卡耐基演講·1.不要以道歉開頭

如果你事先未做準(zhǔn)備，聽眾中的一些人很快就會發(fā)覺，實在不用你加以指點。而其他的人可能不會發(fā)現(xiàn)，你又何必引起他們的注意力？為什么要侮辱你的聽眾？——因為你這樣說，等于是在向他們暗示，你認(rèn)為他們不值得你去準(zhǔn)備，而且你在火爐邊無意中聽來的一些資料就足以滿足他們。不，不，聽眾不希望聽到你說抱歉。我們齊集一堂是要聽取新的消息和意見，激起我們的興趣。你要特別記住后面這一點。你一來到聽眾面前，很自然而且無可避免地引起我們對你的注意。在以后的五秒鐘內(nèi)繼續(xù)維持我們對你的這份注意力并不困難，但要在以后的五分鐘內(nèi)維持這份注意力，可就很困難了。你一旦失去了聽眾對你的這份注意力，要想再爭取回來，那就加倍困難了。因此，你在第一個句子中就要說出某些吸引聽眾興趣的話。不是第二個句子，更不是第三句，是第一句！第一句！To begin a talk with an apology does not get you off to a good start either. How often we all have heard speakers begin by calling the attention of the audience to their lack of preparation or their lack of ability. If you are not prepared, the audience will probably discover it without your assistance. Why insult your audience by suggesting that you did not think them worth preparing for, that just any old thing you had on the fire was good enough to serve them? No, we don't want to hear apologies; we want to be informed and interested-to be interested: remember that. Let your opening sentence capture the interest of your audience. Not the second sentence. Not the third sentence. The first!