Below is part of an interview with Nobel Prize winning author, Ernest Hemingway from an article titled “The Art of Fiction,” which appeared in the Paris Review in 1956.
Interviewer: “How much rewriting do you do?
Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of ‘A Farewell to Arms’, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.
Interviewer: Was there some technical problems there? What was it that had stumped you?
Hemingway: Getting the words right.”
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Speaking, usually, is easy – especially when the stakes are low.
Speaking well, consistently – in any interaction, encounter, meeting, presentation, no matter the level of pressure, no matter the level of audience seniority or size of audience – for most people, is not easy.
Why do I mention this?
My view is that when you speak, you’re always auditioning for leadership. For example, if you make a cogent remark in a boardroom meeting where people with clout are sitting around the table – those people will remember you and your remark, and it might be the reason why you outpoint a colleague for a future, plum, high profile role.
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Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769), Frederick Douglass (11 August 1841) Fidel Castro (13 August 1927) Bill Clinton (19 August 1946) and Barack Obama (4 August 1961).
On 28 August 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his ‘I have a dream’ speech.Continue reading