卡耐基演講·一、投其所好，依聽眾的興趣演講

這正是康威爾博士的方法。他習(xí)慣在自己的講演里加入許多當(dāng)?shù)厝私?jīng)常談?wù)摰臇|西和他們了解的實(shí)例。聽眾對(duì)他感興趣，只是因?yàn)樗恼勗拑?nèi)容與他們有關(guān)，與他們的興趣有關(guān)，與他們的問題有關(guān)。這種與聽眾本身及其興趣相關(guān)聯(lián)的聯(lián)系，能夠?qū)⒙牨姷淖⒁饬卫蔚刈プ?，從而保證溝通順利。艾力克·鐘斯頓是前美國商會(huì)會(huì)長(zhǎng)，現(xiàn)為電影協(xié)會(huì)會(huì)長(zhǎng)，幾乎在他每一場(chǎng)講演中都應(yīng)用了這種技巧。下面，我們來看看他在俄克拉荷馬州立大學(xué)的畢業(yè)典禮上是怎樣機(jī)智地使用這個(gè)方法的：That is exactly what Dr. Conwell did. He made a point of working into his lecture plenty of local allusions and examples. His audiences were interested because his talk concerned them, their interests, their problems. This linkage with what your hearers are most interested in, namely, themselves, will insure attention and guarantee that the lines of communication will remain open. Eric Johuston, former head of the United States Chamber of Commerce and now president of the Motion Picture Association, uses this technique in almost every talk he gives. Note how resourcefully he employed local interests in a commencement address at the University of Oklahoma:

“各位俄克拉荷馬人，對(duì)于習(xí)慣于危言聳聽的販子們應(yīng)是再熟悉不過的了。各位稍稍回想一下便會(huì)想起來，他們一向?qū)⒍砜死神R州列于書本之外，以為它是永遠(yuǎn)絕望的冒險(xiǎn)。You Oklahomans are well acquainted with goose-pimple peddlers. You don't have to think back too far to remember when they were writing Oklahoma off the books as a hopeless risk forever.

“噢，30年代，所有望而卻步的烏鴉都告訴其他的烏鴉們說，最好避開俄克拉荷馬，除非自己攜帶干糧。Why, in the 1930's, all the ravens of despair were telling the crows to bypass Oklahoma unless they could pack along their own rations.

“他們把俄克拉荷馬的將來，劃入新美洲沙漠永遠(yuǎn)不可以改變的一部分?！@里永遠(yuǎn)再不會(huì)有東西會(huì)開花的?！麄冞@樣形容。但是到了1940年，俄克拉荷馬卻成了花園，百老匯也要舉杯為它祝福。因?yàn)槟莾骸?dāng)雨后風(fēng)兒吹來，便有小麥波浪起伏、散放清香’。They consigned Oklahoma to an everlasting future as part of a new American desert. Nothing would ever bloom again - they said. But in the 1940's Oklahoma was a garden spot - and the toast of Broadway. For, once again, there was "waving wheat that sure smells sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain.”

“再過短短的十年后，這個(gè)干旱肆虐的地帶，呈現(xiàn)在眼前的是大地覆蓋玉米稈，高到象眼的地方。In one short decade, the dustbowl was smothered with cornstalk as high as the elephant's eye.

“這是信仰的結(jié)果——也是有計(jì)劃的冒險(xiǎn)的結(jié)果……Here was a pay-off for faith-and calculated risk...

“因此，我們觀望自己的時(shí)代的時(shí)候，應(yīng)該總是看到美好的遠(yuǎn)景，而不是停留在昨天的背景中。But it is always possible to see our own times in better perspective against the backdrop of yesterday.

“當(dāng)準(zhǔn)備訪問這里的時(shí)候，我去尋找檔案里的《俄克拉荷馬日?qǐng)?bào)》，看看1901年的春天是什么樣的。我想體會(huì)50年前本地的生活滋味。So I looked up the files of the Daily Oklahoman for the spring of 1901 in preparation for my visit here. I wanted to sample the flavor of life in the territory fifty years ago.

“結(jié)果我發(fā)現(xiàn)了什么？And what did I discover?

“噢，我發(fā)現(xiàn)了它描述的全是俄克拉荷馬的未來，他們把重心都放在希望上啦。”Why I found the big accent was all on Oklahoma's future. The big stress was on hope.

根據(jù)聽眾所關(guān)注的事情和興趣來演講，這是個(gè)極好的例子。艾力克·鐘斯頓采用的有計(jì)劃的冒險(xiǎn)事例，來自聽眾在后院的談話。他讓聽眾覺得，他的講演不是油印出來的一份拷貝文件——而是特地為他們準(zhǔn)備的。講演者根據(jù)聽眾所關(guān)注的事情和興趣而講，聽眾就禁不住要去注意了。Here is an excellent example of talking in terms of audience interest. Eric Johnston used instances of calculated risk right out of his listeners' back yards. He made them feel that his talk was no mimeographed copy-it was freshly created for them. No audience can withhold attention from a speaker who talks in its interests.

先問問自己：你的講演能夠幫助聽眾解決什么樣的問題，怎樣達(dá)到他們的目標(biāo)？然后開始講給他們聽，就會(huì)獲得他們的全神貫注。如果你是個(gè)會(huì)計(jì)師，你的開場(chǎng)白就可以這樣：我現(xiàn)在要教你們?nèi)绾晤A(yù)立遺囑。你就可以有一群興致勃勃的聽眾。事實(shí)上，每個(gè)人的知識(shí)積累中，必然會(huì)有某個(gè)題目真能對(duì)聽眾有所幫助。Ask yourself how knowledge of your subject will help the members of your audience solve their problems and achieve their goals. Then proceed to show them that, and you will have their complete attention. If you are an accountant and you start your talk by saying something like this, "I am going to show you how to save from fifty to a hundred dollars on your tax return." or you are a lawyer and you tell your listeners how to go about making a will, you will be certain to have an interested audience. Surely, there is some topic in your special fund of knowledge that can be of real help to members of your audience.

有人問英國報(bào)業(yè)巨子諾斯克利夫爵士，什么能夠激起人們的興趣？他回答說：“人們自己?！彼透鶕?jù)這一單純的事實(shí)，建起了報(bào)業(yè)王國。When asked what interests people, Lord Northcliffe, the William Randolph Hearst of British journalism, replied, "Themselves." He built a newspaper empire on that single truth.

詹姆士·哈威·羅賓生在《思想的醞釀》一書里，形容幻想是“出于自然而最受歡迎的一種思想”。他接下去說，在幻想中，我們?cè)试S自己的想法沿著它們各自的方向前進(jìn)，而它的方向以人們的希望或恐懼來確定；以我們自然個(gè)體的成功或幻滅來確定；以我們的喜、惡、愛、恨、憎、怨來確定。世上再?zèng)]有比我們自己更令我們感興趣的事了。In Mind in the Making, James Harvey Robinson describes reverie as "a spontaneous and favourite kind of thinking." He goes on to say that, in reverie, we allow our ideas to take their own course, and this course is determined by our hopes and fears, our spontaneous desires, their fulfillment or frustration; by our likes and dislikes, our loves, hates, and resentments. There is nothing so interesting to ourselves as ourselves.

來自費(fèi)城的哈羅德·杜懷特，在上課時(shí)舉行的宴會(huì)上進(jìn)行了一場(chǎng)非常成功的演講。他依次談到圍坐在餐桌旁的每個(gè)人。說剛開始的時(shí)候，自己是怎樣的不會(huì)講話，而現(xiàn)在他進(jìn)步多了?；貞浧鹜瑢W(xué)們所作過的講演，討論過的題目，他夸張地模仿其中一些人，逗得大家開懷大笑。這樣的材料，是不可能讓他失敗的，是談話很理想的題材。杜懷特先生真是通曉人性，你想想還有什么題目更能使大家感興趣的呢？Harold Dwight, of Philadelphia, made an extraordinarily successful talk at a banquet which marked the final session of our course. He talked about each person in turn around the entire table, how he had spoken when the course started, how he had improved; he recalled the talks various members had made, the subjects they had discussed; he mimicked some of them, exaggerated their peculiarities, had everyone laughing, had everyone pleased. With such material, he could not possibly have failed. It was absolutely ideal No other topic under the blue dome of heaven would have so interested that group. Mr. Dwight knew how to handle human nature.

現(xiàn)在的《美國》雜志，發(fā)展速度極為驚人。它的銷售量劇增，引起出版界一片驚訝。它的訣竅是什么呢？訣竅就在已故的西德達(dá)和他的理念上。記得剛認(rèn)識(shí)西德達(dá)時(shí)，他正主持雜志的《有趣人物》專欄。我替他寫過幾篇文章。有一天他坐下來和我長(zhǎng)談：Some years ago I wrote a series of articles for the American Magazine, and I had the opportunity of talking with John Siddall, who was then in charge of the Interesting People Department.

“人都是自私的，”他說，“他們只對(duì)自己感興趣。他們并不十分關(guān)心政府是否應(yīng)該把鐵路收歸國有，但他們卻希望知道如何獲得晉升，如何得到更多的薪水，如何保持健康。如果我是這家雜志的總編輯，我將告訴讀者如何照顧牙齒，如何洗澡，如何在夏天時(shí)保持清涼，如何找到工作，如何應(yīng)付所雇用的員工，如何購買房子，如何增強(qiáng)記憶力，如何避免文法錯(cuò)誤，等等。另外，人們也總是對(duì)旁人的生平故事感興趣，所以我會(huì)邀請(qǐng)一些大富翁，讓他們談?wù)勊侨绾卧诜康禺a(chǎn)事業(yè)上賺進(jìn)上百萬的美元。我還要找一些著名的銀行家及各大公司的總裁們，讓他們談一談自己是如何從低層奮斗到有權(quán)有勢(shì)的地位的?！盤eople are selfish, he said. "they are interested chiefly in themselves. They are not very much concerned about whether the government should own the railroads; but they do want to know how to get ahead, how to draw more salary, how to keep healthy. If I were editor of this magazine," he went on, "I would tell them how to take care of their teeth, how to take baths, how to keep cool in summer, how to get a position, how to handle employees, how to buy homes, how to remember, how to avoid grammatical error, and so on. People are always interested in human interest stories, so I would have some rich man tell how he made a million in real estate. I would get prominent bankers and presidents of various corporations to tell the stories of how they battled their ways up from the ranks to power and wealth."

不久，西德達(dá)真的當(dāng)上了總編輯。當(dāng)時(shí)雜志的銷路很小，是相當(dāng)失敗的一本雜志。西德達(dá)立即按照他自己的構(gòu)想開展工作。效果怎樣？剛才我們已經(jīng)談到了，雜志的銷售量急速上升，達(dá)到20萬份、30萬份甚至更多。因?yàn)樗膬?nèi)容是一般民眾所希望閱讀的，沒多久，該雜志的月銷售量就達(dá)到100萬份，但銷售量并沒有就此停住，而是持續(xù)地上升。西德達(dá)滿足了讀者們自私的興趣，也就獲得了雜志的成功。Shortly after that, Siddall was made editor. The magazine then had a small circulation. Siddall did just what he said he would do. The response? It was over whelming. The circulation figures climbed up to two hundred thousand, three, four, haft a million. Here was something the public wanted. Soon a million people a month were buying it, then a million and a half, finally two million. It did not stop there, but continued to grow for many years. Siddall appealed to the selfinterests of his readers.

當(dāng)你面對(duì)聽眾時(shí)，假想他們很希望聽到你的演講——只要它能對(duì)他們有用。講演者如果不考慮聽眾自我中心的必然傾向，很容易發(fā)現(xiàn)自己面對(duì)的是煩躁不安的聽眾。他們會(huì)局促不安、表現(xiàn)膩煩，不時(shí)抬起手看手表，并且渴望著離開。The next time you face an audience, visualize them as eager to hear what you have to say-as long as it applies to them. Speakers who fail to take this essential egocentricity of their listeners into account are apt to find themselves facing a restless audience, one squirming in boredom, glancing at wristwatches, and looking hopefully toward the exit doors.