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Entrepreneurs Often Embrace "Woo-Woo" Mystical Ideas. Here's Why. TikTok star Kat Norton (aka Miss Excel) says "energy transmissions" are to thank for her success. She's hardly alone in talking like that - and science is starting to reveal good reasons why.

By Paul Kix

This story appears in the April 2022 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

MAX-O-MATIC

The lie of entrepreneurship is that it will change your fortune. The truth of entrepreneurship is that it will change you — and in ways that far exceed your balance sheet.

This happened to me. It happened to Kat Norton. It's why she wants to talk about "energy transmissions."

We're on Zoom, discussing something that may seem decidedly low-energy, outright boring even: Microsoft Excel. But that's only to the uninitiated. Kat Norton is an Excel ninja. During demos, her proficiency with the application literally leaves managing directors speechless. Her love of Excel has made her, of all things, an influencer: dancing on TikTok and Instagram while highlighting Excel functions under the name Miss Excel. Millions love the videos; roughly 1.4 million people follow her across both platforms. It shocks Norton herself, a 29-year-old who once saw her geeky crush on the old-school application as a somewhat shameful secret. "Like, I would never go to a bar and say, "Oh, man. I love Excel.'"

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