卡耐基演講·1.人性的談話

有一次，我要巴黎的美國商人以“成功之道”為題作講演。他們大多數(shù)人都只列舉一大串抽象的東西，空談什么勤奮工作、持之以恒或者樹立遠大抱負的大道理。I once asked a group of American businessmen in Paris to talk on "How to Succeed." Most of them merely listed a lot of abstract qualities and gave preachments on the value of hard work, persistence, and ambition.

因此，我終止了他們的講話：“我們都不想聽別人說教，沒有誰會喜歡。要記住，必須讓我們感到愉快和有趣，要不然，你說什么我們都不會注意。同時也要記住，世上最有趣的事情，無非都是那些精致典雅，妙語連珠的趣聞軼事。所以，請講你所認(rèn)識的兩個人的故事，告訴我們?yōu)槭裁匆粋€會成功，而另一個卻失敗。我們會很高興去聽這樣的故事，同時也會因此而獲益匪淺?！盨o I halted this class, and said something like this, "We don't want to be lectured to. No one enjoys that. Remember, you must be entertaining or we will pay no attention whatever to what you are saying. Also remember that one of the most interesting things in the world is sublimated, glorified gossip. So tell us the stories of two men you have known. Tell why one succeeded and why the other failed. We will gladly listen to that, remember it, and possibly profit by it."

這班里有個學(xué)員，他總是覺得要提起自己的興趣或激發(fā)聽眾的興趣真的很難?？墒沁@天晚上，他利用“人性故事”的建議，向我們講了大學(xué)里兩個同窗的故事。一個小心謹(jǐn)慎，錙銖必較，比如買襯衫，他一定要分別在城里不同的店里買襯衫，并制表顯示哪一件最經(jīng)得起洗熨，穿得最久，通過這樣的方式來使每一塊錢的投資得到最大程度的利用。工學(xué)院畢業(yè)后，他自視清高，不甘愿像別的畢業(yè)生那樣從基層開始做起。因此三年后同學(xué)聚會，他仍舊在畫他的襯衫洗熨表，仍舊在等待特別的好差事降臨。結(jié)果，他什么也沒有等到。從那時候起，過了四分之一個世紀(jì)，那人滿腹怨恨與不滿，仍舊待在一個小職位上。There was a certain member of that course who invariably found it difficult to interest either himself or his audience. This night, however, he seized the human interest suggestion and told us of two of his classmates in college. One of them had been so conservative that he had bought shirts at the different stores in town, and made charts showing which ones laundered best, wore longest, and gave the most service per dollar invested. His mind was always on pennies; yet, when he was graduated - it was an engineering college - he had such a high opinion of his own importance that he was not willing to begin at the bottom and work his way up, as the other graduates were doing. Even when the third annual reunion of the class came, he was still making laundry charts of his shirts, while waiting for some extraordinarily good thing to come his way. It never came. A quarter of a century has passed since then, and this man, his satisfied and soured on life, still holds a minor position.

接著我們的學(xué)員又講了另一個同學(xué)的故事：現(xiàn)在這個同學(xué)已經(jīng)超越了當(dāng)初對自己的期望。他極易與人相處，大家都喜歡他。雖然他有萬丈雄心，有志成就大事業(yè)，卻踏實地從繪圖員開始做起。不過，他總在尋找著機會。當(dāng)時，紐約世界博覽會正處在計劃階段，他知道那里需要工程方面的人才，所以便辭去費城的職務(wù)，搬往紐約。他與人合伙，馬上搞起了承包工程的業(yè)務(wù)，承攬了很多電話公司的業(yè)務(wù)，最后，他也終因此被“博覽會”高薪延聘。The speaker then contrasted with this failure the story of one of his classmates who had surpassed all expectations. This particular chap was a good mixer. Everyone liked him. Although he was ambitious to do big things later, he started as a draftsman. But he was always on the lookout for opportunity. Plans were then being made for the New York World's Fair. He knew engineering talent would be needed there, so he resigned from his position in Philadelphia and moved to New York. There he formed a partnership and engaged immediately in the contracting business. They did considerable work for the telephone company, and this man was finally taken over by that concern at a large salary.

我這兒所寫下的東西，僅僅是那位講演者所講說的一個簡單的概述。他本身的講述中還有許多逗人而充滿人情味的細節(jié)，使他的講演妙趣橫生。他不停地說著，說著——這個人平時是找不到東西來講三分鐘講演的——而這次，等他結(jié)束時，吃驚地發(fā)現(xiàn)，足足講了十分鐘。由于講得太精彩了，大家還似乎都覺得太短了，余意未盡。這是他講演的第一次勝利。I have recorded here only the bare outline of what the speaker told. He made his talk interesting and illuminating with a score of amusing and human interest details. He talked on and on - this man who could not ordinarily find material for a three-minute speech - and he was surprised to learn, when he stopped, that he had held the floor on this occasion for ten minutes. The speech had been so interesting that it seemed short to everyone. It was his first real triumph.

每個人都可以在這個事例中得到一些感悟。本身很平淡的講演如果其中能富含人性的趣味故事，也能引人入勝。講演者應(yīng)該只簡要地提出重點，然后就用具體的事例作為例證。這樣構(gòu)建的講演，肯定可以吸引聽眾的注意。Almost everyone can profit by this incident. The average speech would be far more appealing if it were rich with human interest stories. The speaker should attempt to make only a few points and to illustrate them with concrete cases. Such a method of speech building can hardly fail to get and hold attention.

當(dāng)然，這種人情趣味材料最豐富源泉，正是自己的生活背景。不要因為覺得不該談?wù)撟约?，便躊躇著不敢述說自己的經(jīng)驗。只有在一個人滿懷敵意、狂妄自大地談?wù)撟约旱臅r候，聽眾才會起討厭。否則，聽眾對講演者述說的親身經(jīng)歷是有很大的興趣的。親身經(jīng)歷是抓住他人注意力最有效、最可靠的方法，千萬不要忽視這一點。Of course, the richest source of such human interest material is your own background. Don't hesitate to tell us about your experiences because of some feeling that you should not talk about yourself. The only time an audience objects to hearing a person talk about himself is when he does it in an offensive, egotistical way. Otherwise, audiences are tremendously interested in the personal stories speakers tell. They are the surest means of holding attention; don't neglect them.