Book Club Friday's (#21) - Improving your Public Speaking ability
About the Author
Born into poverty on November 24, 1888, in Maryville, Missouri, Dale Carnegie worked as a travelling salesman before teaching public speaking at a YMCA. His seminal self-help book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, won him a national following and enabled him to expand the Dale Carnegie Institute into countries around the world. It is regarded as one of the best-selling self-help books of all time. (I will eventually get round to reviewing How to win friends and influence people too).
Warren Buffett credits Carnegie for changing his life with his courses and books on confidence and public speaking. Carnegie, who has helped people for centuries and will continue to do so, died in 1955 in Queens, New York.
A little bit about the book!
This book is a great little pocketbook on how to become a better public speaker. Public speaking is a very important skill nowadays, especially if you want to be competent at getting your point across.
I believe that what separates the great from the exceptional is their ability to convey a message or to deliver a speech. The art of public speaking allows you to convey a message, express an opinion or sell a product or service you have. A good speaker is far more persuasive and can be portrayed as a leader. This opinion translates into respect and therefore a good speaker is somebody who is well respected.
The book gives Dale Carnegies opinions and formulas on how to become a better public speaker. He offers advice and tips on how to prepare, deliver and conclude a speech well and although many of the points are obvious such as: 'Knowing the topic you are speaking about inside out' or 'Practice, practice, practice!' they often need to be reiterated and expressed with examples. Dale Carnegie does this really well and makes it believable that even a very shy person could train themselves to give a great speech!
I am a fan of all of Carnegie's books and I plan to do reviews on them all. But for now, I would recommend this book because like previously stated, public speaking is a skill that separates the great from the exceptional. Oh, and Warren Buffett claims that Dale Carnegie changed his life with his public speaking course.
Have a great weekend!
Other Book Club Friday's Posts
What makes Sammy run?
Man's search for meaning
Creativity Inc.
Comment Below!
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