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Only the greatest public speakers are afforded the honor of having bobble head dolls rendered in their likeness. (Source)
When you're asked to think of great speakers of the past century, who springs to mind?
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
Winston Churchill
Barack Obama (after our previous lesson, we've no doubt he's at the forefront of your mind)
The speakers we all seem to remember, reflect on, and discuss long after the speech has been spoken are most often affiliated in some way with politics. Though King wasn't a politician in the most widely accepted form of the term, he most certainly was speaking about topics directly affected by the politics of the nation at the time.
Who else makes great speeches?
Professional performers are trained in elocution, diction, and rhetorical strategies, but how often do we talk about that incredible speech given by the daytime soap star? We might enjoy watching these folks perform, but truly great speeches are often quite heartfelt—which people who play roles for money might not always be. They might be entertaining, but in truth, might not be the best public speakers.
Another category of oft-overlooked but potentially amazing speech givers is entrepreneurs. Perhaps we don't often look to the thinkers and makers as those who may give great speeches because many of these folks tend to be more subdued or introverted types.
Not so with Steve Jobs.
As a well-known inventor and the CEO for Apple Inc., Jobs was notorious for being outspoken—and not always in a good way. He did, however, give one particularly remarkable speech that we'll be listening to/watching and dissecting here in just a few.
It seems, really, that anyone could be an amazing public speaker, no matter what line of work you may be in, what your political beliefs are, or what kind of background you may have come from. How could you speak out and be memorialized for the things you have to say?
Hey—we all need mouthpieces.
JOBS AT STANFORD
Back in 2005, Stanford University asked Steve Jobs to give the commencement speech as the graduating class prepared themselves for the world beyond the classroom. This was two years after he'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and six years before he eventually passed away from the disease.
We're willing to bet this shaped the way he was thinking about life at the time, and want you to consider this as you first read, then watch Jobs' speech.
We're asking you to both read and watch the speech for a few reasons (none of which are because we're secretly masochists). When you read something to yourself, your own personal experiences and understanding of the world—and words—will shape how you take in and retain the information (or not). We want you to experience Jobs' speech on your own before you actually hear the way he spoke it.
As you read, think about places where well-timed pauses might be useful, or where Jobs might make eye contact with the crowd at pivotal moments. Make some notes on your thoughts, then later, when you watch the speech, see how on target you were with your guesses.
Read "'You've got to find what you love," Jobs says" now, then prepare to see just how Jobs, uh, got the job done.
What did you think? Jobs told some fairly enthralling stories. Let's see him in action, actually giving the commencement speech now: "Steve Jobs: How to live before you die."
When you're finished, think about the following:
How were reading the speech and watching it different in experience for you?
Were your guesses about Jobs' delivery on target? Or were they completely off base?
What did you take from Jobs' speech? Why do you think we're including it in this unit about how speeches should be delivered?
Think about our questions for a few, then hop over into the next reading.
FORBES <3's JOBS
Carmine Gallo is a writer, keynote speaker, and communication coach with a penchant for all things Steve Jobs. Okay, that might be a tad hyperbolic, but Gallo did compose an article called, " Why Steve Jobs' Commencement Speech Still Inspires 10 Years Later" that we're going to take a look at now. All of those thoughts and feelings you were just having about Jobs' speech? Gallo has lots of them, too.
This is one of those two-page articles, so make sure to click through to the second page when you reach the end of the first.
When you're finished reading the article, consider:
How did Jobs' speech compare to Obama's? Were they comparable?
How are both speeches effective as paradigms of public speaking?
Which presentation and delivery style spoke to you more directly?
We've got one final case study on deck for you to examine before concluding this unit and studying for your unit test, so whenever you're primed and ready, dive right on into Lesson 10.
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