卡耐基演講·二、誠心誠意地贊賞聽眾

聽眾由單個的人組成，所以聽眾的反應也跟個人的反應一樣。如果你敢公然地批評聽眾，必然導致憤懣。如果你對他們做的值得稱贊的事表示贊美，你就贏得了通往他們心靈的鑰匙。但這也需要你認真地研究一下，因為如果你的贊美是一些夸張、肉麻的詞句，比如“各位是我曾面對過的最有智慧的聽眾”，也會被大多數(shù)的聽眾認為是空洞的諂媚而感到厭惡。Audiences are composed of individuals, and they react like individuals. Openly criticize an audience and they resent it. Show your appreciation for something they have done that is worthy of praise, and you win a passport into their hearts. This often requires some research on your part. Such fulsome phrases as "this is the most intelligent audience I have ever addressed," are resented as hollow flattery by most audiences.

引用大演講家姜西·M.德普說的話：你得“告訴他們一些有關他們的事，并且是他們沒想到你可能會知道的事”。舉例說，有個人最近要在巴爾的摩基瓦尼俱樂部演講，卻找不到有關該俱樂部的特殊資料，只知道在會員里曾有一位出任國際會長，一位出任國際董事。這些對俱樂部里的人來說并不是新聞。他想來點新鮮的東西，于是這樣開場：“巴爾的摩基瓦尼俱樂部是101898個基瓦尼俱樂部中的一個！”會員們感到有些奇怪：這個演講人根本就錯了——因為全球只有2897個基瓦尼俱樂部。然后講演者接著說：In the words of a great speaker, Chauncey M. Depew, you have to "tell them something about themselves that they didn't think you could possibly know." For example, a man who spoke before the Baltimore Kiwanis Club recently could find nothing unusual about that club except that it had in its membership a past international president and an international trustee. This was no news to the members of the club. So he tried to give it a new twist. He started his talk with this sentence: "The Baltimore Kiwanis Club is one club in 101 ,898 !" The members listened. This speaker was certainly wrong-because there were only 2,897 Kiwanis Clubs in the world. The speaker then went on:

“可是，就算各位不相信吧，它仍然是個事實，至少在數(shù)學方面是這樣。各位的俱樂部是101898個當中的一個，不是100 000或200 000個當中的一個，而確實是101898個當中的一個。Yes, even if you don't believe it, it is still a fact that your club, mathematically at least, is one in 101,898. Not one club in 100,000 or one in 200,000, but just exactly one in 101,898.

“我是怎樣算出來的呢？全球的基瓦尼俱樂部只有2897個。這樣的話，巴爾的摩俱樂部過去曾出過一位國際會長和一位國際董事。從數(shù)學的觀點看，任何一個基瓦尼俱樂部想同時出個國際會長和董事的幾率是1：101898——我有鐘斯、霍普金斯數(shù)學博士學位，可以證明我計算出來的數(shù)字的準確性?！庇谑牵玫搅舜蠹业淖⒁?。How do I figure that out? Kiwanis International has only 2,897 member clubs. Well, the Baltimore club has a past president of Kiwanis International and an international trustee. Mathematically, the chances that any Kiwanis club will have both a past president and an international trustee at the same time are one in 101,898-and the reason I know it's right is that I got a Johns Hopkins Ph.D. in mathematics to figure it out for me.

在你表示贊美的時候，要確實百分之百的真誠。如果沒有誠意的話，偶爾可以騙過個人，卻永遠騙不了聽眾。什么“這樣高度智慧的聽眾……”“這來自霍霍柯斯、新澤西……的美女和俠士的特別聚會”，“我真高興在這兒，因為我愛你們每一位”……哎呀！千萬不要這樣！如果表示不出真心的贊賞，那一點也別表示還好一些。Be exactly one hundred per cent sincere. An insincere statement may occasionally fool an individual, but it never fools an audience. "This highly intelligent audience..." "This exceptional gathering of the beauty and chivalry of Honour, New Jersey..." "I'm glad to be here because I love each one of you." No, no, no! If you can't show sincere appreciation, don't show any!