Chapter 46 a regret in grant's life

When Lee led his troops to the court yard at Abermatux and surrendered, he was dressed in a neat uniform and had a priceless sword by his side.General Grant, however, wore neither coat nor sword, he was only wearing a private shirt and trousers. "At that time, General Lee was six feet tall and smartly dressed, and I looked out of place," Grant wrote in his memoirs.At such a historical moment, Grant's clothes caused one of the great regrets of his life. The Washington Department of Agriculture has several hundred hives of bees on its experimental farm.In each beehive, people have placed a giant electric light, just press the button lightly, and the whole beehive will be bright as day.These bees can therefore be checked for even the slightest detail, day or night.The same is generally true of the speaker: he seems to be under the illumination of a giant lamp, because he is the focus of all attention, everyone is watching him, so that even the smallest thing that appears on him is different. Harmony will also appear abrupt, just as the peaks of Mount Banke stand upright on the plain.

In fact, whether we are blamed or praised is decided before the speech. A few years ago I wrote a biography of the life of a New York banker for American Magazine.At that time, I asked a friend of his about the reasons for his success.Much of his success, the friend says, is down to his winning smile.This may seem like exaggeration at first, but I'm convinced of it.In this world, there are many people, although they also have rich experience and excellent investment ideas, but they just lack the wealth that this banker possesses - a pleasant temperament and personality, and understanding A sincere and sincere smile is the embodiment of this temperament.Besides, we are also happy to see this kind of person succeed, and we are happy to send our support to him.

There is a Chinese proverb called "peace makes wealth".From this point of view, speeches are no exception.Speaking of which, I can't help but think of a student-he attended a public speaking class held by a Brooklyn business group.Every time he gave a speech, he always smiled, and it was strongly felt that he loved his speaking career so much, so he was warmly welcomed by everyone. However, unfortunately, I have also seen with my own eyes that many students appear in front of the public with a cold face and a perfunctory attitude, like a duck that has been kicked out of the air by force. tone.Naturally, for such speeches, we also responded with a cold and perfunctory attitude. This kind of emotion is actually contagious.

Professor Oversted concluded in his article "Influencing People's Behavior": love begets love, if we show a strong interest in the audience, then they will also respond to us with excitement; if we face the audience If we frown, they tend to be disgusted with us; if we boast and show off in public, the public will dismiss us.In fact, whether we are blamed or praised is decided before the speech, so in order to create a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, we must pay attention to our attitude and posture.