To Inspire Someone Is To Make Him Think, Not Feel Good

The world of public speaking is like the entertainment industry. At the end of the day, the audience who paid to listen to you, must go home satisfied. Otherwise, there will be no repeat business. Unless, you got something that nobody has, then regardless if you are boring, the audience have no other choice but to listen or grab a copy of your materials.

I happen to work with a few training event organizers and I observed that they are particular with the first and last speaker. At first, I don’t understand because as an HR/Training person, I am more concerned with the order of topics [building block approach] to ensure maximum learning. I figured out later that the funniest, liveliest, and most entertaining speakers are placed on the 1st and last slot to leave a sweet taste to the pax.

Likewise, I followed with interest other players on the public speaking industry specially on how they position their brand in the market. Most, if not all, have this common denominator- to entertain the audience and make them feel good about themselves, and the positive emotion hopefully will fuel change. Furthermore, some use themselves as benchmark for the road to success.

Is this bad? No, not really.

I believe, however, that the role of motivational speakers, is to offer an alternate solution, so  people can have an intelligent choice.

When given an opportunity to speak, I keep these in mind:

• I do not want people to follow me, I am only an ambassador or messenger. Instead, I want people to follow the one that gives inspiration.
• Contrary to popular belief, an entrepreneur is not working for himself. The reason why I quit working for people, is not to work for myself, but to work for a better boss.  Successful entrepreneurs became successful because they played the role they are supposed to play. They accepted the purpose [in life] placed by the boss of all creations in their heart, and pursued it.
• The objective of my talk is not to make people happy [alone]. In fact,  a one or two got mad on  few of my engagements. But I believe I am  not in this business to make people laugh, but to make people think and change.

The role of inspirational/motivational speakers is  to guide their audience to discover their purpose in life  and pursue it.