PBS did an interview with Warren Buffett, in what looks like a god damned Raymour and Flanigan. Most of the interview was regurgitated horseshit: buy America, stocks go up forever, suck my dick, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then Warren demonstrated he wasn’t a money making robot and started to discuss how he overcame his fear of public speaking.
Watch.
I was always shy in high school and only conjured up the courage to approach girls when with my friends, in the safety of a pack. I never had an issue making friends, since I played sports and was a fucking devil in school. But I didn’t have the ability to get up in front of a room and make a speech, until I became a stockbroker.
The firm I started at was incredibly focused on sales, almost like a boiler room. As a cold caller, every morning a seasoned broker came into the pit and called on us one by one, randomly, to pitch him. They were always dicks and made us feel like absolute shit. I think it was the constant shaming that broke me out of my bubble. Fear of rejection is the root of being scared to speak publicly, talking to women, prospects etc. Once you’ve been rejected a thousand times, one thousand and one is nothing.
The owner of the firm would give inspirational speeches by microphone at 8am and 4:15pm, each and every day, with no exceptions. Brokers who came in late to his meetings were fined $1,000 on the spot. If you were a cold caller and walked in late, you were fired. He was an amazing orator, with the gift of gab that others strived to replicate. He said many things that stuck with me all these years and I reached out to him a few years ago to let him know how much I appreciated his efforts — even though at times his callousness bordered on evil.
For me, breaking out of phone fear or aversion to public speaking was broken by trial and error, constant training, and seeing my hard work translate into sales and dollars in my pocket.
How did you homos break the fear, or are you still afraid to ask for hamburgers at your local Macdonalds?
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter
This was fucking awesome Dr Fly. Passing a public speaking class in college fueled my first stint into playing an alcoholic coker.
Propranolol
Yep – beta blockers ftw
Appreciate you sharing.
I learned the same way, but with bankers and portfolio managers. Some times getting thrown into the fire is a great teacher.
I was also a broker and went through the same shit. Had to take Ativan to deal with it for a while.
I started out asking for millions of dollars by cold calling old rich fuckers who wanted to buy muni bonds back in the day when the bonds were paying 7-8%. (Yes, I am that old.) …”Sir, you don’t want to own this bond? Why not? What are you nuts?”
….only the best high yield muni and unrated munis, of course.
The good old days. Smiling and dialing.
I never broke into Wall Street although I tried and I never had a sales position but I’ve had to make presentations from time to time throughout my career and still do to this day.
I have found that being prepared and giving no fucks provides a degree of confidence and has worked well for me. Memorizing presentations ends in disaster. There’s no substitute for experience in anything you do, public speaking included.
Being in the Navy for 20 years, you might say I was in “sails”. Having to constantly brief hecklers and all around sarcastic people using dazzling PowerPoint presentations and whiteboard lectures, you develop a thick skin and lose your fear of public speaking. If you came unprepared, the sharks always smelled blood in the water and could sense your fear? You learn quickly.
People afraid of public speaking care way too much about what other morons think of them. Stop being pussies.