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What Does It Take to Speak Up?


While most people believe that you need to be very good at the language, it isn't true. If you have ever seen Elon Musk's keynotes, you will find that he stammers a lot, yet people do not complain. Instead the audience will understand and respond accordingly. The same happens with me, I stammer sometimes when I speak on the stage and find myself at loss of words. But when I step down after my seminar people say that I did great up there. Then I understood why.

Unless it's your english class where you are assessed or Toastmaster's club event where your "Ah's" are counted, its okay not to deliver a fluidic speech. You can get to it with experience. What matters is  the content. You can speak so well that people can be immersed in what you are trying to convey and respond to you. 

The content, however, cannot be something that is regular. As students or professionals, we all know how boring is a power point presentation and gets exponentially bad with time. It is interesting when you speak of experiences and your work. Suppose, you have done something and you want to share it because you believe it is something worth sharing. People will listen to it, very silently throughout your story. It's upto you to keep up their expectations till the end.

Work doesn't necessarily mean your duty at your office. It is something involves your contribution, your observations and the improvements that brought changes. Elon Musk, usually at keynotes, talks about the achievements. I love to watch them even though he stammers or stops sometimes. That is because he tells what they have gone through and how they got to those ideas that are shaping the future. 

But, you yourself cannot make your talk amazing. It involves your audience too. Suppose you are delivering a seminar on one of the papers you have written and the audience is your faculty, I'm sure no matter how bad you deliver it, as long as you are clear with the discovery or technical part, they understand it. This is because they want to see the informative part of your work. Deliver that same in an english class, I'm again sure that you will be pointed out at many mistakes you have made, no matter how good your work is.

Keynotes such as Google I/O, Apple WWDC and Tesla's car launch events take place with the audience who know the company and the struggle very well and not the English department of your college. It is why, they have such a good applause. The same happens in your office meetings. If you work throughout the week and made progress, when you put it out, they appreciate. You waste your week and deliver a beautiful fluent talk, they don't hesitate to take action. Now you know how to deliver your next talk. It is very strongly that I believe and I hope you understand that, words flow when there is content in you, not the language.

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