As a speaker, I have always accepted responsibility for people listening to me. I’ve never been able to rationalize that I’m too deep for them and they simply have to listen harder.
I came by this conviction many years ago while driving through the farm country of Indiana to make a speech. I was just starting out as a speaker, and my talks were getting heavier and heavier. Although I was greatly pleased with what I heard, I found I was talking to fewer and fewer people.
Then suddenly, there in the field that spring day in Indiana, I saw the model for my public speaking that would last all my life. A man was plowing with a single mule, and there must have been fifty chickens following him. As I watched, this thought began to grow in my mind: The chickens will always follow the fellow who’s plowing up the worms. I realized then I had to feed people not only what I thought would feed them, but what they are really hungry for.
Over the years I’ve found it’s always the same: If you want the chickens to follow you, you have to turn up the worms. When you do, they will be there-I promise you!
Fred Smith
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