The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking

by Dale Carnegie

You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world’s happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime. – Dale Carnegie

Each of us would write a subject on a slip of paper. Then we folded the slips and shook them up. One would draw. Immediately he would have to stand and talk for sixty seconds on that subject. We never used the same subject twice. One night I had to talk on “lampshades.” Just try it if you think it is easy. I got through somehow.

Several times during my course the class members are asked to talk impromptu. Long experience has taught me that this kind of practice does two things: (1) it proves to the people in the class that they can think on their feet, and (2) this experience makes them much more secure and confident when they are giving their prepared talks.

Get into an Example Immediately Why? For three reasons: (1) You will free yourself at once of the necessity to think hard about your next sentence, for experiences are easily recounted even in an impromptu situation. (2) You will get into the swing of speaking, and your first-moment jitters will fly away, giving you the opportunity to warm up to your subject matter. (3) You will enlist the attention of your audience at once. As pointed out in Chapter Seven, the incident- example is a sure-fire method of capturing attention immediately.

Don’t Talk Impromptu—Give an Impromptu Talk

It is not enough just to ramble on and string together a series of disconnected nothings on a flimsy thread of inconsequence.

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion. – Dale Carnegie