Chapter 85 Don't be like the goat on the mountain

Professor William James, stopping in the middle of a lecture to teachers to comment that in a lecture a speaker should make only one point, gave an example of such a speech—the The sample speech takes about sixty minutes.However, I recently listened to a three-minute talk where, at the beginning of the talk, the speaker reminded us that he had 11 points to make.In other words, each point takes less than 16.5 seconds!How incredible it is! Perhaps, here, I've chosen a very extreme example, but it's mistakes like this - even if not as ridiculous as this example - that hold back many beginners.Similar speakers are just like the voyager Cork-style tour guide, striving to see the whole of Paris in a day, or finish visiting the American Museum of Natural History in 30 minutes.This may be possible, but it will give neither a clear impression nor a pleasant enjoyment to the traveler.Many, many presentations fail simply because they cover too much in a given amount of time and become unclear.And in order to finish each point, the speaker has to jump from here to there like a dragonfly on water, and from there to the next place in a hurry, much like the goats scurrying on the high mountain!

We know that the vast majority of speeches should be kept short and sweet, so you should trim the offshoots accordingly.For example, if you are giving a speech on a trade union, don't try to cover everything - talk about why it works, how it works, its achievements, its shortcomings, and how to resolve labor disputes etc.Otherwise, no one can accurately grasp what you said, and your speech will only be reduced to a pot of mud. Therefore, it is a wise move to seize an aspect of the topic of the speech and elaborate on it in depth.Such a speech can only be impressive, well-understood, and easy to remember.But what if you have to cover several aspects of the topic?At this time, you may wish to make a concise summary at the end of the speech.