Public speaking used to make Warren Buffett ‘physically ill’. Then this happened
When he graduated from Columbia Business School in 1951, Warren Buffett decided that he will overcome his fear of public speaking.
Warren Buffett- Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO- was not always a good speaker as he said that the thought of speaking in public made him “physically ill" so much so that in college he chose courses in which he would not have talk in front of a class. When he graduated from Columbia Business School in 1951, Warren Buffett decided that he will overcome his fear of public speaking. In order to do so, he enrolled in a $100 public speaking course at Dale Carnegie Training.

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He said, ″[The class] certainly had the biggest impact in terms of my subsequent success. A relatively modest improvement [in your communication skills] can make a major difference in your future earning power, as well as in many other aspects of your life.”
Here are some tips from the course that changed Warren Buffett into an amazing public speaker:
- As per the CEO of the company that offers the course, when you are speaking in public you should “talk about something that you know and know that you know. Don’t spend ten minutes or ten hours preparing a talk: Spend ten weeks or ten months. Better still, spend ten years.” Read more: How Shark Tank judge Mark Cuban made 300 of his employees millionaires
- Becoming an “active learner” is important as this will help you have more knowledge of various subjects.
- Focussing on talking about your own experience and making a speech personal can help you win people over, as per Dale Carnegie who suggested, “Carry a sheet of paper with you for a few weeks and write down, as you think of them, all the subjects that you are prepared to talk about through experience." Read more: Nvidia's Jensen Huang doesn't think your job can make you happy: ‘Not true at all'
- Taking copious notes about what you are going to speak can help as Dale Carnegie said, “When you stand up to talk, you will probably find yourself trying to remember what you wrote. That will keep you from speaking naturally and with sparkle.”
- Exude positive energy and confidence about the topic that you are speaking about as it can make a huge difference, the course recommends as “even people with only mediocre speaking ability may make superb talks if they will speak about something that has deeply stirred them.”