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THE BASICS OF SUCCESSFUL CONVERSATION
Honesty
The right attitude
Interest in the other person
Openness about yourself
Talking is like playing golf, driving a car, or owning a store—the more you do it, the better you get at it, and the more fun you have doing it. But you have to understand the fundamentals first.
I’ve been fortunate to have achieved a certain level of success in talking. Maybe enough so that as you are reading this book, you’re thinking to yourself, Oh, sure—he can say talking is fun. He’s good at it.
It’s true that talking has come naturally to me, but even those who have a natural ability for something have to work to develop it. That’s what turns a talent into a skill. Ted Williams, the greatest baseball hitter I ever saw and a man blessed with more natural ability than anyone in my lifetime, took batting practice like everyone else. Luciano Pavarotti was born with a wonderful voice, but he still took singing lessons.
I have a natural ability, and inclination, to talk. But I’ve had plenty of moments when talk didn’t come easy.