[EERIE MUSIC PLAYING]
"The Art of Public Speaking," by Dale Carnegie.
"There is a strange sensation often experienced
in the presence of an audience.
It may proceed from the gaze of many eyes
that turn upon the speaker, especially
if he permits himself to steadily return the gaze.
Most speakers have been conscious of this
in a nameless thrill, a real something,
pervading the atmosphere, tangible,
evanescent, indescribable.
All writers have borne testimony to the power of the speaker's
eyes in impressing an audience.
This influence which we are now considering
is the reverse of that picture--
the power their eyes may exert upon him, especially
before he begins to speak--
after the inward fires of oratory are fanned into flames,
the eyes of the audience lose all terror.
Students of public speaking continually
ask, how can I overcome self-consciousness
and the fear that paralyzes me before an audience?
Did you ever notice, in looking from a train window,
that some horse's feed near the track and never
even pause to look up at the thundering cars,
while just ahead of the next railroad crossing,
a farmer's wife will be nervously
trying to quiet her scared horse as the train goes by?
How would you cure a horse that is afraid of cars--
graze him in a backwoods lot where he would never see steam
engines or automobiles, or drive or pasture
him where he would frequently see the machines?
Apply horse sense to ridding yourself
of self-consciousness and fear.
Face an audience as frequently as you can,
and you will soon stop shying.
You can never attain freedom from stage fright
by reading a treatise.
A book may give you excellent suggestions on how best
to conduct yourself in the water,
but sooner or later, you must get wet, perhaps even strangle
and be half scared to death.
There are a great many wetless bathing
suits worn at the seashore, but no one
ever learns to swim in them.
To plunge is the only way.
Practice, practice, practice in speaking before an audience
will tend to remove all fear of audiences,
just as practice in swimming will lead to confidence
and facility in the water.
You must learn to speak by speaking.
The apostle Paul tells us that every man must
work out his own salvation.
All we can do here is to offer you suggestions as to how best
to prepare for your plunge.
The real plunge, no one can take for you.
A doctor may prescribe, but you must take the medicine.
Do not be disheartened if at first
you suffer from stage fright.
Dan Patch was more susceptible to suffering
than any superannuated dray horse would be.
It never hurts a fool to appear before an audience,
for his capacity is not a capacity for feeling.
A blow that would kill a civilized man
soon heals on stage.
The higher we go in the scale of life,
the greater is the capacity for suffering.
For one reason or another, some master speakers never
entirely overcome stage fright.
But it will pay you to spare no pains to conquer it.
Daniel Webster failed in his first appearance
and had to take his seat without finishing his speech
because he was nervous.
Gladstone was often troubled with self-consciousness
in the beginning of an address.
Beecher was always perturbed before talking in public.
Blacksmiths sometimes twist a rope tight around the nose
of a horse.
And thus, by inflicting a little pain,
they distract his attention from the shoeing process.
One way to get air out of a glass is to pour water into it.
Apply the blacksmith's homely principle
when you are speaking.
If you feel deeply about your subject,
you will be able to think of little else.
Concentration is a process of distraction
from less important matters.
It is too late to think about the cut on your coat
once you are upon the platform.
So center your interest on what you are about to say.
Fill your mind with your speech material,
and like the in-filling water in a glass,
it will drive out your unsubstantial fears.
Nothing advertises itself so thoroughly as conceit.
One may be so full of oneself as to be empty.
Voltaire said, we must conceal self-love,
but that cannot be done.
You know this to be true, for you have recognized,
overseen self-love in others.
If you have it, others are seeing it in you.
There are things in this world better than self.
And in working for them, self will be forgotten,
or what is better, remembered only so as to help
us win toward higher things.
The trouble with many speakers is
that they go before an audience with their minds a blank.
It is no wonder that nature, abhorring a vacuum,
fills them with the nearest thing handy,
which generally happens to be, I wonder if I'm doing this right?
How does my hair look?
I know I shall fail.
Their prophetic souls are sure to be right.
It is not enough to be absorbed by your subject.
To acquire self-confidence you must have something
in which to be confident.
If you go before an audience without any preparation
or previous knowledge of your subject,
you ought to be self-conscious.
You ought to be ashamed to steal the time of your audience.
Prepare yourself.
Know what you are going to talk about, and in general,
how you are going to say it.
Have the first few sentences worked out
completely so that you may not be troubled in the beginning
to find words.
Know your subject better than your hearers know it,
and you have nothing to fear.
Let your bearing be modestly confident.
But most of all, modestly confident within.
Overconfidence is bad.
But to tolerate premonitions of failure is worse.
For a bold man may win attention by his very baring,
while a rabid heart, a coward, invites disaster."