卡耐基演讲·一、选择自己熟悉的主题

我们一再强调，对自己的题目要有深刻的感受，这极为重要。除非对这个题目有特别偏爱的情感，否则就别想听众会相信你。道理很简单，如果你对题目有实际的接触与经验，对它充满热诚——像对某种嗜好或消遣的追求等；或者你因为已经对题目有过深思和有着个人的关注（比如认为在自己的社区里建设一个好的学校很有必要），因而满腔热情，那么就不愁讲演时会不热心了。二十多年前的一场讲演，因为热诚而造成的说服力现在还鲜明地呈现在我的眼前。我听过很多令人心服的讲演，可是这一个——我称它是“兰草对山胡桃木灰”的案例，却独树一帜，成为真诚战胜常识的绝佳例子。In Chapter Three was stressed the importance of feeling deeply about your subject. Unless you are emotionally involved in the subject matter you have chosen to talk about, you cannot expect to make your audience believe in your message. Obviously, if you select a topic that is exciting to you because of long experience with it, such as a hobby or recreational pursuit, or because of deep reflection or personal concern about it (as, for instance, the need for better schools in your community), you will have no difficulty in talking with excitement. The persuasive power of earnestness was never more vividly demonstrated to me than in a talk made before one of my classes in New York City more than two decades ago. I have heard many persuasive talks, but this one, which I call the Case of Blue Grass vs. Hickory Wood Ashes, stands out as a kind of triumph of sincerity over common sense.

纽约一家极具知名度的销售公司里，有个一流的销售员提出反常的论调，说他已经能够使“兰草”在无种子、无草根的情形之下生长。他将山胡桃木的灰烬撒在新犁过的土地里，然后一眨眼间兰草便出现了！所以，他坚决相信山胡桃木灰——而且只有山胡桃木灰是兰草生长的原因。A top-flight salesman of one of the best-known selling organizations in the city made the preposterous statement that he had been able to make blue grass grow without the aid of seeds or roots. He had, according to his story, scattered hickory wood ashes over newly plowed ground. Presto! Blue grass had appeared! He firmly believed that the hickory wood ashes, and the hickory wood ashes alone, were responsible for the blue grass.

评论时，我温和地对他指出，他这种非凡的发现如果是真的，将使他一夜之间成为巨富，因为兰草的种子价值不菲，而且这项发现还会使他成为人类历史上一位极杰出的科学家。但事实上，没有一个人——不论他是生是死——曾经完成，或有能力完成这个奇迹：没有人能从无机物里培植出生命。Commenting on his talk, I gently pointed out to him that his phenomenal discovery would, if true, make him a millionaire, for blue grass seed was worth several dollars a bushel. I also told him that it would make him the outstanding scientist of all history. I informed him that no man, living or dead, had ever been able to perform the miracle he claimed to have performed: no man had ever been able to produce life from inert matter.

这个错误是如此的明显，根本没有必要作什么反驳，所以我平静地告诉他这些。其他同学也是这么看的，唯独他自己不这么看。他连想都没有想，立刻站起来告诉我，他没有错。他对自己的发现热衷到有点不可思议，大声说他还没有引用论据，只是陈述了经验而已。所以，他继续往下说，扩大了原先的论述，提出更多的资料，举出更多的证据，他的声音透露出真诚。I told him that very quietly, for I felt that his mistake was so palpable, so absurd, as to require no emphasis in the refutation. When I had finished, every other member of the course saw the folly of his assertion; but he did not see it, not for a second. He was in earnest about his contention, deadly in earnest. He leaped to his feet and informed me that he was not wrong. He had not been relating theory, he protested, but personal experience. He knew whereof he spoke. He continued to talk, enlarging on his first remarks, giving additional information, piling up additional evidence, sincerity and honesty ringing in his voice.

我只好再次告诉他：他不可能是正确的，他正确的概率等于零。马上他又站了起来，提议跟我赌五块钱，让美国农业部来解决这件事。Again I informed him that there was not the remotest hope in the world of his being right or even approximately right or within a thousand miles of the truth. In a second he was on his feet once more, offering to bet me five dollars and to let the U.S.Department of Agriculture settle the matter.

你知道这时候情况发生了什么变化？有好几个学生都开始相信了他的发现，还有许多人变得不能确定。我相信要是来一个表决，一半以上的人不会同意我的观点。我问那些改变主意的人，是什么让他们改变了自己最初的观点？他们异口同声地说是讲演者的热诚和确信让他们怀疑了自己的常识。And do you know what happened? Several members in the class were won over to his side. Many others were beginning to be doubtful. If I had taken a vote I am certain that more than half of the businessmen in that class would not have sided with me. I asked them what had shaken them from their original position. One after another said it was the speaker's earnestness, his belief, so energetically stated, that made them begin to doubt the common sense viewpoint.

既然这样，我只得写信给农业部。我对他们说，问这样无聊的问题，很不好意思。结果他们肯定了我的答案，就是要使兰草或其他的东西从山胡桃木灰里长出来根本没有可能，他们的回信中还说收到另一封同样的信。原来那位销售员真的很相信自己的发现，因此也马上给农业部写了信。Well, in the face of that display of credulity I had to write the Department of Agriculture. I was ashamed, I told them to ask such an absurd question. They replied, of course, that it was impossible to get blue grass or any other living thing from hickory wood ashes, and they added that they had received another letter from New York asking the same question. That salesman was so sure of his position that he sat down and wrote a letter, too!

这件事给我一个重要的启发——讲演者如果真的确信某件事，并热切地谈论它，便能让人们相信，即使是宣称自己能从尘土和灰烬中培植出兰草也是没有关系的。既然这样，我们头脑里归纳、整理出来的信念，并且是正确的常识和真理，那该会有怎样的力量让人们信服呢！This incident taught me a lesson I'll never forget. If a speaker believes a thing earnestly enough and says it earnestly enough, he will get adherents to his cause, even though he claims he can produce blue grass from dust and ashes. How much more compelling will our convictions be if they are arrayed on the side of common sense and truth!

讲演者几乎都会怀疑选择的题目会不会引起听众的兴趣。其实，要让他们对你的题目感兴趣，方法很简单：点燃自己对题目的狂热之情，就不怕没有办法抓住人们的兴趣。Almost all speakers wonder whether the topic they have chosen will interest the audience. There is only one way to make sure that they will be interested: stoke the fires of your enthusiasm for the subject and you will have no difficulty holding the interest of a group of people.

这里有一个实例。不久前，在巴尔的摩听到一个学员发出警示，说如果继续使用现在奇沙比克湾捕石鱼的方法，石鱼将会绝迹，这已经要不了多长的时间就可以看到。他非常关注这件事，因为这已经不是一件小事了。他表现得热切之至。在他讲话之前，我和大家一样本不知道奇沙比克湾里有什么石鱼，也就没有什么兴趣。可是，在这个讲演者还没有讲完时，恐怕我们大家都愿意联名向立法机关请求立法来保护石鱼了。A short time ago, I heard a man in one of our classes in Baltimore warn his audience that if the present methods of catching rock fish in Chesapeake Bay were continued the species would become extinct. And in a very few years! He felt his subject. It was important. He was in real earnest about it. Everything about his matter and manner showed that. When he arose to speak, I did not know that there was such a creature as a rock fish in Chesapeake Bay. I imagine that more of the audience shared my lack of know ledge and lack of interest. But before the speaker finished, all of us would probably have been willing to sign a petition to the legislature to protect the rock fish by law.

有人问前美国驻意大利大使理查·华须本·乔尔德，他是怎样成为一个意趣无穷的作家的？成功的诀窍是什么？他回答说：“我非常热爱生命，所以不能静下来不动。我只是觉得必须告诉人们这点而已。”遇上这样的讲演者或作者，也不由得你要被他吸引了。Richard Washburn Child, the former American Ambassador to Italy, was once asked the secret of his success as an interesting writer. He replied: "I am so excited about life that I cannot keep still. I just have to tell people about it." One cannot keep from being enthralled with a speaker or writer like that.

在伦敦，有一次我和一个著名的英国小说家一起去听演讲，E.F.班生先生评论说，这场讲演的最后一部分要比第一部分更为他所欣赏。我问他为什么，他说：“讲演者似乎对最后一部分的兴趣更大一些，而我一向都是靠讲演者为我提供热情和兴趣的。”I once went to hear a speaker in London; after he was through, one of our party, Mr. E. F. Benson, a wellknow English novelist, remarked that he enjoyed the last part of the talk far more than the first. When I asked him why, he replied: "The speaker himself seemed more interested in the last part, and I always rely on the speaker to supply the enthusiasm and interest."

我们在首都华盛顿的训练班有一位先生，大概叫傅零先生吧。刚参加训练时，他从一家报社所发行的一本小册子里仓促而肤浅地搜集了一些关于美国首都的资料，然后向我们演讲。他虽然在华盛顿住了许多年，却没能举出一个亲身经历来说明自己为什么会喜欢这个地方，所以听起来就像这样——枯燥、无序、生硬，只是一味陈述着一连串枯燥无趣的事实。大家听着难过，他自己也讲得痛苦。A gentleman, whom we shall call Mr. Flynn, was enrolled in one of our classes in Washington, D. C. One evening early in the course, he devoted his talk to a description of the capital city of the United States. He had hastily and superficially gleaned his facts from a booklet issued by a local newspaper. They sounded like it-dry, disconnected, undigested. Though he had lived in Washington for many years, he did not present one personal instance of why he liked the city. He merely recited a series of dull facts, and his talk was as distressing for the class to hear as it was agonizing for him to give.

出人意料的是，在两星期后发生了一件事情：他的新车停放在街上，有人开车把它撞了个稀烂，并且逃逸无踪。这可把傅零先生害惨了，这件事是切身的经历，所以当他说起这辆撞得稀烂的汽车时，讲得真真切切，滔滔不绝，怒火冲天，好似维苏威火山爆发了。两星期前，同学们听他的讲演时还觉得烦躁无聊，在椅子里扭动不安，现在却给了傅零先生热烈的掌声。A fortnight later, something happened that touched Mr. Flynn to the core: an unknown driver had smashed into his new car while it was parked on the street and had driven away without identifying himself. It was impossible for Mr. Flynn to collect insurance and he had to foot the bill himself. Here was something that came hot out of his experience. His talk about the city of Washington, which he laboriously pulled out sentence by sentence, was painful to him and his audience; but when he spoke about his smashed-up car, his talk welled up and boiled forth like Vesuvius in action. The same class that had squirmed restlessly in their seats two weeks before now greeted Mr. Flynn with a heartwarming burst of applause.

如果题目选得对了，你不成功都不行：比如谈自己的信念这一类的题目，保证错不了。你对自己的生活一定要有些强烈的信仰，因此你不必再四处去寻找。它们通常就在你的意识表层，你时常都会想到它们的。As I have pointed out repeatedly, you cannot help but succeed if you choose the right topic for you. One area of topics is surefire: talk about your convictions! Surely you have strong beliefs about some aspect of life around you. You don't have to search far and wide for these subjects-they generally lie on the surface of your stream of consciousness, because you often think about them.

不久以前，电视播出立法委员就死刑而进行的听证会。许多证人被召出席，对这个为人争论不休的问题提出了正反两面的意见。其中一个证人是洛杉矶警员。他有十一位警察同僚，都死在和罪犯的枪战中，所以曾对这个问题再三思考，他产生了需要死刑的强烈信念。他饱含真情，从心底相信自己有万分的理由。历来雄辩都来自于讲演者的信念和感觉。真诚建立在信仰之上，而信仰则出于内心对自己所要说的事的热爱，出于头脑的冷静思考。“这些心自有道理，是为道理所不自知。”在无数的训练班里，我常常可以印证马斯可这句一针见血的话。记忆中，有位波士顿的律师，得天独厚，仪表出众，说话畅达，但是他讲演完了之后，同学都说：“好个精明的家伙。”他给人一种虚浮的表面印象。在他满口漂亮词句的背后，仿佛是没有一点真情感的。而另外一个保险公司的推销员，个子很小，毫不起眼，说话不时得停下来思索接下来该说什么。可是当他说起话来时，没有谁会怀疑不是出于他的真心。Not long ago, a legislative hearing on capital punishment was presented on television. Many witnesses were called to give their viewpoints on both sides of this controversial subject. One of them was a member of the police department of the city of Los Angeles, who had evidently given much thought to this topic. He had strong convictions based on the fact that eleven of his fellow police officer, had been killed in gun battles with criminals. He spoke with the deep sincerity, of one who believed to his heart's core in the righteousness of his cause. The greatest appeals in the history of eloquence have all been made out of the depths of someone's deep convictions and feelings. Sincerity rests upon belief, and belief is as much a matter of the heart and of warmly feeling what you are saying as it is of the mind and coldly thinking of what to say. "The heart has reasons that the reason does not know." In many classes I have had frequent occasions to verify Pascal's trenchant sentence. I remember a lawyer in Boston who was blessed with a striking appearance and who spoke with admirable fluency, but when he finished speaking people said:Clever chap. He made a surface impression because there never seemed to be any feeling behind his glittering facade of words. In the same class, there was an insurance salesman, small in stature, unprepossessing in appearance, a man who groped for a word now and then, but when he spoke there was no doubt in any of his listeners' minds that he felt every word of his talk.

林肯在华府福特戏院包厢遇刺，到现在已经超过百年。但是他的一生，他的言辞，真诚深挚，却永远留在我们的记忆里。如果单单看掌握了多少法律知识，有多少与他同时代的人都远远超过他。他缺少一分优雅、顺畅和精致，但是，他在盖茨堡、古柏联盟和在华盛顿国会山庄台阶发表的演讲，历史上却无人能够超越。It is almost a hundred years since Abraham Lincoln's assassination in the presidential box of Ford's Theatre in Washington, D. C., but the deep sincerity of his life and his words still lives with us. As far as knowledge of law is concerned, scores of other men of his time outstripped him. He lacked grace, smoothness, and polish, But the honesty and sincerity of his utterances at Gettysburg, Copper union, and on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, have not been surpassed in our history.

有个人说，他没有任何强烈的信念和兴趣。当然你也可能会这样说，而我多少感到有些讶异。我会说，让自己忙碌起来，让自己对事情感兴趣起来! “对什么事，比方说?”他问。 我简直对此有点绝望，我说：“就鸽子吧。” “鸽子?”他不明白。 “是啊!”我告诉他，“就是鸽子。到广场上去看看它们，喂喂它们，到图书馆去阅读有关书籍，再回过头来讲讲你的鸽子。” 没有想到他真的这样做了，他第二次讲演时，一开始便以养鸟者的狂热来谈论鸽子。而当我想要他停时，他正说到有关鸽子的四十本书，他已经把它们都读遍了!他的讲演，也就成了我听过的最有趣味的讲演之一。You may say, as one man once did, that you have no strong convictions or interests. I am always a little surprised at this, but I told this man to get busy and get interested in something. "What, for instance?" he asked. In desperation I said, "Pigeons." "Pigeons?" he asked in a bewildered tone. "Yes," I told him, "pigeons. Go out on the square and look at them, feed them, go to the library and read about them, then come back here and talk about them." He did. When he came back there was no holding him down. He started to talk about pigeons with all the fervor of a fancier. When I tried to stop him he was saying something about forty books on pigeons and he had read them all. He gave one of the most interesting talks I have ever heard.

这里还有一个建议：对自己目前以为很好的题目，想方设法多了解一些。你对某件事了解越多，你便会越热诚。《销售五大原则》的作者帕西·H.怀亭告诉推销员，千万不可不去了解自己所推销的东西。怀亭先生说：“对一项优良产品知道得越多，便会对它越热心。”这同样适用于讲演题目——对它们懂得越多，你对它们也就越热诚。Here is another suggestion: Learn more and more about what you now consider a pretty good topic. The more you know about something the more earnest and excitedly enthusiastic you will become. Percy H. Whiting, the author of the Five Great Rules of Selling, tells salesmen never to stop learning about the product they are selling. As Mr. Whiting says, "The more you know about a good product, the more enthusiastic you become about it." The same thing is true about your topics-the more you know about them, the more earnest and enthusiastic you will be about them.