Speak with Confidence

Introduction

The Framework for Confidence

I just bought my first sailboat …

For $1,000, and I quickly realized it was going to be the most expensive $1,000 I'd ever spent. This realization led me to sell the boat one month after my acquisition. Having never owned a boat before, I learned a lot in that month about remodeling, sailing techniques, and the many names of ropes. I also learned that boats are a great analogy for confidence.

Imagine a three‐masted schooner braving high winds and floating chunks of ice to bring life‐saving medicine to a town on the far side of Lake Superior. Or Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his crew sailing across the Pacific in an unpowered handmade raft to demonstrate that the Polynesian Islands could have been populated by South Americans. Or a crew of crabbers returning from frigid Alaskan waters, loaded down with their precious cargo. Or a state of the art, carbon fiber trimaran tacking back and forth against the wind, an expert crew sailing her at seemingly impossible speeds in hopes of the America's Cup.

Or a canoe piloted by a drunken thrill‐seeker heading toward Niagara Falls.

To many people, the idea of public speaking is as frightening as heading over Niagara in a canoe. But I want you to imagine a world without inspiring speeches such as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” or Patrick Henry's “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.” For as long as humans have been talking, there have been those brave enough to risk rejection and ...