Imagine… Just now, I introduced you.
You are about to give the speech of your life in a matter of seconds. It is a good hook to start with. Your conclusion is strong. Your writing is excellent. Your appearance is flawless. You are assured.
Then the electricity is lost.
Or juice gets spilled on you.
When the outside of the room starts to play loud music.
Or the CEO adjourns the area.
Or your important prop is gone.
Or the space is shaken by a slight earthquake.
Or a rip in your clothing.
Or your machine crashes.
Or (fill in the blank with your worst nightmare).
You can only do one thing, and you must only do one thing.
The One Thing You Must Do Continue.
Even if you might not want to, you absolutely must do it.
Whatever the distraction, you must maintain focus and move forward. The greatest thing you can do is give the speech as effectively as you can unless someone requires medical assistance. If necessary, improvise, but keep moving forward.
Why?
Your audience initially empathizes with you. They have been in your position previously. They are aware that unfortunate events can occur at any time. However, being sympathetic does not give you permission to give up.
Second, your listeners are still interested in your speech. For a reason, they came to hear you speak, and that reason has not changed because of a loud noise, a light outage, or a mismatched outfit. You are required to continue.
Third, if you continue, you will feel better. Disasters that happen to you are beyond your control, but you do have influence over how you react to them. Even if your speech is not perfect, you will still win on a moral level if you keep going. For public speakers, moral triumphs are crucial. They boost your self-assurance and your capacity to deal with the next emergency that arises.
You might have to say sorry. If you do, that is OK, but it is not actually required. The apology keeps attention off you and on the catastrophe.
This Actually Occurred.
I attended an occasion this week when calamity happened, which gave me the idea for this brief essay.
The noise started as the event got going, but it came from the roof, not from next door! Sadly, they were unluckily fixing the portion of the roof that was just above the meeting space while they were working on the roof. The noises of intermittent drilling, as if a dentist were drilling into my teeth, could be heard for most of the conference.
Since two of the speakers were employed by the building, I suppose they were aware of the roof repairs. However, the third speaker was a visitor. I can only speculate as to what she was thinking just before she was presented.
All three speakers persisted despite the appalling surroundings. The first two spoke humorously and positioned their punchlines either before or after the sporadic drilling. The hardest task fell to the third speaker (the guest). She was addressing a group of people she did not know with a somber, motivational message. She also gave a fantastic speech. After a tense first minute, she did not appear to be phased at all by the drilling’s irritation. We were distracted from the background noise as her speech went on by her stories. She connected, and as a result, we benefited.
