Why would someone love public speaking?
There’s something about speaking in public and doing presentations that has always fascinated me ever since college. I remember how I used to get excited once I hear there’s a project presentation that we have to do. And the more people attending, the more excited I get! This has always puzzled me given the fact that I’m a shy, quite, almost introverted type of person. I was never able to figure out the connection between these two contradicting qualities, but lately I’m beginning to notice something after doing a presentation that just might be the answer.
I consider myself a rare breed in this sense. Not many people love to give out public speeches, and certainly a whole lot of them dread it. Seinfeld has a famous quote that goes like this:
According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.
While I could not find a particular study that proved this fact, I can understand why someone would have such fear of public speaking. There are many reasons to that, including:
- Audience disapproval or criticism of your ideas, speech or even looks.
- Connection to bad experience of giving public speech in the past.
- Being incompetent in the subject.
On the other hand, I believe there is only one reason why people, like me, would love to do public speeches. Are you ready? Here it is: 
egotistical recognition!
OK, I’ll admit that I have no basis for this theory at the moment, but the more I think of it, the more it makes sense to me. To start off, note that I’m not talking here about the ultimate reason of giving a public speech, presentation, key note, or even a training session. Each one of those activities has one or more practical objectives that the speaker would like to achieve by the end of his speech. But if we strip the speaker of those objectives, what reasons are left for him to actually want to do the purposeless presentation? Turns out, there are quite a few:
- Impress somebody or someone
- Showoff something or some quality in himself
- Prove someone’s right or wrong
All three of those reasons lead to increasing our own or people’s positive perception of us, which in turn feeds our demanding ego. Now, if I apply those in my case, I’ll get the answer I’m looking for. Here is my reasoning:
- I said that I’m a “shy, quite, almost introverted” type of person, right? Well, turns out that being such kind doesn’t do your ego any good. So what I need is a way (a social activity) that gets me the recognition, approval and admiration that I’m looking for without making me change my ways. Public speeches perfectly satisfy this need for me.
- “The more people attending, the more excited I get”, that’s what I said right? Well, let me restate this now:
“The more people attending, the more people there are to give me the recognition, approval and admiration that I’m looking for”.
See, easy isn’t? Now, if we put back the speech objectives that we stripped the speaker from, we come out with a quite an obvious conclusion, which is my point in this post:
All public speeches inevitably deliver a form of ego-boost for the speaker, whether that’s the speaker’s intention or not.
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Most interesting post!
Well aren’t you an arrogrant fellow LOL – positive self-esteem is nothing to be ashamed about and without you couldn’t appreciate others as much. I don’t really public speaking myself however I do enjoy speaking my mind and teaching to small groups and as loud, boisterous I may seem I am somewhat shy. Like you I don’t know what to make of all of this but hey why question, just enjoy!
Isn’t that why we all blog (I know that’s why I do).
Interesting point Matt!
Kinda raises some questions in my head: if you’re not into the blogging business for money (like me), then what are in for? I guess blogging is a form of public speaking and so some the concepts above apply as well.
I agree, the ego needs validation and there’s nothing like an audience to give that rush. I am also not into blogging for money (which you can tell by the absence of ads). it’s purpose for me is more a honing of my thinking and writing skills for self-improvement which of course is related to ego-boosting.
[...] which brings a whole lot of different flavors to it. I’ve previously written on how much I love giving presentations, but I’m not interested in giving tired old boring presentation this time. You know, [...]
[...] keeps us going. A good example of what I’m talking about is ego-boosting. In my post about why would someone love public speaking, a reader suggested that on some level a blog is something similar to that. However, there is no [...]
I never seen anyone put it like that before. Interesting point. I wonder, if thats the case then people who fear public speaking are very humble people aye?
[...] time experience proved scary so I chickened out this time. Nice try, but not me. You guys know I love public speaking and I even gave out my first ever public speech [...]
[...] time experience proved scary so I chickened out this time. Nice try, but not me. You guys know I love public speaking and I even gave out my first ever public speech [...]
[...] time experience proved scary so I chickened out this time. Nice try, but not me. You guys know I love public speaking and I even gave out my first ever public speech [...]
[...] time experience proved scary so I chickened out this time. Nice try, but not me. You guys know I love public speaking and I even gave out my first ever public speech [...]
I have such a hard time understanding how anybody could ever NOT like public speaking–not that I don’t believe that many people have this fear, but more like, “but you get to SPEAK . . . in front of PEOPLE . . . why is that not the most exciting thing you’ve ever heard if it is for me?”
I don’t know if it’s an ego thing for me (probably). I just know that I can’t shut up!
Perhaps you like the adrenaline rush that public speaking gives you. Do you like jumping out of planes, also? ;-)
BTW, no offense intended by the above comment! In reality, you’re lucky to find public speaking an ego boost. Many people find it ego-crushing instead – they really have to train themselves to appreciate that what they have to say is worthy, and know that they are not the silliest person in the room.
It’s great that you love it, and good for you! I hope you find many more opportunities in the future :-)