Gladwellian rule for public speaking
I’m linking to this interview again because I’m certain you didn’t get through the whole 60 minutes of it the first time. So just this:
I don’t get nervous before public speaking. I am kind of a nervous person but years ago I used to be a competitive runner, and I would get insanely nervous before big races so much so that I wouldn’t be able to sleep for weeks beforehand. Ever since then, everything else that I’ve ever had to do which seems scary, I just think, “Is it as scary as running a race?” “No it’s not.” So I never get nervous.
Whenever possible, I bicycle to the office. Cycling from borough to borough can be, at best nerve-wracking, at worst, a threat to one’s life. I continue to do it because of the sort of shocking perspective it brings. I’ve always thought, if I make it to the office, whole, through the streets of Manhattan, then no client meeting, no news, no formal presentation, no last-minute changes, can ever be as threatening as the alternative. And it never has been.
