Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds

Science shows that passion is contagious, literally. You cannot inspire others unless you are inspired yourself. You stand a much greater chance of persuading and inspiring your listeners if you express an enthusiastic, passionate, and meaningful connection to your topic.

the power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power.

Every ‘no’ means you’re one step closer to ‘yes.

People cannot inspire others unless and until they are inspired themselves.

Learning is one addiction I don’t mind admitting to. In fact, I celebrate it.

stories are just data with a soul.

It’s been said that success doesn’t lead to happiness; happiness creates success.

Passion is the thing that will help you create the highest expression of your talent. —LARRY SMITH, TEDx, NOVEMBER 2011

What’s the first thing you should do when creating a PowerPoint presentation? If you’re like many people you’ll say, “Open PowerPoint.” Wrong answer. You should plan the story first. Just as a movie director storyboards the scenes before he begins shooting, you should create the story before you open the tool. You’ll have plenty of time to design pretty slides once the story is complete, but if the story is boring, you’ve lost your audience before you’ve spoken a word.

Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking,” Jobs told the graduates. “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

You’ve got to follow your passion. You’ve got to figure out what it is you love—who you really are. And have the courage to do that. I believe that the only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dreams.” —Oprah Winfrey

I’m a learning machine and this is the place to learn.

The first step to inspiring others is to make sure you’re inspired yourself.

It’s just about being you and being cool with that. And I think when you’re authentic, you end up following your heart, and you put yourself in places and situations and conversations that you love and that you enjoy. You meet people that you like talking to. You go places you’ve dreamt about. And you and up following your heart and feeling very fulfilled.

As Daniel Pink notes in To Sell Is Human, “Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.

Storytelling is not something we do. Storytelling is who we are.

The 18-minute rule isn’t simply a good exercise to learn discipline. It’s critical to avoid overloading your audience. Remember, constrained presentations require more creativity.

Our levels of desire, patience, persistence and confidence end up playing a much larger role in success than sheer reasoning powers.

novelty is the single most effective way to capture a person’s attention.

Great conversations or presentations take you to ideas you’d never considered.

The only way to have a great career, says Smith, is to do what you love.

The most popular TED speakers give presentations that stand out in a sea of ideas. As Daniel Pink notes in To Sell Is Human, “Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.”4 If you’ve been invited to give a TED talk, this book is your bible. If you haven’t been invited to give a TED talk and have no intention of doing so, this book is still among the most valuable books you’ll ever read because it will teach you how to sell yourself and your ideas more persuasively than you’ve ever imagined. It will teach you how to incorporate the elements that all inspiring presentations share, and it will show you how to reimagine the way you see yourself as a leader and a communicator. Remember, if you can’t inspire anyone else with your ideas, it won’t matter how great those ideas are. Ideas are only as good as the actions that follow the communication of those ideas.

You have to really be courageous about your instincts and your ideas. Otherwise you’ll just knuckle under, and things that might have been memorable will be lost. —FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

«Para alcanzar el éxito, uno debe convencer a los demás para que apoyen su visión, sueño o causa. Si queremos motivar a nuestros ejecutivos, organizar a nuestros accionistas, definir nuestra imagen en los medios, interactuar con los clientes, convencer a los inversores o conseguir un trabajo, debemos encontrar la manera de captar la atención de nuestros oyentes, conseguir que sientan nuestros objetivos como suyos e incitarlos a actuar en nuestro favor. Tenemos que llegar a sus corazones, no solo a sus mentes. Y esto es precisamente lo que las historias consiguen.»[

«El trabajo va a llenar gran parte de vuestra vida, y la única forma de estar satisfecho es hacer lo que consideréis un gran trabajo. Y la única forma de conseguirlo es amando lo que hagáis. Si aún no lo habéis encontrado, seguid buscando. No os conforméis. Como en todo lo que tiene que ver con el corazón, lo sabréis cuando lo encontréis. Y, como en todas las relaciones importantes, las cosas nunca dejan de mejorar con el paso de los años. Así que seguid buscando hasta que lo encontréis. No os conforméis».

«Vuestro tiempo es limitado, así que no lo perdáis viviendo la vida de otra persona. No os dejéis atrapar por dogmas, no viváis con los resultados del pensamiento de otra gente —dijo Jobs ante los recién graduados—. No permitáis que el ruido de las opiniones ajenas silencie vuestra voz interior. Y, más importante todavía, tened el valor de seguir a vuestro corazón e intuición, porque de alguna manera ya sabéis lo que realmente queréis llegar a ser.»[3] Las palabras de Jobs se dirigían directamente al tipo de personas a quienes conmueven las charlas TED: los buscadores, ávidos por aprender y que, descontentos con el orden establecido, andan a la caza de ideas nuevas e inspiradoras que harán avanzar el mundo.

Ahora es posible, gracias a una conferencia de fama mundial que difunde sus mejores intervenciones de forma gratuita a través de internet: TED (Tecnología, Educación, Diseño), a un análisis científico de cientos de estas presentaciones, a entrevistas directas con los conferenciantes más populares de TED y a mis propias aportaciones, fruto de años ejerciendo como coach de los carismáticos líderes de las empresas más admiradas de todo el mundo.

Maya Angelou once said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.