Heroics

Heroes. They’re my favourite people, whether it’s fantasy characters like Batman or Luke Skywalker, stand-up comedians with their stories of righting wrongs, or real-life people who endure and then overcome true hardship. The underdog who steps up to the challenge when it really matters is a true inspiration to me, fictional or otherwise.

And so I link this – like everything I blog about – to presenting skills. As anyone standing up in front of a crowd to speak, from presenting to your peers in a business scenario to giving a best man’s speech, you are a hero. You may be a new hero or long-established, but nevertheless* you’re going against the odds, and I salute you.

Too often the English philosophy seems to be ‘why bother? It probably won’t work’, instead of ‘let’s try it, even if we do go down in a blaze of glory’. I know which choice I prefer and admire. The fact is, you’re most likely to succeed if you fully commit. To simply not try is a choice that requires no courage, imagination or soul.

“Do. Or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda.

* (fantastic word that, I’m glad I managed to squeeze it in. It’s a devastating choice in Scrabble if you can manage to construct it from an existing ‘never’, despite all the low-scoring ‘e’s.)