Chapter 19 Develop readiness

It is said that Luther Burbank, the geek of the plant world, cultivated a million species of plants, but he only cultivated one or two superlative varieties from them.The same should be true for speeches.Gather 100 ideas around a topic of your choice and discard 90 of them. "I always collect ten times more material than I actually use, sometimes even a hundred times more." John Gander said not long ago.He is the author of a best-selling book.He is also talking about ways to prepare for writing or speaking. On one occasion, his actions in particular confirmed his words.One year he embarked on a series of articles about mental institutions.He went to various hospitals and talked with the deans, nurses and patients respectively.I had a friend with him who helped him a little in his studies.He told me that they walked up and down stairs, along corridors, from building to building, day after day, in countless ways.And Mr. Gander filled many notebooks.In his office are piles of government and state reports, hospital reports, and stacks of committee statistics.

"In the end," my friend told me, "he wrote 4 short essays, simple and interesting, which are good lecture subjects. The paper on which the essays are written may only weigh a few hundred grams. And the dense notebooks and other things I remember— —What he used as a basis for these hundreds of grams of products must have weighed tens of kilograms.” Mr. Gander knew that what he was digging was valuable ore.He knew he couldn't ignore any part of it.He's an old hand at what he does.He put all his mind on it, and sifted out the gold grains. A surgeon friend of mine said it well: "I can teach you how to take out a cecum in 10 minutes, but it will take me four years to teach you how to deal with it when things go wrong." Emergency change.For example, you may have to change the focus of your presentation because of the tone of a previous speaker, or answer audience concerns during the discussion time after your presentation.

If you can choose the topic as soon as possible and make full preparations, you will gain a kind of success power.Never procrastinate until a day or two before the presentation.If you decide on your topic early on, your subconscious mind can do a great job for you.In the odd hours after work each day, you can delve into your subject matter, refining and refining the ideas you want to convey to your audience.You might as well spend that time thinking about the subject of your speech while driving home, waiting for the bus, or riding the subway.Most of the flashes of insight come from this period of gestation.You choose your topic early on, and your brain can refine it subconsciously.