonstrated—visibly, tangibly—it forces a rethink. For any employer looking to identify exceptional talent, this creates a clear and obvious differentiator. Suddenly, the real stars aren’t the ones with the flashiest formulas—they’re the ones who understand architecture.
Not About Excel—About Architecture
Here’s the real shift: the value doesn’t come from Excel alone.
It comes from understanding how to implement client-server and hub-and-spoke architecture within Excel—using it not as a glorified calculator, but as an enterprise-grade, distributed platform.
Once you make that shift, pay follows. The difference is so stark that it isn’t unreasonable to say: this approach can triple your pay.
Why? Because it’s the exact same architecture behind most high-end enterprise tools. The only difference? Those tools come wrapped in big vendor brands, bloated marketing, and enterprise price tags.
“It Can’t Be That Simple”
The expected pushback is skepticism. Surely something this powerful must be complicated? Surely it must be reserved for highly advanced Excel users?
Actually, no.
The sketch at the heart of this explainer walks through a three-stage consolidation and the concept of flipping a data model to reveal the “sweet spot”—a structural shift, not a technical one.
What surprises most is the simplicity. Yes, Excel already gives us the agility. But once we adopt this model, simplicity becomes the superpower. The structure itself makes complex problems easier to solve—and scalable.
The Secret? Five Minutes and Two Ideas
The whole model starts by setting up a simple librarian mechanism. That’s five minutes of setup. From there, the only concept to understand is bi-directional data flow. That’s it. Everything else is creativity—using that simple construct to build flexible, automated, scalable systems.
Every project in the explainer series illustrates how that basic idea—one small architectural step for a spreadsheet—can unleash massive business value when combined with the agility of creative thought.
Literal Thinking Won’t Cut It
And here’s the hard truth: literal thinking won’t get you there. You need lateral thinking. Vision. A shift in mindset. That’s the real challenge—not technical skill, but how you think.
What survives in a competitive world isn’t what’s technically complex—it’s what’s simple and agile. That’s what Excel offers, once it’s reimagined through this lens.
What’s Next
This article is the first in a series of explainers that follow the Gordon Ramsay-style “Triple Your Pay” challenge on LinkedIn—a recruitment-style pitch wrapped in a reality-check for spreadsheet professionals.
Next, I’ll address anticipated objections—because they will come. I’ll also post further demonstrations and examples, including real challenges like the Reg Goldhandler test, to back this up.
For now, this is the starting point. One explainer, in a series of many.
If you’re ready to challenge your assumptions—and triple your value—let’s begin.
[Ref: 8403]
Add comment