Do you know who Edward Everett was? Unless you are a serious Civil War buff, probably not. He was a Senator, Representative, Governor, Secretary of State and popular orator from Massachusetts in the mid-1800’s. And, he was the featured speaker at the dedication ceremony of the Gettysburg Battlefield in 1863. Of course, you know who the other speaker was right? Sure you do. It was none other than Abraham Lincoln. So, if there were two speakers at the dedication ceremony, how come we only remember one of them? I’ll give you a hint: It wasn’t because Lincoln was the president. It was because he gave one of the most eloquent speeches in history. And he did it in just over two minutes. That was unheard of back in the 1800’s when flowery language and long-winded speeches were the standard. In contrast to Lincoln, Everett spoke for over two hours and most of us have never heard of him. Perhaps Harry Rubenstein of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History said it best, “Everybody says the same thing about the ceremony: Lincoln gave a great speech and Everett talked for two hours”.
Perhaps Lincoln understood the time honored design axiom of less is more. Maybe he was the first speaker to employ some Presentation Zen. Why use 20 words when you can use 10? And why use 10 words when you can use 5? Lincoln captured the essence of the moment in such an economical way that Everett later remarked to Lincoln in a letter “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes”. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address has stood the test of time. Many of us learned it as school children and can probably remember many lines from it to this day. How many speeches in history can make that claim? Certainly not Everett’s.
Well, just 20 shopping days left until Christmas. But why wait until Christmas to treat yourself to a few freebies out there on the web. This week’s Friday Freebies include a webinar from one of my favorite people Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen fame, a great podcast with Steve Rendle of the North Face talking about sustainable materials, a Hubspot webinar on How to Market during a recession, a whole slew of videos from BusinessWeek.com, and a new website with tons of free documentary films. Let’s kick it off with an interview with Guy Kawasaki from Andrew Warner’s excellent Mixergy.com website:
I’ve never thought of myself as a natural speaker, but a few months ago, I had the opportunity to participate in an incredible coaching experiencing with some folks from Decker Communications in a class called Communicating to Influence. It really changed the way I see myself as a communicator now. After the class, I was fortunate enough to begin corresponding with Bert Decker. Bert was gracious enough to send me a copy of his newly updated book You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard. Based on my coaching experience, I couldn’t wait to read this book. I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, the book is in my Ten Best Books of 2008 list alongside other great authors like Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Garr Reynolds, Nancy Duarte, and Malcolm Gladwell. Bert Decker definitely has earned his spot amongst these other luminaries.
There was an amazing interview on CNN recently with Haruka Nishimatsu, the CEO of JAL, Japan Airlines. The interview could have been a primer on how to be an ethical CEO who cares about his people and his company more than he cares about his own compensation. According to the report, when JAL slashed jobs and asked older employees to retire early, Nishimatsu cut every single one of his corporate perks, and then for three years running slashed his own pay. In 2007, he made about $90,000 U.S., less than what his pilots earn. In Japan, says Nishimatsu, there’s less of a pay gap between the top and the bottom. “We in Japan learned during the bubble economy that businesses who pursue money first fail. The business world has lost sight of this basic tenet of business ethics.”
