卡耐基演講·一、對(duì)演講題材加以限制以適合講演時(shí)間

威廉·詹姆斯教授在向教師們發(fā)表演講時(shí)指出，一個(gè)人在一次演講中只能針對(duì)一個(gè)要點(diǎn)。他所說的演講，指那種時(shí)間限定在一個(gè)小時(shí)內(nèi)的演講，我卻聽過一位演講者三分鐘的演講，他一開頭就說，他想要針對(duì)十一個(gè)要點(diǎn)進(jìn)行談?wù)?。平均用十六秒半的時(shí)間來說明一個(gè)要點(diǎn)，怎么會(huì)有這樣“聰明”的人，居然想做如此荒謬的事情，不可思議吧？當(dāng)然，這也是個(gè)極端的例子，但是那種方式，就算不到那種地步，也足以妨礙到任何一個(gè)新手。他像個(gè)導(dǎo)游，帶著觀光客，一天之內(nèi)看遍巴黎風(fēng)光。這樣不是辦不到，但就像你也可以三十分鐘看完美國國家歷史博物館一樣，你也根本不知道清楚地看到了什么。他像只敏捷的山羊，飛快地從這點(diǎn)跳到那點(diǎn)。In one of his talks to teachers, Professor William James pauses to remark that one can make only one point in a lecture, and the lecture he referred to lasted an hour. Yet I recently heard a speaker, who was limited by a stop watch to three minutes, begin by saying that he wanted to call our attention to eleven points. Sixteen and a half seconds to each phase of his subject! Seems incredible, doesn't it, that an intelligent man should attempt anything so manifestly absurd? True, this is an extreme case but the tendency to err in that fashion, if not to that degree, handicaps almost every novice. He is like a cook's guide who shows Paris to the tourist in one day. It can be done, just as one can walk through the American Museum of Natural History in thirty minutes. But neither clearness nor enjoyment results. Many a talk fails to be clear because the speaker seems intent upon establishing a world's record for ground covered in the allotted time. He leaps from one point to another with the swiftness and agility of a mountain goat.

以勞工聯(lián)盟為題目的講話為例吧，你根本不能妄想在三或六分鐘內(nèi)告訴我們他們成立的原因，他們采用的方法，他們的建樹，他們的缺失以及怎樣解決工業(yè)爭端等。如果你拼命還想這樣做，沒有人會(huì)對(duì)你所說的產(chǎn)生概念。它將只是一次混亂、含糊，而且太過簡單的大綱罷了。If, for example, you are to speak on Labor Unions, do not attempt to tell us in three or six minutes why they came into existence, the methods they employ, the good they have accomplished, the evil they have wrought, and how to solve industrial disputes. No, no; if you strive to do that, no one will have a very clear conception of what you have said. It will be all confused, a blur, too sketchy, too much of a mere outline.

如果你只談“工聯(lián)”的一個(gè)方面，并且詳細(xì)講述，這樣做是不是要更明智一些呢？那是當(dāng)然。這樣你會(huì)留給聽眾一個(gè)單一的印象，但透徹易懂，也容易記憶。Wouldn't it be the part of wisdom to take one phase, and one phase only, of labor unions, and cover that adequately and illustrate it? It would. That kind of talk leaves a single impression. It is lucid, easy to listen to, easy to remember.

一天早晨，我去拜訪一家公司的總經(jīng)理，卻發(fā)現(xiàn)門牌上寫著陌生的名字。人事組長是我的老朋友，他說：“他的名字坑了他?！盬hen I went to call one morning on a company president whom I know, I found a strange name on his door. The personnel director, an old friend of mine, told me why.

“他的名字？”我不明白，“他不是控制這家公司的董事之一嗎？”His name caught up with him, my friend said. "His name?" I repeated. "He was one of the Joneses who control the company, wasn't he?"

“我說的是他的綽號(hào)，”朋友說，“他的綽號(hào)叫‘他現(xiàn)在在哪里’，人人都叫他‘他現(xiàn)在在哪里·鐘斯’。于是他沒撐多久，這個(gè)家族另換了一個(gè)親戚取代了他的位置。因?yàn)樗麖膩聿豢匣ㄐ乃既チ私夤菊麄€(gè)業(yè)務(wù)的概況，于是用這里躥一下，那邊躥一下，這樣躥來躥去、滿場(chǎng)亂跑的方式打發(fā)漫漫長日。他覺得看到船運(yùn)部門的職員關(guān)掉一盞燈，或見到速記員拾起一張紙，要比他研究一樁大買賣更重要。他很少待在辦公室，因此我們叫他‘他現(xiàn)在在哪里’?！盜 mean his nickname. my friend said. "It was 'Where-Is-He-Now?' Everyone called him 'Where-Is-He-Now' Jones. He didn't last long. The family put a cousin in his place. He never took the pains to know what this business is all about. He'd put in a good long day, all right, but doing what? Popping in here, popping in there, all over the place, all the time. Just sort of covering ground. He thought it was more important for him to see that a shipping clerk turned out an electric light or that a stenographer picked up a paper clip than it was for him to study a big sales campaign. He wasn't in his office much. That's why we called him 'Where-Is-He-Now'."

“他現(xiàn)在在哪里·鐘斯”讓我想起很多講演者，他們之所以不能表現(xiàn)得更優(yōu)秀一點(diǎn)兒，就是因?yàn)樗麄兿耒娝瓜壬粯?，想去包攬?zhí)嗟姆秶?。你沒有聽過像這樣的講演嗎？他們講著講著，會(huì)不會(huì)也讓你有：“他現(xiàn)在在哪里？”的想法。Where-Is-He-Now Jones reminds me of many speakers who could do much better than they do. They don't do better because they won't discipline themselves. They are the ones who, like Mr. Jones, try to cover too much ground. Haven't you heard them? And in the midst of a talk, haven't you wondered, "Where is he now?"

一些經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富的演講者，有時(shí)也犯這樣的錯(cuò)誤。也許是他們身具多方面的才華，以致看不到精力分散的危險(xiǎn)。你不要像他們，應(yīng)該緊扣主題。如果你讓自己清楚明了，聽眾就會(huì)這么說：“我懂他說的，我知道他現(xiàn)在在哪里！”Even some experienced speakers are guilty of this fault. Perhaps the fact that they are capable in many other ways blinds them to the danger in dispersed effort. You need not be like them. Hold fast to your main theme. If you are to make yourself clear, your hearers must always be able to say, "I understand him.! know where he is now!"