“The secret to a great speech,” explained Mark Twain, “is to have a great opening and a great finish, and to have the two of them as close together as possible.”
If there was anyone who ever put pen to paper who knew a thing or two about the power of words, it was Mark Twain, not only one of America’s premier writers, but one of our great speakers as well. Yet there he was – prolific and flowing – paying public homage to the principle that one should never miss the chance to shut up whenever possible.
Practical Definition of The Internet
In this age of public exposure – make that, super/uber/overexposure – when anyone with a phone and Wi-Fi can clog the channels with their fantasies that the world is waiting for their next words of wisdom – you, who I assume really do have a message worth listening to, are competing against so many who don’t. Which speaks to my long-held definition of the internet: A place where people who have nothing to say, say it.
The Art of Public Speaking
For 15 years I taught a graduate-level course – Executive Communication and Leadership – at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, and I couldn’t have been more emphatic about my belief that great communication is more of an art than anything else, and if we were to liken our presentation styles to a style of art, it would be minimalism. Mark Twain was saying the same thing, it seems. Written and oral presentations were limited to four pages and seven minutes, respectively, with no exceptions.
Pointless, Endless, and Hopeless
The point here was simple: Avoid the trap of being pointless, endless, and hopeless by getting to the point, staying on point, and then getting off point. Period. In other words, know where you’re going, know how you’re getting there, and recognize when you’ve arrived. Bluntly, when you’re done communicating, stop talking.
No better example exists than Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863), widely considered one of the two most consequential speeches in American history (I Have A Dream). Lincoln knew precisely his purpose (reaffirm the saving of the Union), his method (brief oratory paying tribute to our founding fathers – “Four score and seven years ago…” – and also “consecrate, hallow this ground”), and when he had made his point (“…that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”) And in a speech that he was still editing on the train ride from Washington, DC to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he was done in two and a half minutes. He cemented America’s course of history in less time than it takes to play an overtime period of a basketball game.
But what was most illuminating about Lincoln’s presentation was not only the brevity of his speech; it was also a speech given that day by Edward Everett, a Senator from Massachusetts considered the premier orator of the day. Everett was the program’s big draw, not just because he was a celebrity, but because, you’ll remember, Lincoln was despised by half the audience – those from the Confederacy.
So as Everett rose to speak, the audience’s anticipation was palpable, a condition Everett managed to squander by speaking for … an hour and 57 minutes. In the days to follow, the nation’s newspapers carried every word of Everett’s speech on their front pages and beyond, while Lincoln’s one-paragraph was buried wherever it would fit
It’s 161 years later. Which speech do we remember?
So, in today’s overcrowded, overstuffed social media environment where tens of millions of messages are coming at – and competing for the attention of – the audience you’re trying to reach, you have no choice but to make your speech a notable one.
Just the way Lincoln and Twain did it.