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PUBLIC SPEAKING E-BOOK By - Dale Carnegie
The
efficiency of a free public speaking e-book is like that of a man, in one
important respect: its attitude toward its subject is the first source of its
power. A book may be full of good ideas well expressed, but if its writer views
his subject from the wrong angle even his excellent advice may prove to be
ineffective. This e-book stands or falls by its authors' attitude toward its
subject. If the best way to teach oneself or others to speak effectively in
public is to fill the mind with rules, and to set up fixed standards for the
interpretation of thought, the utterance of language, the making of gestures,
and all the rest, then this book will be limited in value to such stray ideas
throughout its pages as may prove helpful to the reader--as an effort to enforce
a group of principles it must be reckoned a failure, because it is then
untrue.
Training in public speaking is not a matter of
externals--primarily; it is not a matter of imitation--fundamentally; it is
not a matter of conformity to standards--at all. Public speaking is public
utterance, public issuance, of the man himself; therefore the first thing both
in time and in importance is that the man should be and think and feel things
that are worthy of being given forth. Unless there be something of value within,
no tricks of training can ever make of the talker anything more than a
machine--albeit a highly perfected machine--for the delivery of other men's
goods. So self-development is fundamental in our plan.
An examination of
the contents of this volume will show how consistently these articles of faith
have been declared, expounded, and illustrated. The student is urged to begin to
speak at once of what he knows. Then he is given simple suggestions for
self-control, with gradually increasing emphasis upon the power of the inner man
over the outer. Next, the way to the rich storehouses of material is pointed
out. And finally, all the while he is urged to speak, speak, SPEAK as he
is applying to his own methods, in his own personal way, the principles he has
gathered from his own experience and observation and the recorded experiences of
others. So now at the very first let it be as clear as light that methods are
secondary matters; that the full mind, the warm heart, the dominant will are
primary--and not only primary but paramount; for unless it be a full being that
uses the methods it will be like dressing a wooden image in the clothes of a
man.
These e-books may not have revolutionary new ideas, but there
are no other better books to cover the basics. |
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