Jack Chesterfield

How do you inspire a whole generation; how do you weave words, hit the innermost yearnings of your audience, say little but blow their minds; and then get a standing ovation in the end? How do youleavea crowd basking in rivers of nostalgic effervescence, floating in bright shining clouds of euphoric imagination long after your exit from the stage? These are the kinds of questions wannabe public speakers ponder upon in their sleep and waking moments. Is Adolf Hitler special; is Abraham Lincoln born with oratory genius; from where did Barrack Obama or Martin Luther King learn how to give such powerful and inspiring speeches that get the crowd craving for more? Is it hereditary or learned; does one’s immediate environment or academic advancement really matter?

The art of public speaking has shaped mankind - and in extension the world, for as long as written or word-of-mouth history can stretch. Even God appreciates the power of a good speaker, hence He chose Aaron to deputize Moses on the quest to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go; Moses wasn’t a good orator, he stutters; Aaron was a master of words! Ancient texts and manuscripts from the Alexandrian Library, Roman archeological sites, as well as ancient Chinese folklore all point to the fact that powerful oratory was a key factor in determining who leads, and how a people are led. Very rarely do we find records of tame, soft-spoken leaders in history - and where they were lucky to get that far at all, they did not last long on the throne...