inspirational stories for presentations

PHILADELPHIA, MAY 9-10 PUBLIC SPEAKING CLASS IS ALMOST FULL! RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW

• Public Speaking Classes
• Corporate Presentation Training
• Online Public Speaking Course
• Northeast Region
• Midwest Region
• Southeast Region
• Central Region
• Western Region
• Presentation Skills
• 101 Public Speaking Tips
• Fear of Public Speaking

Short Anecdotes for Speeches and Parables to Amaze Your Audience

Short anecdotes for speeches are a fantastic way to end a presentation with a bang. These stories can be fiction, actual incidents from history, or even just funny stories from your own personal life. When you deliver them well, though, they have a lasting impact. I often use these short anecdotes for speeches when I’m trying to teach something meaningful to the audience. So, in most instances, speakers use these anecdotes in training sessions or motivational speeches.

When You Use an Anecdote in a Speech, Tie the Story to the Greater Meaning of Your Presentation.

The anecdotes themselves add entertainment and humor to a speech. But when you use the story to relay a greater message, they almost have a magic quality. When you tell an anecdote in a speech, spend time at the end tying the incident back to the main point of your presentation.

When my daughter graduated from High School, a local pastor delivered her commencement address. He used a well-known anecdote in a masterful way as the start of the commencement speech. Since he was a pastor, he told the story of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. Being a professional speaker myself, I wondered exactly how he would tie that story to a graduation ceremony.

He went on to explain how many Christians might see a “Baptism” as the ending point. However, Jesus started his public ministry at his baptism. The pastor then shared with the graduating class that many of them are likely seeing the ceremony as the end of their schooling. In reality, though, commencement means the beginning. The speaker used the anecdote really well and inspired the graduating class with the short story.

So, I thought that it might be fun to just jot down a few of the most inspirational (or just funny) short anecdotes for speeches that I have come across in my career. Perhaps you can use them in your next presentation.

Short Anecdotes for Speeches

The parable of the pebbles.

Eventually, he saw in the distance what looked like an oasis. He moved as fast as he could to what could be his salvation. Just as darkness fell, he felt cool water on his sandal.

He dropped to his knees and began cupping water into his mouth with his palm thanking God that he had survived. Then, out of the darkness, he heard a big booming voice from heaven say, “Merchant! Reach down, pick up some stones, put them into your pocket, and in the morning you will be both glad and sad.”

Well, when a big booming voice from heaven tells you to do something, you tend to do it. So, he reached into the stream, picked up a few pebbles, and put them into his pocket. He then packed up his camel as fast as he could and took off.

When he felt like he was far enough away from the voice that he was safe, he made camp.

Laying under the stars, he finally realized that he had been pretty dehydrated. So, he convinced himself that he had just imagined the voice. When he woke the next morning, he felt something in his trouser pocket. He pulled the pebbles out of his pocket in amazement. They weren’t just ordinary pebbles. They were precious gems — diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies… At that moment, he was both glad and sad.

He was glad that he picked a few pebbles up…

He was also very sad, though, that he hadn’t picked up more while he was there.

The parable of the pebbles is an analogy to training sessions. When we finish a training session without putting a lot of effort into the skill development, we will often be glad that we gained some skill. However, we can often look back and wish that we had worked a little harder so that we could have developed more.

Rocks in a Jar Time Management Presentation Anecdote (Analogy)

However, he pulled out a bag of smaller pebbles like you would see in a fish tank, and poured them in as well. As he shook the jar, the smaller pebbles fell into the spaces between the large rocks. Again he asked, “So, is the jar full?” The group was more hesitant, now, though. So, they waited to see what he would pull out next.

Not to disappoint, he pulled out a bag of sand and poured it into the jar as well. “Now is the jar full?”

One of the high-achievers in the front row, learning his game said, “No, you can still pour water into the jar.”

Of course, he did.

The same woman in the front row then said, “I get it. The point is that no matter how busy our schedule is, you can always cram something else in, right?”

The consultant smiled at her and said, “Not exactly. My point is that the big items only fit into the jar at all because we put them in first. If you don’t focus on the big things like, spending time with your family and having a strong spiritual life, the little things will always seep in and take up all the space.”

Use the Rocks in a Jar Time Management parable to encourage people to focus on the most important things in life.

The Obstacle in Our Path Parable

Finally, a vegetable farmer with a small cart came by. Seeing that the boulder was a great obstacle for his fellow merchants with wagons, he decided to try to move the bolder. He pushed and strained as fellow travelers watched. Eventually, he was able to clear the boulder from the roadway. As he went back to retrieve his cart, he noticed a money bag where the boulder had been. Inside was a dozen gold coins along with a note from the king thanking him.

You can use the Obstacle in Our Path Parable to show how every obstacle in our path is an opportunity for reward. However, most people see the obstacle and go the other way.

The Ripple Effect

A troubled monk goes to his Abbott for guidance, and after listening intently, the Abbott asks the monk to join him on a walk. The arrive at a pond near the back of the monastery. The Abbott asks the monk to pick up a stone and toss it into the center of the pond. The monk complies. “Now,” said the Abbott, “as the ripples come closer to the shore, stick your finger in the water to try to stop them.” The monk tries, but as he sticks his finger in the water, the action just creates more ripples.

The confused monk looks at his mentor and says, “Abbott, I can’t. My actions just cause more ripples.”

The Abbott smiles, and says, “So, you cannot stop the ripples?”

“Correct,” said the monk.

“But could you have stopped yourself from tossing the stone into the pond in the first place”?”

This short anecdote has a ton of applications in a speech. I sometimes use it to show that often we spend a lot of time trying to mitigate a symptom versus fixing the actual problem causing the symptom. For instance, people will often come to my classes to reduce the number of times they say “uhhmm” in a speech or to avoid speaking too quickly. Those are just symptoms of nervousness, though. If you try to treat the symptom, it’s like trying to stop the ripples. However, if we help the presenter reduce the actual nervousness, the ripples go away altogether.

Tell Us Some of Your Favorite Short Parables for Presentations.

If you have a compelling story, anecdote, or parable that you like t0 use in your presentations, share it with us in the comments below. We will try to make this page a repository for great presentation anecdotes.

Podcasts , presentation skills | jokes

View More Posts By Category: Free Public Speaking Tips | leadership tips | Online Courses | Past Fearless Presentations ® Classes | Podcasts | presentation skills | Uncategorized

37 Best Inspirational & Motivational Short Stories [2024 Update]

There might be affiliate links on this page, which means we get a small commission of anything you buy. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Please do your own research before making any online purchase.

Have you ever watched a movie or read a book that had a lasting impact on you?

Stories are one of the most powerful ways to guide, teach, and inspire people. Storytelling is effective because it helps to establish connections among people, as well as between people and the ideas that unite humanity.

Inspirational stories move past creating a sense of connection, and allow the listener to identify with the story wherever they are in their own life , which makes them more receptive to learning.

Some of the best stories contain several different meanings or lessons so they’re effective in communicating complex ideas in ways that are easy to understand.

Finally, storytelling has characteristics that benefits the three main types of learning: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

Visual learners benefit from the mental pictures that stories evoke.

Auditory learners are able to focus on the words and voice of the storyteller.

And kinesthetic learners can retain the emotional connections that they feel were created in the story.

No matter what type of learner you are , you can benefit from an inspirational story that comes with a moral.

In this article, I will share 23 short inspirational stories that can teach you valuable lessons .

Table of Contents

23 Best Inspirational Short Stories with a Motivating Moral

1. three feet from gold.

Watch the Video of This Story:

During the gold rush, a man who had been mining in Colorado for several months quit his job, as he hadn’t struck gold yet and the work was becoming tiresome.  He sold his equipment to another man who resumed mining where it had been left off.

The new miner was advised by his engineer that there was gold only three feet away from where the first miner stopped digging.

The engineer was right, which means the first miner was a mere three feet away from striking gold before he quit.

When things start to get hard, try to persevere through the adversity.

Many people give up on following their dreams because the work becomes too difficult, tedious, or tiresome–but often, you’re closer to the finish line than you may think , and if you push just a little harder, you will succeed.

2. Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand

A philosophy professor once stood up before his class with a large empty mayonnaise jar. He filled the jar to the top with large rocks and asked his students if the jar was full.

His students all agreed the jar was full .

He then added small pebbles to the jar, and gave the jar a bit of a shake so the pebbles could disperse themselves among the larger rocks. Then he asked again, “Is the jar full now?”

The students agreed that the jar was still full.

The professor then poured sand into the jar to fill up all the remaining empty space.

The students then agreed again that the jar was full .

The Metaphor:

In this story, the jar represents your life and the r ocks, pebbles, and sand are the things that fill up your life .

The rocks represent the most important projects and things you have going on, such as spending time with your family and maintaining proper health. This means that if the pebbles and the sand were lost, the jar would still be full and your life would still have meaning .

The pebbles represent the things in your life that matter, but that you could live without.

The pebbles are certainly things that give your life meaning (such as your job, house, hobbies, and friendships), but they are not critical for you to have a meaningful life.

These things often come and go, and are not permanent or essential to your overall well-being.

Finally, the sand represents the remaining filler things in your life, and material possessions. This could be small things such as watching television , browsing through your favorite social media site , or running errands.

These things don't mean much to your life as a whole, and are likely only done to waste time or get small tasks accomplished.

The metaphor here is that if you start with putting sand into the jar, you will not have room for rocks or pebbles.

This holds true with the things you let into your life. If you spend all of your time on the small and insignificant things, you will run out of room for the things that are actually important.

In order to have a more effective and efficient life, pay attention to the “rocks,” because they are critical to your long-term well-being .

3. The Elephant Rope

When walking through an elephant camp, a man noticed that the elephants were only secured with a small rope that was tied around one ankle. He wondered why the elephants didn’t break free from the rope, as the elephants were certainly strong enough to do so.

He asked a trainer why the elephants didn’t try to break free, and the trainer responded by saying that they use the same size rope for baby elephants all the way up to adulthood.

Because they’re too small when they’re babies to break free from the rope, they grow up being conditioned that the rope is stronger than they are . As adults, they think the rope can still hold them, so they don’t try to fight it.

The elephants in this case are experiencing learned helplessness . This phenomenon occurs when someone has been conditioned to anticipate discomfort in some way without having a way to avoid it or make it stop.

After enough conditioning, the person will stop any attempts to avoid the pain, even if they see an opportunity to escape.

If you go through life thinking that you can’t do something just because you have failed at doing it in the past, you’re living with a fixed mindset .

You have to let go of your limiting beliefs in order to make the breakthroughs that are required for your ultimate success.

Don’t let other people tell you that you can’t do something, and don’t hold onto an assumption that you can’t grow and learn from past failures.

4. A Wise Man’s Jokes

A wise man once faced a group of people who were complaining about the same issues over and over again. One day, instead of listening to the complaints, he told them a joke and everyone cracked up laughing.

Then, the man repeated the joke. A few people smiled.

Finally, the man repeated the joke a third time– but no one reacted .

The man smiled and said, “You won’t laugh at the same joke more than once. So what are you getting from continuing to complain about the same problem?”

You’re not going to get anywhere if you keep complaining about the same problem but do nothing to fix it.

Don’t waste your time complaining, expecting other people to continue to react to your complaints. Instead, take action to make a change.

5. It’s Never Too Late

In the 1940s, there was a man who, at the age of 65, was living off of $99 social security checks in a small house, driving a beat-up car.

He decided it was time to make a change , so he thought about what he had to offer that other people may benefit from. His mind went to his fried chicken recipe, which his friends and family loved.

He left his home state of Kentucky and traveled throughout the country, trying to sell his recipe to restaurants. He even offered the recipe for free, asking for only a small chunk of the money that was earned.

However, most of the restaurants declined his offer. In fact, 1,009 restaurants said no .

But even after all of the rejections, he persisted. He believed in himself and his chicken recipe.

When he visited restaurant #1,010, he got a YES .

Colonel Hartland Sanders.

There are a few lessons that you can take away from this story.

First, it’s never too late in life to find success . In a society that often celebrates young, successful people, it’s easy to start to think you’re never going to be successful after a certain age.

However, Colonel Sanders is an example that proves that argument wrong.

This story also demonstrates the power of persistence. You have to have confidence in yourself and believe in your work for other people to believe it also.

Disregard anyone who tells you “no” and simply move on.

6. The Boulder and the Gold

There once was a king who decided to do a little experiment. He had a giant boulder put right in the middle of the street. He then hid near the boulder to see who, if anyone, would try to move it out of the way.

First, some wealthy merchants walked by. They walked around the boulder, complaining that the king hasn’t been maintaining the roads very well.

Next, a peasant walked by, heading home with his arms full of food for his family. When he noticed the boulder, he put his groceries down and attempted to move it out of everyone’s way. It took him a while to move it, but he eventually succeeded.

After the peasant gathered up his groceries to carry on home, he noticed a bag lying in the middle of the road, just where the boulder once was.

He opened the bag to find that it was stuffed full of gold coins , along with a letter from the king saying that the bag’s gold was a reward for the peasant to keep.

The king gave this gift because the peasant had taken the time and energy to move the boulder out of the road for the convenience of others who would be traveling the road in the future.

The peasant in this story was taught by the king that every obstacle you face offers an opportunity to improve.

If you’re able to push through moments that are challenging, you may end up being much better off than you were before you started trying.

This story also offers a lesson of personal responsibility.

If you see a job ahead of you, don’t leave it for the next person to do. Rather, step up and get the job done to help the people who come after you.

(To learn more about this concept, here are 8 key ingredients of personal responsibility .)

7. Dirty Money

A well-respected speaker began a seminar by showing an audience of 150 people a crisp $20 bill.

He asked, “Who wants this $20 bill?”

All 150 people nodded.

He said, “I am going to give this money to someone, but first….”

Then he proceeded to crumple the bill up.

He asked the crowd again if anyone wanted it.

All 150 hands went up in the air.

The speaker then dropped the money on the floor and stomped all over it.

He then raised it in the air to show the crowd. The money was filthy.

“Does anyone want it now?”

Every hand went up.

The speaker proceeded to tell the crowd that no matter what he did to ruin the money, people still wanted it because its value remained the same .

It was still worth $20.

Life often beats us up to the point where we feel inadequate. We deal with bad circumstances and make bad choices that we have to deal with later. However, no matter what you go through, your value will remain the same .

You have something special to offer that no one can take away from you.

8. The Ultimate Test

One night, four college students stayed up late partying, even though they knew they had a test the next day. The next morning, they came up with a plan to get out of having to take their test.

Each student rolled around in dirt and then went to the teacher’s office.

They told the teacher that they had gotten a flat tire the night before, and they spent the entire night pushing their car back to campus.

The teacher listened, and to the students’ delight, he offered a retest three days later.

On the day of the test, the students went to their teacher’s office. The teacher put all four of the students in separate rooms to take the test. The students were okay with that because they had been given a chance to study.

The test had 2 questions:

1) Your Name __________ (1 Points)

2) Which tire was flat? __________ (99 Points)

• Front Right

Aside from making wise decisions, you always need to take responsibility for your actions .

This means not blaming other people for your mistakes, not complaining about the reality of the present moment, and not giving in to other people’s pressure.

9. What a Waste

A mother camel and her baby were lying down, soaking up the sun.

The baby camel asked his mom, “Why do we have these big bumps on our back?”

The mom stopped to think and then said, “We live in the desert where there is not much water available. Our humps store water to help us survive on long journeys.”

The baby camel then stopped to think and said, “Well, why do we have long legs with rounded feet?”

His mother replied, “They are meant to help us walk through sand.”

The baby asked a third question, “Why are my eyelashes so long?”

The mother replied, “Your long eyelashes offer you protection from sand when it blows in the wind.”

Finally, the baby said, “If we have all of these natural abilities given to us to walk through the desert, what’s the use for camels in the Zoo?”

The skills and abilities that you possess won’t be useful if you’re not in the right environment.

You’ve probably heard of a professional who ditched his or her career to follow their dreams–or the person who remains unfulfilled in their job, but doesn’t try to make a change .

If you’re stuck in a career that isn’t the right fit, you have to do some self-reflection to realize where you strengths lie that are going to waste. ( Here is a five-step process to identify your personal strengths .)

Turn to people that you know the best as well as professionals in any given market so you can start thinking about what may be better for you.

Think big and remain open to new ideas.

10. Breathing With No Air

A boy once asked a wise old man what the secret to success is.

After listening to the boy’s question, the wise man told the boy to meet him at the river in the morning and he would be given the answer there.

In the morning, the wise man and the boy began walking toward the river. They continued on into the river, past the point of the water covering their nose and mouth.  At this time, the wise man ducked the boy into the water.

As he struggled to get out, the wise man continued to push him further down. The boy felt a fish slip by his leg and squirmed to get up even harder. The man eventually pulled the boy’s head up so he could get air. The boy gasped as he inhaled a deep breath of air.

The wise man said, ‘What were you fighting for when you were under water?”

The boy replied, “Air!”

The man said, “There you have the secret to success. When you want to gain success as much as you wanted air when you were under water, you will obtain it. That’s the only secret.”

Success starts with the desire to achieve something.

If your motivation is weak , your results will follow suit.

Think about what you desire the most in life and work towards getting it. Don’t allow your environment or other people to influence the things that you truly want.

Just because the fish swimming by is comfortable with being under water doesn’t mean that you are.

11. Sweet Dreams

A young boy and girl were enjoying a pleasant afternoon playing outside in their neighborhood together.

The boy showed the girl his collection of beautiful, unique marbles. In turn, the girl showed the boy the handful of candy that she had just gotten for her birthday.

The boy proposed that the two of them switch–he would give her all of his marbles if she handed over all of her candy.

The girl agreed, as she found the marbles to be beautiful as well.

The boy handed over all of his marbles, but kept one–the most exquisite one of them all–in his pocket.

The girl kept her promise and gave the boy all of her candy.

That night, the girl was happy with the exchange and peacefully went to sleep.

The boy, however, couldn’t sleep, as he was up wondering if the girl had secretly kept some of her candy, just like he did with the marble.

If you don’t give 100% in your relationships, you will always assume your partner isn’t giving 100% either.

If you want your relationships to be built on trust, you have to be a participating factor in that.

Honesty grows your character.

By being honest in relationships, you’re holding your partner accountable to do the same. It allows both you and your partner to continuously think about your choices and how you can help (or hurt) your partner and your relationship.

12. Teamwork

There was once a man who lived with his three sons. His sons were hard workers, but they constantly fought with each other .

Even though the man continuously tried to help his sons make peace with each other, he was never successful. In fact, their fighting got to a point where their neighbors would make fun of them.

Eventually, the father became ill. He begged his sons to learn how to work together because of his impending death, but they didn’t listen. The father then decided to teach his sons a practical lesson to help his sons forget their differences and become a united team.

The father called his sons and said, “I’ll give you each an equal collection of sticks to break in half. Whoever breaks the sticks the fastest will be rewarded.”

After agreeing to the task, the father gave each of his sons 10 sticks and instructed them to break each stick in half.

This task took the sons mere minutes to complete, but once they were finished, they started to fight about who finished first.

The father said, “Dear sons, the task isn’t finished. Now I’ll give each of you 10 more sticks, however, you must break the sticks in half as a bundle rather than snapping each one separately.”

His sons agreed and attempted to do what he had asked. They each tried their best, but none could break the bundle in half.

They told their father that they had failed.

In response, their father said, “See, it was easy to break the sticks in half individually, but you couldn’t break all 10 of them at the same time.

Similarly, if the three of you stay united as a team, nobody will be able to harm you. However, if you fight all the time, anyone will be able to defeat you. Please come together as a united team.”

This lesson helped the man’s sons understand the power of being a team and promised their father that, moving forward, they would work together as a team, no matter what the situation was.

Being an effective member of a team helps contribute to the overall moral and motivation of the team.

Strong teams are naturally aligned to work harder, support each other, and be cooperative with working toward a mutual goal.

Individuals each have diverse talents, strengths, and weaknesses to contribute to teamwork, so staying focused on the task at hand rather than allowing personal disputes to get in the way will help you achieve your desired results. 

13. Frogs for Dinner

A lady was once heating up a pot of water on a gas stove with the intent of cooking pasta for her family for dinner.

A frog fell into the pot while it was sitting on the stove. While it wasn’t his intention to be stuck in a pot of water, he didn’t try to escape. He was comfortable enough as he was.

The lady soon turned on the flame to begin boiling the water.

As the water’s temperature began to rise, the frog was able to adjust his body temperature accordingly, so he remained in the pot without trying to do anything to change the situation.

However, as the water approached its boiling point, the frog’s body temperature could no longer keep up. He finally tried to jump out of the pot, but with water temperature continuing to increase, he didn’t have it in him to make the leap.

It was too late for the frog to save himself.

Things don’t always go as planned in life, and they certainly don’t always go the way we want them to. But, no matter how bad a situation is, it’s critical to be proactive and face the problem head-on.

Unlike the frog, who waited until the last minute to try to do anything about the problem he was clearly facing, it’s important to project the future outcomes of the obstacles that hinder you and mediate them before they get past the point of no return .

You have to avoid wasting time and take appropriate action before problems get out of hand or become too much to handle.

14. Will You Marry Me?

Centuries ago, in a small Italian town, there was a business owner who was in a great amount of debt.

His banker, who was an old, unattractive man, strongly desired the business owner’s younger beautiful daughter.

The banker decided to offer the businessman a deal to forgive the debt that he owed the bank completely. However, there was a bit of a catch.

In order for the businessman to become debt-free, he was to have his daughter marry the banker.

The businessman didn’t want to concede to this agreement, but he had no other choice, as his debt was so extreme.

The banker said he would put two small stones into a bag–one of which was white, and the other black .

The daughter would then need to reach into the bag and blindly choose a stone.

If she chose the black stone, the businessman’s debt would be cleared and the daughter would have to marry the banker.

However , if she chose the white stone, the debt would be cleared and the daughter would not have to marry him.

While standing in the stone-filled path in the businessman’s yard, the banker reached down and chose two small stones, not realizing that the businessman’s daughter was watching him. She noticed that he picked up two black stones and put them in the bag.

When it came time for the daughter to pick a stone out of the bag, she felt she had three choices:

• Refuse to do it.
• Take out both stones and expose the banker’s cheating.
• Pick a stone, knowing it would be black, and sacrifice herself to get her father out of debt.

She picked a stone from the bag, and immediately ‘accidentally’ dropped it into the abundance of stones where they were all standing.

She said to the banker, “I’m sorry, I’m so clumsy! Oh well. Just look in the bag to see what color stone is in there now so you will know what color stone I picked.”

Of course, the remaining stone was black . Because the banker didn’t want his deceit to be exposed, he played along, acting as if the stone that the businessman’s daughter dropped had to have been white.

He cleared the businessman’s debt and the daughter remained free from having to spend the rest of her life with the banker.

While you may have to think outside of the box sometimes, it’s always possible to conquer a difficult situation.

You don’t have to always give in to the options you’re presented with.

Challenge the status quo.

Think creatively.

Engage in productive nonconformity when possible.

Don’t be afraid to question the things that are expected to be true. In order to overcome challenges, you have to think in ways that you’ve never thought before.

15. Wait…What?

A carpenter who was nearing retirement told his boss that he was ready to end his career and spend his time with his wife and family. He would miss his work, but he felt it was time to spend his time with the people who were important to him.

His boss was saddened by this news, as this carpenter had been a good, reliable employee for many years. He asked the carpenter if he could do him a favor and build just one more house.

The carpenter reluctantly conceded, even though his passion for building had faded.

While he was building this last house, his normal work ethic faded and his efforts were mediocre, at best. He used inexpensive and inferior materials and cut corners wherever he could. It was a poor way to finish such a dedicated career that he once had.

When the carpenter was finished, his boss came to look at the house. He gave the key to the carpenter and said, “This house is my gift to you for all of the hard work you have done for me over the years.” 

The carpenter was astonished.

What a generous gift this was to receive from his boss, but if he had known he was building a house for himself, he would have made his usual efforts to create a high-quality home.

The same idea applies to how you build your life.

Every day that you wake up offers an opportunity for you to put your best foot forward, yet we often do mediocre work, saving the more important things for “another” day .

Then one day, we find ourselves shocked that our lives aren’t what we had hoped they would be. The “house” we built to live in has a lot of flaws due to a lack of effort.

However, you can’t go back and rebuild it in a day or two.

As people say, “Life is a do-it-yourself project.”

Your attitude and choices help build the life you will live tomorrow. So…build carefully.

16. Toothpaste Recant

One night in July at an all-girls summer camp, the campers were gathered around in a circle for their nighttime devotions.

The counselor asked if any of the girls wanted to share something that had happened that day that impacted them.

One camper raised her hand and said a girl from another camp cabin had said something that hurt her feelings and she was really upset about it.

The camp counselor went to the bathroom to grab a tube of toothpaste.

She took the tube and squeezed it just a bit so some toothpaste came out. She then tried to put the toothpaste back in the tube, but it just created a mess. Then she squeezed the tube even more, pushing more toothpaste out and creating even more of a mess, but none of it would go back into the tube.

The counselor then told the campers, “this toothpaste represents the words you speak. Once you say something that you want to take back, it’s impossible and it only creates a mess. Think before you speak, and make sure your words are going to good use before you let them out.”

Speaking is a fundamental social skill required for living a successful life.

However, many are careless with their words, but they hold so much power. They can have a direct impact on the outcome of a situation, creating a helpful or hurtful reaction in our world. T

he problem is, once words come out of your mouth, no amount of “I’m sorrys” will make them go back in: blurting something out and then attempting to take it back is like shutting the gate after the horse has taken off. 

Thinking before you speak allows you the time to consider the potential impact of your words.

Be careful when choosing where and when you let your words out. You can easily hurt other people, and once you do, you can’t take it back.

Words define who we are by revealing our attitudes and character, giving people an indication of our intellect or ignorance. 

Stop for a minute before you speak and question yourself about why you’re saying what you are. Are you trying to relay information? Relate to someone else?

Make sure you’re able to take responsibility for whatever you’re about to say.

17. Just Be

One evening, after spending several days with his new wife, a man leaned over and whispered into her ear, “I love you.” 

She smiled – and the man smiled back – and she said, “When I’m eighty years old and I’m thinking back on my entire life, I know I will remember this moment.”

A few minutes later, she drifted off to sleep.

The man was left with the silence of the room and the soft sound of his wife’s breathing.

He stayed awake, thinking about everything they had done together, from their first date to their first vacation together and ultimately to their big wedding. These were just some of the life choices that the couple had made together that had led to this very moment of silence in the presence of each other.

At one point, the man then realized that it didn’t matter what they had done or where they had gone. Nor did it matter where they were going.

The only thing that mattered was the serenity of that very moment.

Just being together. Breathing together. And resting together.

We can’t let the clock, calendar, or pressure from external sources take over our lives and allow us to forget the fact that every moment of our lives is a gift and a miracle – no matter how small or seemingly insignificant it is.

Being mindful in the special moments that you spend in the presence of the ones that you love are the moments that truly give your life meaning. (For more on this, here are 71 mindfulness exercises you can use to live in the present moment .)

18. The Weight of the World

Once, a psychology professor walked around his classroom full of students holding a glass of water with his arm straightened out to the side.

He asked his students, “How heavy is this glass of water?”

The students started to shout out guesses–ranging anywhere from 4 ounces to one pound.

The professor replied, “The absolute weight of this glass isn’t what matters while I’m holding it. Rather, it’s the amount of time that I hold onto it that makes an impact.”

“If I hold it for, say, two minutes, it doesn’t feel like much of a burden. If I hold it for an hour, its weight may become more apparent as my muscles begin to tire.

If I hold it for an entire day– or week –my muscles will cramp and I’ll likely feel numb or paralyzed with pain, making me feel miserable and unable to think about anything aside from the pain that I’m in. “

“In all of these cases, the actual weight of the glass will remain the same, but the longer I clench onto it, the heavier it feels to me and the more burdensome it is to hold.”

The class understood and shook their heads in agreement.

The professor continued to say, “This glass of water represents the worries and stresses that you carry around with you every day.  If you think about them for a few minutes and then put them aside, it’s not a heavy burden to bear.

If you think about them a little longer, you will start to feel the impacts of the stress. If you carry your worries with you all day, you will become incapacitated, prohibiting you from doing anything else until you let them go.”

Put down your worries and stressors. Don’t give them your entire attention while your life is passing you by.

Let go of things that are out of your control.

Don’t carry your worries around with you everywhere you go, as they will do nothing but bring you down.

Put your “glass down” each night and move on from anything that is unnecessarily stressing you out.

Don’t carry this extra weight into the next day.

19. Cherish Your Struggles

One day, a girl came upon a cocoon, and she could tell that a butterfly was trying to hatch.

She waited and watched the butterfly struggle for hours to release itself from the tiny hole. All of a sudden, the butterfly stopped moving–it seemed to be stuck.

The girl then decided to help get the butterfly out. She went home to get a pair of scissors to cut open the cocoon. The butterfly was then easily able to escape, however, its body was swollen and its wings were underdeveloped. 

The girl still thought she had done the butterfly a favor as she sat there waiting for its wings to grow in order to support its body. However, that wasn’t happening.

The butterfly was unable to fly, and for the rest of its life, it could only move by crawling around with little wings and a large body.

Despite the girl’s good intentions, she didn’t understand that the restriction of the butterfly’s cocoon and the struggle the butterfly had to go through in order to escape served an important purpose.

As butterflies emerge from tight cocoons, it forces fluid from their body into their wings to prepare them to be able to fly.

The struggles that you face in life help you grow and get stronger .

There is often a reason behind the requirement of doing hard work and being persistent. When enduring difficult times, you will develop the necessary strength that you’ll need in the future.

Without having any struggles, you won’t grow–which means it’s very important to take on personal challenges for yourself rather than relying on other people to always help you. 

20. Seeking Happiness

There were 200 people attending a seminar on mental and physical health.

At one point, the speaker told the group they were going to do an activity. He gave each attendee one balloon and told them to write their name on it. Then, the balloons were collected and moved into a very small room.

The participants were then asked to go into the other room and were given 2 minutes to find their balloon.

It was chaos…

People were searching frantically for their balloon, pushing each other and running into one another while they grabbed a balloon, looked at it, and inevitably tossed it to the side.

At the end of the 2 minutes, no one had found the balloon that had their name on it.

Then, the speaker asked the participants to go back in the room and pick up one balloon at random, look at the name, and return it to its owner. Within minutes, everyone had been reunited with their original balloon.

The speaker then told the group, “This is what it’s like when people are frantically searching for their own happiness in life .

People push others aside to get the things that they want that they believe will bring them happiness. However, our happiness actually lies in helping other people and working together as a community.”

You will get your happiness if you help other people find theirs. The Dalai Lama says, “If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

Helping others makes us happy because it gives us a sense of purpose.

In fact, a study from the London School of Economics found that the more you help other people, the happier you will be.

The researchers compared the variance in happiness levels of people who don’t help others on a regular basis to the happiness of weekly volunteers. They found that the participants had the same variance in happiness as those who make $75,000 – $100,000 annually vs $20,000.

Helping others brings us happiness for three reasons:

• Diversion : When you worry less about your own needs–in this case, finding your own balloon–the stress of that hunt decreases.

Taking your focus away from the fact that you can’t find your own balloon lets you divert your attention away from your own problem.  The feeling of compassion replaces the feeling of need.

• Perspective : Having concern for other people helps us remember that we are all facing similar problems in life–no matter what the individual severity of the issue is.

Sometimes when we are focused on our own issues, they get put into perspective when we encounter the true suffering of others (for example, bereavement or a  severe disability ).

It’s easy to then realize the excess amount of attention we’ve been giving our own problems.  Having compassion helps us put our problems into perspective.

• Connection :  Connecting with others by helping them   can bring happiness into your life.

Humans are social beings that need to have positive connections with other people in order to be happy. Connecting with other people enriches our lives and gives us a sense of fulfillment.

21. There Was Once a Boy…

There was once a boy who was growing up in a very wealthy family.

One day, his father decided to take him on a trip to show him how others lived who were less fortunate. His father’s goal was to help his son appreciate everything that he has been given in life.

The boy and his father pulled up to a farm where a very poor family lived. They spent several days on the farm, helping the family work for their food and take care of their land.

When they left the farm, his dad asked his son if he enjoyed their trip and if he had learned anything during the time they spent with this other family.

The boy quickly replied, “It was fantastic, that family is so lucky!”

Confused, his father asked what he meant by that.

The boy said, “Well, we only have one dog, but that family has four–and they have chickens!

We have four people in our home, but they have 12! They have so many people to play with!

We have a pool in our yard, but they have a river running through their property that is endless.

We have lanterns outside so we can see at night, but they have the wide open sky and the beautiful stars to give them wonder and light.

We have a patio, but they have the entire horizon to enjoy–they have endless fields to run around in and play.

We have to go to the grocery store, but they are able to grow their own food . Our high fence protects our property and our family, but they don‘t need such a limiting structure, because their friends protect them.”

The father was speechless.

Finally, the boy added, “Thank you for showing me how poor people live, they’re so lucky.”

True wealth and happiness aren’t measured by material belongings .

Being around the people you love, enjoying the beautiful, natural environment, and having freedom are much more valuable.

A rich life can mean different things to different people. What are your values and priorities?

If you have whatever is important to you , you can consider yourself to be wealthy.

22. A Pound is a Pound

There was once a farmer who, each week, sold a pound of butter to a baker.

After several weeks of buying a pound of butter from the farmer, the baker decided to weigh the butter that he was receiving to ensure it was indeed a full pound.

When the baker weighed it, he learned that the butter was under a pound , which enraged him. He felt he was being cheated and he decided to take the farmer to court.

When in court, the judge asked the farmer how he was weighing the butter.

The farmer said, “Your Honor, I am poor. I do not own an exact measuring tool. However, I do have a scale.”

The judge then asked if the farmer uses the scale to measure the butter.

The farmer said, “Your Honor, I have been buying a one-pound loaf of bread from the baker since long before he began purchasing butter from me.

Whenever the baker brings bread for me, I put it on the scale and then measure out the exact same weight in butter to give him in return. So, if the baker is not getting a pound of butter, he is also not giving a pound of bread like he promised.”

You get what you give. If you try to cheat others out of what you promise them, you will be cheated in return. The more honest you are, the easier it is to trust other people and not suspect they may be cheating you in some way.

When you’re honest, not only will other people trust you, but you will also feel more confident in your trust with others.

Honesty is always the best route–especially if you want others to be honest with you as well.

23. Jumping Frogs

A group of frogs was hopping through the forest when two of them accidentally hopped into a deep pit. The other frogs stood around the pit, and, seeing how deep it was, they told the two frogs that they couldn’t help them–there was no hope.

However, fighting for their lives, the two frogs ignored the others and started to try jumping out of the pit.

The frogs at the top continued to tell the frogs in the pit to give up, as there was no way they would be able to jump out.

After trying over and over, one of the frogs listened to the others and gave up, accepting his fate and falling to his death. But the other frog continued to jump with all of his might. The crowd of frogs yelled down the pit for the frog to just stop–he wouldn’t make it.

But the frog jumped even harder and persisted until he finally got out. Upon reaching the top, the other frogs said, “We thought there was no way any frog could jump that high–couldn’t you hear us?”

The frog then signaled to the others that he was deaf, and he thought that the frogs standing around the pit were encouraging him the whole time.

Others’ words can greatly impact your attitude and actions. Ignore the naysayers. Only engage with those who encourage you and believe in your ability to succeed.

Furthermore, think about what you say to people before speaking so you can make sure what you’re saying is supportive. Your support (or lack thereof) could make the difference between success and failure.

24. The Ultimate Gift

There was once a little girl who desperately needed an emergency blood transfusion to save her life. 

Her only chance of surviving would be to get a transfusion from her younger brother, who had miraculously overcome the same disease she had, and therefore had antibodies in his blood that were needed to fight the illness.

The doctor explained to the little boy that it would save his sister’s life if he were to give her his blood. The boy hesitated for a moment before agreeing to give his blood if it would help his sister. At the age of 5, this was scary, but he would do anything to save his big sister’s life.

As the blood transfusion was happening, he lay next to his sister in the hospital and was overcome with happiness as he saw the color coming back to her cheeks. Then he looked up at the doctor and quietly asked, “When will I start to die?”

The boy had assumed that he was giving his life in order to save hers. The little boy’s parents were astonished over the misunderstanding that led the boy to think they were choosing his sister over him–and even more astonished that he had agreed to do so.

The doctor replied, explaining that he was not going to die, he was just going to allow his sister to live a long, healthy life alongside him.

This is an example of extreme courage and self-sacrificing love from a young boy that we can all learn from. The love and care that he showed for his sister relays an inspiring message about selflessness.

While we may not be faced with such a life or death decision, being selfless in general can help us connect with others, which is rewarding and fulfilling.

25. Angry Nails

There was once a boy who became angry so frequently with his friends at school that he was constantly getting sent home.

His temper was disruptive to the class and hurtful to other students.

His father came up with a strategy to try to deter the boy from getting angry so easily. He gave his son a hammer and some nails and told him to hammer a nail into the family’s fence every time the boy got angry in the future.

The following day, the boy got angry 37 times, and had to hammer as many nails into the fence.

Over the next few weeks, the boy got tired of hammering nails into the fence and he gradually started to control his temper. Slowly, the number of nails he was hammering into the fence started to decrease.

The boy realized that it was easier to remain calm when he started to feel angry than to gather the tools, go outside, and start hammering.

Eventually, the boy stopped losing his temper altogether. His dad noticed, and told the boy to remove a nail from the fence every day that he was able to keep his temper under control.

Eventually, as the weeks went by, all of the nails had been taken out of the fence. The father and son then stood in front of the broken fence, which was completely scattered with holes.  

The father turned to his son and said, “You have done well, but look at the holes in the fence. They cannot be repaired. When you get angry at other people, it leaves a scar just like the holes you see in front of you. It doesn’t matter if you say I’m sorry one hundred times, the injury is still there.”

Control your anger toward other people. While you may not see the damage that it does, it can leave irreparable wounds that can eventually break them.

Be kind to others and think before you let your emotions get the best of you.

26. Walking on Water

Once there was a boy who lived with his family on a farm.

They had a beautiful dog who would go down to the pond for hours every day in the spring and summer with the boy to practice retrieving various items.

The boy wanted to prepare his dog for any scenario that may come up during duck season because he wanted his dog to be the best hunting dog in the whole county.

The boy and his dog had vigorous training sessions every day until the dog was so obedient, he wouldn’t do anything unless he was told to do so by the boy.

As duck season rolled in with the fall and winter months, the boy and his dog were eager to be at their regular spot down at the pond near their house.

Only a few minutes passed before the two heard the first group of ducks flying overhead. The boy slowly raised his gun and shot three times before killing a duck, which landed in the center of the pond.

When the boy signaled his dog to retrieve the duck, the dog charged through the duck blind and bushes toward the pond. However, instead of swimming in the water like he had practiced so many times, the dog walked on the water’s surface, retrieved the duck, and returned it to the boy.  

The boy was astonished. His dog had an amazing ability to walk on water–it was like magic. The boy knew no one would ever believe this amazing thing that he had just witnessed. He had to get someone else down there to see this incredible phenomenon.

The boy went to a nearby farmer’s house and asked if he would hunt with him the next morning. The neighbor agreed, and met up with the boy the following morning at his regular spot by the pond.

The pair patiently waited for a group of ducks to fly overhead, and soon enough, they heard them coming. The boy told the neighbor to go ahead and take a shot, which the neighbor did, killing one duck.

Just as the day before, the boy signaled to his dog to fetch the duck. Miraculously, the dog walked on the water again to retrieve the duck.

The boy was bursting with pride and could hardly contain himself when he asked his neighbor, “Did you see that? What do you think?!”

The neighbor responded, “I wasn’t going to say anything, but your dog doesn’t even know how to swim.”

The boy sat in disbelief as his neighbor pointed out a potential flaw of the dog rather than recognizing the fact that what he had just done was a miracle.

People will often downplay others’ abilities or achievements because they’re unable to accomplish the same thing. Don’t let this bring you down. Just move on and keep working on improving yourself. Maintaining a positive mindset is a key part of being successful.

Furthermore, be conscious of instances in which you may be tempted to not give credit where it is deserved. Pointing out other people’s shortcomings does not make you a superior person.

27. It’s Not That Complicated

There was once a very wise man living in ancient times. He was elderly and educated and held knowledge and books to the highest regard.

One day while on a walk, he realized that his shoes were really starting to wear out. Because he spent a lot of time walking on a daily basis, he knew he had to find the best shoes to support and protect his feet.

But, back then, this wasn’t such an easy task, as he couldn’t jump online to do some research and have shoes delivered to his door.

The man didn’t want to make things worse by purchasing the wrong shoes and having inadequate protection, which would lead to injuries and the inability to leave his home and walk to find new books to read.

The man gathered all of the books he could that were written by only those that he admired the most to search for the answer to his question, “What do I do if my shoes have fallen apart?”

He read through several books for many hours before finding out that he had no choice but to go buy a new pair of shoes. He then spent a lot of time reading about how to know if a pair of shoes fits properly.

Once he was satisfied with the answers he found, he was proud of himself for doing the research and he felt confident in his ability to buy a high-quality replacement for his old shoes.

He figured if he hadn’t done his research, he probably would have gone barefoot for the rest of his life, as he had no one to tell him how to fix his shoes.

Following the books’ instructions, the man took a stick and measured his foot with it. He then went to the market and finally came upon a pair of shoes that he liked. However, he realized he had left the stick back at home, which was far away from the shop.

By the time the man returned to the market, the shop was closed. And, by that point, his shoes were completely split, so he had to return home barefoot.

The next morning, he walked back to the market with bare feet, but the shoes that he had chosen the day before had been sold. The wise man explained what had happened to the shopkeeper, who reacted with a sense of surprise, asking, “Why didn’t you buy the shoes yesterday?”

The wise man replied, “Because I forgot the stick that I had used to measure my feet back home. And anyone who knows anything about shoes knows that you have to have the correct measurements of your feet before you can buy shoes. I didn’t want to buy the wrong size, and I was following the normal instructions.”

Even more confused, the shopkeeper asked, “But your foot was with you, why didn’t you just try the shoes on?”

The wise man was equally confused in return and responded, “All the books say shoes must be bought with the exact same measurements of the shoes you already own.”

Laughing, the shop owner replied “Oh, no! You don’t need the advice from books to buy shoes. You just need to have your feet, some money, and some common sense to not complicate things.”

Sometimes you need to take action without overthinking things. Knowledge often comes in handy, but in some circumstances, if you lack experience or common sense , your knowledge will only get you so far. In fact, it could make things seem a lot more complicated than they actually are.

If you’re facing an issue, don’t forget to use your reasoning skills in addition to anything you’ve learned in a formal learning environment.

28. Don’t Hold Back

There was once a company whose CEO was very strict and often disciplined the workers for their mistakes or perceived lack of progress.

One day, as the employees came into work, they saw a sign on the door that read, “Yesterday, the person who has been holding you back from succeeding in this company passed away. Please gather for a funeral service in the assembly room.”

While the employees were saddened for the family of their CEO, they were also intrigued at the prospect of being able to now move up within the company and become more successful.”

Upon entering the assembly room, many employees were surprised to see the CEO was, in fact, present. They wondered among themselves, “If it wasn’t him who was holding us back from being successful, who was it? Who has died?”

One by one, the employees approached the coffin, and upon looking inside, each was quite surprised. They didn’t understand what they saw.

In the coffin, there was simply a mirror. So when each employee looked in to find out who had been “holding them back from being successful” everyone saw themselves. Next to the mirror, there was a sign that read:

The only person who is able to limit your growth is you .

You are the only person who can influence your success. Your life changes when you break through your limiting beliefs and realize that you’re in control of your life.

The most influential relationship you can have is the relationship you have with yourself.

Now you know who has been holding you back from living up to your true potential. Are you going to keep allowing that person to hold you back?

You can’t blame anyone else if you’re not living up to your potential. You can’t let other people get you down about mistakes you make or their negative perception of your efforts.

You have to take personal responsibility for your work –both the good and the bad–and be proactive about making any necessary adjustments.

29. The Chef’s Daughter

Once there was a girl who was complaining to her dad that her life was so hard and that she didn’t know how she would get through all of her struggles. She was tired, and she felt like as soon as one problem was solved, another would arise.

Being a chef, the girl’s father took her into his kitchen. He boiled three pots of water that were equal in size. He placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in another, and ground coffee beans in the final pot.

He let the pots sit and boil for a while, not saying anything to his daughter.

He turned the burners off after twenty minutes and removed the potatoes from the pot and put them in a bowl. He did the same with the boiled eggs. He then used a ladle to scoop out the boiled coffee and poured it in a mug. He asked his daughter, “What do you see?”

She responded, “Potatoes, eggs, and coffee.”

Her father told her to take a closer look and touch the potatoes. After doing so, she noticed they were soft. Her father then told her to break open an egg. She acknowledged the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he told her to take a sip of the coffee. It was rich and delicious.

After asking her father what all of this meant, he explained that each of the three food items had just undergone the exact same hardship–twenty minutes inside of boiling water.

However, each item had a different reaction.

The potato went into the water as a strong, hard item, but after being boiled, it turned soft and weak.

The egg was fragile when it entered the water, with a thin outer shell protecting a liquid interior. However, after it was left to boil, the inside of the egg became firm and strong.

Finally, the ground coffee beans were different. Upon being exposed to boiling water, they changed the water to create something new altogether.

He then asked his daughter, “Which are you? When you face adversity, do you respond by becoming soft and weak? Do you build strength? Or do you change the situation?”

Life is full of ups and downs, wins and losses, and big shifts in momentum, and adversity is a big part of this experience.

And while many of us would rather not face adversity, it doesn’t have to always be a negative thing. In fact, handling adversity can be a positive experience that can lead to personal development .

You choose how you respond to adversity, whether you let it break you down or you stand up in the face of it and learn from it. In many instances, facing adversity gives you a chance to learn important lessons  that can help you grow as a person.

When facing adversity, it’s important to recognize your freedom to choose how you respond. You can respond in a way that ultimately limits you, or you can choose to have a more productive response that could potentially open windows of opportunity that we didn’t know existed.

30. Cleaning Turtles

There was once a man who walked his dog every Sunday morning around a lake near his house. Week after week, he saw the same elderly woman sitting at the edge of the water with a small metal cage next to her.

The man’s curiosity finally got the best of him and he approached the woman one day. He noticed that the cage was actually a small trap and she had three small turtles in it. In her lap, there was a fourth turtle that she was carefully wiping down with a sponge.

The man greeted her and said, “If you don’t mind my asking, what do you do with these turtles every week?”

She smiled and explained to him that she was cleaning their shells because any algae or scum that builds up on a turtle’s shell reduces its ability to absorb heat and slows down their swimming. It can also corrode their shell and weaken it over time.

The man was impressed as the woman continued, “I do this every Sunday morning to help the turtles.”

“But don’t most turtles live their entire lives with algae on their shells?” the man asked.

The woman agreed that was true.

He replied, “Well then, you’re kind to do this, but are you really making a difference if most turtles don’t have people around to clean their shells?”

The woman laughed as she looked down at the small turtle on her lap. “Young man, if this little turtle could talk, he would say I’m making all the difference in the world.'”

“To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.” — Dr. Seuss

Just because you may not be able to change the world or help everyone, you can still make a huge difference in one person’s life by offering them any help that you can. Don’t choose to not do anything because you can’t do everything .

The actions of one person can make a world of difference to someone else. When you see someone in need, you may never know how much of a difference your help can make in their life.

31. Puppy Love

A pet shop owner got a new litter of puppies and was ready to sell them to their “forever” families. A young girl walked by the shop and noticed a sign saying, “Puppies for Sale” and of course was very eager to go inside.

She asked the owner, “How much do the puppies cost?” The owner replied, “They are all around $50.”

The girl emptied her pocket change and told the store owner that she only had about $2, but she still wanted to look at them.

The shop owner whistled for the dogs, who came running down the hall of his shop. Five tiny furballs, followed by one, limping behind the rest. The girl immediately singled out the lagging puppy and asked the store owner what was wrong with him.

The owner explained that the puppy was born with a deformity– he was missing a hip socket. He would walk with a limp for the rest of his life.

The girl got excited, saying, “I want that puppy!”

The owner replied, “You don’t want to buy that puppy. If you really want him, you can have him for free.”

The girl became upset. She looked at the owner and said, “I don’t want to have him for free. That puppy is worth just as much as the others. I’ll give you the change I have now and a dollar a month until I have paid for the puppy entirely.”

The owner continued, “This dog is never going to be able to run and play like all of the other dogs, I think you’re going to regret this decision.”

To his surprise, the girl reached down and rolled up her pant leg to reveal a crippled leg that was supported by a large metal brace. She looked up at the owner and softly replied, ‘Well, I’m not much of a runner, and this puppy needs someone who understands.”

Don’t make assumptions about other people’s wants, needs, or abilities. Every one of us has our own weaknesses, whether it’s physical or mental.

The trick is to not allow your weaknesses to slow you down, and instead, find others in the world who can support you. Find and surround yourself with people who challenge you to reach your potential.

32. The Gift of the Magi

The Story :

There was once a young couple who was struggling to make ends meet during the holiday season. But despite their financial troubles, they both wanted to buy a special gift for the other.

After crying about their situation, the wife stood by the window and looked out with no interest. The next day was Christmas, and she had only $10 to buy her husband a gift. She had been saving as much as she could, but bills always cost more than expected.

But there was one thing that the wife had that would be valuable enough to sell: her long, flowy hair. She contacted a wig maker and asked them how much money she could earn if she gave them her hair. They said $100.

With that money, she quickly went from shop to shop looking for the perfect gift. And then she found it: a gold watch chain for his beloved gold watch that had been passed down for generations.

With 82 cents in change, she ran home, excited about the gift she had gotten for her husband.

While waiting for him to get home from work, the wife became nervous that he would no longer find her attractive with her new, short hair.

When he walked in, he stopped inside the door. He was as quiet and his eyes looked strangely at his wife with an expression in them that she did not understand.

She said to him, “Honey, don’t look at me like that. I sold my hair. I couldn’t live through Christmas without giving you a gift. My hair will grow back. Let’s be happy. You don’t know what a beautiful gift I got for you.”

He put his arms around her. And then from inside his coat, he took something out that was tied in paper and threw it on the table. “Listen,” he said. “Nothing like a haircut could make me love you any less. But open this.”

There lay two beautiful combs that she had seen in a shop window and loved for a long time. Combs with jewels–perfect for her beautiful hair. She knew they cost too much for them to afford. And now they were hers, but her hair was gone. She held them to her heart and said, “My hair grows so fast!”

And then she jumped up and held her gift out to him in her open hands. The gold chain sparkled. “Isn’t it perfect? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to look at your watch a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how they look together.”

He sat down and smiled. “Honey,” he said, “I sold the watch to get the money to buy the combs. And now I think we should have our dinner.”

The Moral :

Appreciate what others do for you. The magi were wise men who were the first to give Christmas gifts. In this story, each person sold the most valuable thing they owned in order to buy a gift for the other.

This story shows the true meaning of gift-giving, which is about the thought and love behind the gift rather than its material value. The couple’s gifts to each other are ultimately meaningless in terms of their practical use, but their representation of love and sacrifice proves to be invaluable for both of them.

33. Everyone Has a Story

There was once a 24 year old boy on a train with his father. Looking out from the train’s window, he shouted…

“Dad, look, the trees are going behind us!”

His dad smiled. The young man caught a couple’s attention sitting nearby, who looked at his childish behavior with pity. Suddenly, the boy exclaimed again…

“Dad, look, the clouds are running with us!”

Annoyed by the commotion, the couple looked at the old man and said, “You should take your son to see a good doctor.”

The old man smiled at the couple and said, “I just did. We are going home from the hospital, my son was blind from birth, and he just got his eyes today.”

Everyone on the planet has a story. Don’t judge people before you truly know them. The truth might surprise you.

34. A Dish of Ice Cream

In the days when ice cream sundaes cost much less, a 10 year old boy entered an ice cream shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

“How much is an ice cream sundae?”

“50 cents,” replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket that had several coins in it.

“How much is a dish of plain ice cream?” he asked.

“35 cents,” she replied impatiently.

The little boy again counted the coins. “I’ll have a plain ice cream,” he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.

When the waitress came back, she began wiping down the table and then was surprised at what she saw.

There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were 15 cents – her tip. The boy had enough money for a sundae, but he had ordered plain ice cream so he could leave her a tip.

In a world that constantly tells us we need to have more, it’s important to be reminded of the power of a person’s generosity.

35. A Very Special Bank Account

Let’s say you had a bank account that deposited $86,400 every morning. However, the account carries over no balance from day to day, doesn’t allow you to keep a cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you didn’t use during the day. What would you do?

Probably draw out every dollar every day!

We all have this bank–it is called Time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off whatever time you have failed to use wisely. It carries over no balance from day to day.

It allows no overdraft so you can’t borrow against yourself or use more time than you have. Each day, the account starts fresh. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, it’s your loss and you can’t appeal to get it back.

There is no such thing as borrowing time. You can’t take a loan out on your time or against someone else’s. The time you have is the time you have. Just as it is with money, time management is yours to decide how you spend it.

It is rarely the case of us not having the time to do things, but the case of whether we want to do them and where they fall in our priorities.

36. Hunting Monkeys

A man once asked a child, “Do you know how hunters used to trap monkeys?”

“Instead of chasing them up a tree or shooting arrows at them, they’d lay a heavy glass jar with a narrow neck on the ground with the monkeys’ favorite food inside.

Then they would hide a short distance away, waiting for the unsuspecting monkey to approach.

When it did, the monkey would reach inside and try to grab the snack. But the narrow neck of the jar would prevent the monkey from being able to get its hand out!

It would pull and pull, but it was stuck! There was no way to get its hand out of the jar without letting go of the food.

But instead of letting go, the monkey would keep trying, refusing to drop its dinner.

It was at this moment that the hunters would approach the monkey to catch it.”

“Don’t be like that monkey,” the man warned the child. “In life, to keep fighting another day and grow, you have to know when to quit, when to move on, and when to let go of whatever’s holding you back.”

Sometimes you have to let go and give up what you have now in order to receive something better in the future. Don’t let stubbornness get in your way to success.

37. The Fisherman and the Businessman

Once there was a businessman sitting on the beach in an Italian village.

As he sat and relaxed from his day, he saw a fisherman rowing a small boat full of fish back into the harbor.

Impressed, the businessman yelled out to the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” To which the fisherman replied “Oh, not so long.”

Confused, the businessman asked, “Then why don’t you fish for longer to catch even more?”

“Because this is enough to feed my family and even offer some to my neighbors,” the fisherman replied.

“So what do you do for the rest of your day?” Asked the businessman.

The fisherman said, “Well, I’ve usually caught my fish by late morning, so I go home, kiss my wife, and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap and read. In the evening, I go to the village to have a drink with my friends, play guitar, sing, and dance into the night!”

Being an entrepreneur, the businessman offered a suggestion.

“I have a PhD in business! I can help you become much more successful. From now on, you should spend longer at sea and catch as many fish as possible. When you’ve saved enough money, buy a bigger boat to catch even more fish.

From there, you’ll soon be able to buy more boats, set up your own company, build a production plant that will package the fish and control distribution, and move to the city to control your other branches.”

To this, the fisherman asks, “And after that?”

The businessman laughs, “After that, you’ll be able to live like a king, you will be rich!”

“And after that?” Asks the fisherman again.

“Well, then you can retire, move to a house by the ocean, wake up early in the morning to go fishing, then return home to play with your kids, kiss your wife, take a nap in the afternoon and join your friends in the village to drink, play guitar and dance into the night!”

Puzzled, the fisherman replies, “But isn’t that what I’m doing already?”

Be happy with the things that you have. Will having more in life bring you more happiness? Stress is often a choice. There’s joy and peace in simplicity.

Final Thoughts on Inspirational Stories

Some of these inspirational stories of success and hope left me astounded for a minute because of their strong impact, and I hope they had the same impact on you. They truly do make you think, and the images in your mind that they create are memorable.

Share these stories with friends who you think could benefit from the morals that they offer.

I’m hoping that from now on, when you’re tempted to cut corners, restrict your thinking to social conformity, remain comfortable with mediocrity, or anything else that may be holding you back in life, you will come back to these stories for a bit of a motivational boost.

And if you're looking for more inspiration, be sure to check out these other roundups:

• 15 Inspirational Poems About Life You Must Read Today
• 13 Famous Stories About Success & Overcoming Challenges
• 35 Best Songs About Success and Achievement

Finally, if you want to take your goal-setting efforts to the next level, check out this FREE printable worksheet and a step-by-step process that will help you set effective SMART goals .

Connie Mathers is a professional editor and freelance writer. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing and a Master’s Degree in Social Work. When she is not writing, Connie is either spending time with her daughter and two dogs, running, or working at her full-time job as a social worker in Richmond, VA.

Category: Presentation Opening Stories

Presentation skill fundamentals: start off with a story.

• Signal “This is different, so pay attention.” –Because it’s not the typical “Great to be here” opening or long intro/warm-up before the “real” material kicks in, starting with a story signals “this is different from the typical talk you’re  used to.” Thus it grabs their attention.

2. Grab the audience’s attention by creating an emotional connection. –Starting with a story that speaks to the audience’s key source of pain, and/or also shows what’s possible if they listen to and apply what you’re going to talk about, communicates “I understand  you and what I have will be helpful to you.” Since it speaks to something very relevant, and emotionally-charged, it grabs the audience at an emotional, visceral level, which makes them more alert and attentive.

Here’s a short clip of the story I used to open a talk titled Tell a Better Story. Become More Interesting. Grow Your Business.  Notice how this story taps into a source of pain (and anxiety) many entrepreneurs and business owners (my audience at this event) have and…provides a picture of what’s possible if they listen to what I’m going to share.

How I got a skunk to start my conference presentation

BTW…the sound quality isn’t great, because I needed to filter out the road noise (recorded it while driving).

BTW…part II. If you’re at the Maine Startup and Create Week, I am doing a partner event on Wednesday, from 12:45 to 1:45 at O’Maine Studio. All, the scoop is below.

Now…for the story.

Maine Startup and Create Week Partner Event

Tell a better story. become more interesting. grow your business..

When: June 24rd · 12:45PM-1:45PM

Where: O’Maine Studio, Portland, Maine

Fee: $10 (to cover a light lunch)

A Maine Startup & Create Week Partner Program

Use an Analogy to Pack a Punch: Togue Brawn shows you how

Ten entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to an audience of several hundred, competing for a $10,000 prize. It was also a chance to hone their  pitch craft.

Several entrepreneurs stood out for their speaking skill.

One of them was Togue Brawn, founder of Maine Dayboat Scallops. who will be speaking on June 24th at the upcoming Maine Startup and Create Week .

First, she clearly had passion for the impact her business would have in the lives of her customers and the fishermen she served.

In fact, after the event, I was talking about what a dynamo she was to a seasoned angel investor–a man who has seen it all. He laughed and said, in true When Harry Met Sally fashion–“Yeah…I want whatever she’s having!”

Besides her  passion, one of the other aspects of Togue’s talk that stood out for me was how she used a powerful analogy to capture the difference her business makes.

In Made to Stick , Chip and Dan Heath cite analogies as being one of the six power tools of the communicator who wants to make their idea “sticky”–i.e. people can’t get it out of their heads.

Why are analogies such a powerful communication tool?

• They translate the unfamiliar into the familiar…making your idea easier to understand.
• They translate the abstract into the tangible. The brain has a much easier time processing concrete images and situations from real life than it does making sense out of abstract concepts. Also, because concrete images and real life situations have a strong sensory component, they evoke more emotions that abstract ideas that only involve the intellect. BTW…notice that this point is an abstract concept. Now…let’s share a specific situation and concrete image that will make this point much more understandable.

Before you hear Togue’s analogy, here’s some quick context, so it makes more sense…

As part of her Origin Story, she shared her epiphany about the plight of Maine’s scallop fishermen and their customers. Most commercially fished scallops that are caught in federal waters in boats that are out to sea for a week or more. These scallops, when sold to consumers as “fresh” can be 12 days old. Maine’s scallop fishermen are all of the dayboat variety, meaning they go out and come back with their catch in one day.

Their scallops are a day old. But…because no delivery system existed to get these into customers’ hands, Maine day scallop fishermen can’t charge the premium price their premium product deserves. Instead, their uber-fresh scallops have to go to the same processing plants as the federal water harvested scallops that are several day’s old. So day old scallops get mixed in with a week or more old scallops.

Now here’s the analogy Togue used to make her point about how this didn’t make sense:

“That’s like pouring a bottle of Dom Perignon into a bathtub of Barefoot bubbly,” she noted.

When I heard that, I thought “Score! What a way to capture the difference.”

While there’s a reason why Barefoot wine is a popular brand, there’s a reason why Dom Perignon has a cachet that popular consumer brands’ don’t. If you made Dom Perignon, would you want it blended into any popular consumer wine and sold at that price or…would you want to get the price your product should command?

While giving the factual differences between scallops harvested in federal waters vs. those harvested by local scallop fishermen made for a clear comparison at the abstract, intellectual level, Togue’s analogy made it tangible. The listener could instantly get the difference at a deeper, more experiential level.

Hence, the power of a good analogy.

So…if you want YOUR ideas to pack a punch, start generating analogies to make your points hit home.

To learn more about how to use analogies and stories to make your ideas more interesting and persuasive, come to:

  June 24rd · 12:45PM-1:45PM

Who should attend : Business owners, self-employed professionals, leaders and others who want to communicate the value of their ideas, service, and business in a more compelling, interesting, and persuasive way… whether in front of a group or one-to-one.

Where : O’Maine Studio

Fee : $10 for attendees at Maine Startup and Create Week, $15 for non-attendees (includes lunch)

How NOT to Blow Your Big Chance When Speaking In Front of a Group

A while back I witnessed yet another sad example of someone squandering one of the most precious marketing opportunities possible: getting the chance to present in front of a group of potential buyers.

This happened at an association meeting of customer service professionals. A rep from  a CRM (customer relationship management) software company had the chance to give a five minute “commercial” because his  company had sponsored the event.

Rather than use his precious time to communicate how his business helps solve problems that were relevant to the audience, he simply talked about his company and stated facts about the customer service industry that were common knowledge to anyone in the industry.

People waited patiently until he was over so the “real speaker”  (yours truly) could get up and talk to them about the topic they really were interested in.

I felt bad for this man and his company because I knew they had spent a lot of money to get the chance to tell people how their product could help them, and all he accomplished was boring the audience.

Does this sound familiar?

Have you ever been “that guy”?

Maybe you also have been the main speaker at an event or a breakout session at a conference, and found yourself doing what a lot of vendor reps and consultants who aren’t professional  speakers do. Maybe you did any or all of the following:

• Started off with a lame joke.
• Transitioned into a long description of what your company does.
• Spent most of your time giving a “State of the Union” speech that merely reminds the audience  of all the problems they were facing and had come to get answers to.
• Gave 30,000 foot high “answers” that are commonsense, such as “Give great customer service”, “You need to have quality employees if you’re going to give quality customer service” or “Turnover is costing you a lot; so it’s important to stop turnover.”
• Read off of your PowerPoint slides….bullet point list item after bullet point list item.

Does this sound hauntingly familiar?

If so, it’s time to upgrade your presentational approach by adding stories and concrete examples.

Make Your Presentation Exponentially More Interesting and Persuasive By Adding Three Story Genres

Here are three types of stories that will make your presentation—whether it’s five minutes or sixty minutes—far more fascinating and persuasive.

1. “I Feel Your Pain” Stories –This story genre includes stories of your own experience that mirrors the audience’s major challenges. It also includes stories of clients or customers with challenges that mirror the audience’s. Either way, you are letting them know “I know where you are coming from.” You are also reminding them of the pain the unsolved problem is causing them.

By reminding them of the pain they have, you increase their desire to listen to what you’re going to tell them. So one way to start off with a bang is to tell a story that immediately taps into their pain and…shows that you “get them.”

So for instance, when I do programs on how to engage people in constructive conversations around difficult topics, I often start off with a really difficult conversation I once had with a co-worker. In the opening, I usually only tell the first part of the story, where I share how angry I was at him and how I obsessed about my not having a witty comeback, and how I plotted my revenge. When I share this with groups, I see nods of recognition. They know what it’s like and…they get it that I have faced the same struggles as they have. My story also reminds them of the pain they have felt because of conflict they were unwilling to address because they didn’t think they had the skills to make the conversation work.

2. Price and Promise Stories – Share a story about how a client or customer of yours was dealing with a problem the audience can relate to, and how your solution made a difference. Price and Promise Stories make clear the price the audience member pays for NOT addressing the problem, and the benefits of successfully addressing the problem.

As in the “I Feel Your Pain” story, Price and Promise Stories are designed to heighten the audience’s interest and make them want to hear more. However, don’t go into describing your solution, step-by-step,  if you start off with this type of story. When you start off with a Price and Promise Story, it’s meant as a tool to spark interest.

Later on in your presentation when you are describing how you solve the audience’s relevant problems, you can use this story genre to describe what you do. You can also use an “open loop” Price and Promise Story to start your presentation. Thi  is where you share the “before picture”—i.e. the “problem state”—and then  tell the audience  that you will share with them later in the session what you did to achieve a positive outcome. This is called “salting”, as in “making them thirsty for what you are going to tell them”.  The story I started off this post with is an example of salting. It starts off with a story that communicates “This is the price you pay for being an uninteresting speaker…a huge lost marketing opportunity”. While I don’t explicitly say “Keep reading and I will tell you how to rectify this”, you understand that is where we are going. If you can relate to the story, you wanted to hear more about how NOT to be “that guy.”

3. “What I mean by that” Stories – These stories take your key concepts and help listeners understand what they mean at an emotional and visceral level, rather than have them vaguely  understood at an intellectual story. When we use abstract terms without concrete examples, we risk people either not understanding what we mean or….believing they do understand, when in fact they don’t.

You prevent this from happening by following each key point with “So for instance…” or “Here’s an example of what I mean…”, and then giving a concrete example or sharing a short story that illustrates that point.

Doing this will make a HUGE difference in your audience’s ability to comprehend what you’re saying.

So for instance, when I give programs on constructive conversations, I talk about the language pattern I call The Multiple Choice Opener. This language pattern makes it more comfortable for people to speak honestly about a tough issue. When I describe the Multiple Choice Opener, I don’t just list the characteristics of this language pattern. I give the audience an example. I say “So…for instance…let’s say you did a performance review with Mary…” I then describe the scenario and how the Multiple Choice Opener would be used in the situation.

Other times, I illustrate what the Multiple Choice Opener looks and sounds like in real life by sharing a short story about  my using this language pattern with my young daughter when she seemed displeased with the idea of helping me wash dishes.

By giving a concrete example or sharing a short story, you help the listener play a movie inside their mind of what you are talking about, so they understand what it looks and sounds like in real life.

By making abstract terms concrete, you help your listeners move beyond “sort of knowing intellectually” what you are saying to fully grasping at an experiential level what you mean and why it’s significant.  When this happens, your message becomes more understandable, more interesting, and more persuasive.

So Use Stories to Make Your Points More Understandable and Your Presentations More Compelling

So…don’t be like the typical vendor or professional who does great work or has a great product, but doesn’t know how to talk about it in a way that makes others want to listen.

Don’t blow your big opportunity to spread your message when you do get the chance to speak in front of a group.

Start off your presentations with a story and, use stories and examples to make your points come alive.

Doing so will make you a far more fascinating and compelling speaker.

Adding storytelling to your presentations will also making speaking a lot more fun for you, and… it will make listening to you a lot more fun for your audience.

For examples of these types of stories, check out the Blog Category:

Presentation Opening Stories

For information on the Make Your Presentation Opportunity a Hit program, contact me at david (at) storiesthatchange.com

Nervous about speaking just add stories: a debrief of my semi-impromptu #smbme talk.

Much to my surprise I found an email from the event’s organizer, Amanda O’Brien , which had been sent the night before. Her email said she had just noticed I was attending the program and wondered if I would like to speak, too. The topic was storytelling and writing. The main speaker was the author of Everybody Writes, and content marketing guru Ann Handley . Since Ann was going to focus on writing, Amanda wanted to know if I would speak about storytelling in general.

Sure, glad to, I responded.

While I was “glad to,” there was also a problem with this.

Even though I have spoken at conferences around the country and overseas for over two decades, speaking doesn’t come easily for me. I’m not the guy who can’t wait to get in front of a group and talk. It takes me awhile to formulate what I want to say. But…I love storytelling and I also had witnessed what a fun group this was, so it seemed like a great opportunity to share something I love with people I enjoyed.

While I rarely get nervous when I give a talk, because I didn’t feel prepared, my stomach quickly knotted up and my heart started racing.

As I drove into Portland, I started thinking about what key points I would make and stories I would tell to illustrate those points.

At the breakfast, instead of mowing through multiple plates of eggs and bacon from the breakfast buffet and catching up with friends who were also attending, I jotted down thoughts and formulated a simple outline. At one point, I asked my friend and copywriter, Nina Hope , to distract me by telling me the funny story she had emailed me a “teaser” about.

After the sponsors were introduced and spoke briefly, it was time for me to speak.

I walked up to the front of the room, my stomach still in a knot and my heart still racing.

In the audio below, you will hear what I said.

Now…I am sharing this context and the presentation with you for a couple of reasons.

First, if you have stage fright, this will hopefully help you see how storytelling can help you settle down and actually enjoy your talk.

Second, I want to “pull back the curtain” and share with you some of the intentionality that goes behind storytelling.

You can approach what follows in two different ways. First, you can listen to the 10 minute recording below and THEN read my explanation and analysis or…you can read the explanation and analysis first, whichever works for your learning style.

So here goes…

My original plan was to first tell a story about an expert in the field of mind/body medicine who was bombing on stage and how storytelling saved the day for him. This type of story, what I call a Pain and Promise Story. The Pain and Promise Story grabs the audience’s attention because it speaks to a pain they feel and a hope they have about that pain going away. So it both resonates with their current situation—“I understand you”—and promises an antidote to their plight. This story genre immediately grabs the audience’s attention because it communicates “This will be helpful to you.”

My original planned evaporated when my butterflies did not.

I decided instead to start off with a different story, a funny story, because I needed to relax. Because it’s always been a real crowd pleaser and because it’s funny, I knew it would put me in a more upbeat, having-a-good-time state. So at the last minute I decided to start off with that story instead.

Then, I did the “expert bombing on stage” story. I was going to tell one last story that illustrates how you can use stories to challenge people without being confrontational—which is one of THE most useful applications of storytelling.

I call these the How to Say “You’re Crazy” in a Nice Way Stories.

I wanted to include this story in my short presentation, because this story genre helps people address one of THE most challenging situations for people, especially those in sales, coaching, and leadership positions. It helps them challenge people’s perspectives, beliefs, and excuses without triggering defensiveness and antagonism. I also wanted to include this point about what storytelling can do, along with a story to illustrate the point, because it shows how storytelling isn’t just a presentation tool.

But…when I got to this point in my talk, I felt like I was going to go over the 10 minutes I was shooting for, so I decided NOT to tell that story, but to instead use an analogy to make the point.

I love the analogies for making your point punchy in a fraction of the time.

Analogies are a great way to make your abstract idea concrete in a very short amount of time. If you don’t have much time to make your point, either because of time constraints or because your audience is filed with impatient people (e.g. busy executives in a meeting), analogies are a great alternative to stories.

What was I thinkin’?

OK, here are stylistic and technical notes, both to illustrate the intentionality that went into different aspects of the how the stories were told, as well as how it could have been improved.

How to Make Your Story More Relatable – In the first story, I talk about how I had blown my situation out of proportion. I had turned it into an “If I blow this keynote, it will be a career-ender.” I could have left it at that, but instead I followed that with something like “You know how we do that… we take something that is a little deal and turn it into a BIG DEAL…so maybe it’s like you get the chance to speak in front of senior leadership and you think ‘If I blow it, I’m going to be fired’ or maybe you have a business idea and you want to pitch it to a group of venture capitalists and you think ‘If I blow this…I’ll never get another chance.’”The language pattern that starts with “You know how we do that…” and is followed by experiences the audience can relate to, comes from the world of hypnosis.

It’s what I call a Linking Phrase.If you want the listener to connect at a more visceral level to your story, you use a Linking Phrase to link the experience you are talking about with one or more “versions” they have probably experienced. Doing this increases the listener’s interest at the conscious level because they can see the direct connection between your experience and theirs. It also increases the listener’s connection at the unconscious level because it signals “this is relevant, so pay attention.” It also stimulates greater interest because it stirs up emotions they have around their version of the challenge you are sharing.

Why You Might Use Your Version of My Opening Story – A couple of the reasons why I like using the first story as an opener:

• It’s a great ice breaker.
• As I mentioned before, it helps relax me because it’s a fun story to tell.
• It helps the audience bond with me because it’s a self-effacing story. It shows that I am not coming to them as a guru or in a one-up position. I am coming to them as a fellow human being, an equal (who just happens to have some specialized knowledge or expertise).
• It also subtly communicates credibility, without sounding like I am tooting my own horn. The fact that I was asked to keynote an international conference in Australia makes it obvious—or at least I hope it makes it obvious—that I must know what I’m talking about. Establishing credibility is not for YOUR sake as a speaker. It’s for the audience’s sake. They are far more likely to take seriously and implement your ideas if they believe you are an expert.

Another Example of Using a Linking Phrase – In the second story, I also use a Linking Phrase. This one went something like: “You know that sickening feeling when you’re thinking ‘Man…they are not connecting with me’ and even though you’re really into your idea…they are clearly not.”Just as with the previous example, I want the audience to connect my story with their own experiences, so they can remember the pain. This not only helps them “get into” the story, but also increases their motivation to learn how to NOT experience that pain again.

Provide More Context Than I Did – When I listened to the recording, I noticed that I did something I have caught myself doing on other occasions: not giving enough context to make my point clear to the audience. That happened in the second story when I likened the speaker’s exhortations to a particular Far Side cartoon. I simply said something like “It’s like that Far Side cartoon that goes ‘Blah, blah, blah, Ginger. Blah, blah, blah.’” Here’s the cartoon . I should have described the picture, since obviously not everyone has seen it. One of the reasons why I recommend recording your presentations is because it enables you to catch examples of not giving enough detail or context, so you can do so next time.

Take Away Points

• Using a self-effacing, amusing story as an opener is a great way to calm your nerves and help the audience bond with you.
• Using Linking Phrases helps the listener connect your story with their own experience. This increases their interest, because it shows how what you are talking about is relevant to them.
• Record your talks and pay attention to places where a bit more context or explaining might have made your point more clear.
• The more you use stories in your presentations, the more fascinating a speaker you will be and the more fun you will have speaking.

If you want to learn how to be a better storyteller, come to the free program “Tell a Better Story. Generate More Interest. Build Your Business” at the Casco Bay Tech Hub, on Dec 11th.

Now…For the Recording…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Simon Sinek Demonstrates How to Use a Story to Start Your Talk Off With a Bang

It’s also worth watching it for the outstanding content, too.

The next time you give a talk, how about coming up with a story that grabs the audience’s attention.

Related Posts on Starting Off Your Presentation With a Story

How to Start Off Your Presentation with a Story and… Why You Want To

Start Your Presentation Off With a Pain and Promise Story

How to Start Your Presentation Off With a Story…and Why You Want To

Starting a presentation off with a story starts your presentation off with a bang. It captures your audience’s attention and signals “This isn’t going to be one of those boring Death By PowerPoint presentations.

When choosing an opening story, use this list to see how many of these objectives your story accomplishes. Different stories acccomplish different groupings of objectives, so you might find yourself with two really good stories to start off with, in terms of entertainment value, but one addresses an objective that is especially important for your group while the other one doesn’t.

So for instance*, you might be speaking to a skeptical audience who doesn’t think the issue you’re going to talk about is important. You will want to pick a story that addresses the price they are  paying for  NOT addressing the issue and also subtly communicates your expert status. If you were speaking to a group who already believes in the importance of the issue, you might choose a story that offers hope.

Opening Story Objectives

• Bond—“He understands me.” and/or “He doesn’t think he’s better than me.”
• Credibility–“She knows what she’s talking about.”
• Pain— “Man…I would love to not feel that way anymore.”
• Clarity— “OK, got it! This is what she’s going to talk about.”
• Cognitive Dissonance— “Wow, I never realized I might be paying a price for…”
• Promise—“That would be awesome if that could happen for me.”
• Hope— “Maybe this will be the answer I’ve been looking for.”
• Fascination— “Wow…I never thought about it in that way.”
• Enchantment– “How amusing.” and/or “What a unique way of starting off a talk.”
• Positive Anticipation— “This is going to be fun, different than the same ole’ same ole’.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________

* Note: “So for instance…” is one of the most powerful three words in teaching. This phrase helps you take a conceptual idea–like the paragraph that starts with “When choosing an opening story…”–and make it more understandable by providing a concrete example. As the brothers Heath write in Made to Stick , one of the most important ways to make your ideas “Sticky” is to make  your ideas concrete through examples, analogies, and stories that illustrate your concept.

In this video, I am speaking to an ASTD chapter on storytelling and…surprise, surprise…thought it would be a good idea to open up with a story.

Notice the choice of story (and story within a story) and see how many things you notice in terms of why I started with this story, as well as why I started off with the story within the story at the event I referred to…in the story.

Please feel free to post your observations (and questions) in the Comments Below

To see what the audience picked up on and hear my commentary, go to Starting Off With a Story – Part II.

Also…if you haven’t seen the Add Powerful Storytelling to Your Training webinar recording, click here

Start Your Presentation Off Right with a Pain and Promise Story

If you want your audience to care about your message, start off with a story that speaks to their pain and presents your promise of what can happen if they listen and apply what you’re going to share.

Here’s an example of a Pain and Promise Story that I used to open up a webinar hosted by the American Society of Training and Development on how to use storytelling to jazz up your presentations to about 600 corporate trainers and Organizational Development professionals.

While this story was relevant to my audience (and you’ll see why), this story is even more applicable to entrepreneurs, consultants, and other experts who are great at what they do but….might not be the most confident or interesting speakers….and are therefore very nervous about bombing when they speak.

How to Apply This

1. Identify your market’s/audience’s major sources of pain.

2. Get clear on the outcome your product, service, or message facilitates in relationship to that pain.

3. Identify some examples of this transformation.

4. Tell the story to someone who knows how to tell a story and get feedback on whether it works as an opening story, how compelling it is, how it can be improved.

BTW…at 1:07 notice the language pattern. This is something from the “old days” of using and teaching hypnotherapy and therapeutic storytelling. I’ll write about that later.

Finally..we will be talking about how to start off with a story and more at the upcoming program

How to Use Analogies to Make Your Point More “Sticky”

In Chip and Dan Heath’s excellent book Made to Stick, they discuss the power of analogies to make abstract ideas more understandable…and pack a bigger punch. Analogies do this because they:

• Make Your Abstract Concept Concrete…and Therefore Easier to Comprehend -It’s much easier for the brain to process a concrete image or example than make sense of an abstract thought.
• Make Your Ideas More Interesting –Hopefully you will find that to be the case in this short video.
• Connect the New and Unfamiliar to the Familiar- -It’s a lot easier to understand a new concept when we can link it to something we are already familiar with. Analogies do that. In the video below, you will notice that I use analogies to make my points more clear and…
• Turn an Idea from Being Vulnerable to Skepticism to Seeming Like a “No Brainer “–One of the very cool things about analogies is they help you reframe ideas and rigidly help beliefs. They do this by taking a point of view that the listener or reader holds as true or even self-evident, and then uses the same or similar viewpoint in a context where its validity is easily called into question. Without getting into the hypnotics of it all, doing this also helps to link up the feeling of uncertainty, where before there was only certainty.

This video is from my main website HumanNatureAtWork.com

How to Use a Pain and Promise Story to Tune Your Audience Into WII-FM

Don’t give a long description of your background.

Instead, try starting out with a Pain and Promise Story, a story that captures the pain your audience feels about a problem you can solve and then illustrates “the Promise”–a vision of what will happen if they listen to, and apply, what you are going to share with them.

This helps them dial into that all important radio station–WII-FM–“What’s in it for me?”

I chose this story to start off with because I knew the CEOs in the group would relate to the pain of trying to get buy-in from employees on something that to them is obvious, but ends up not being so obvious to employees…and how frustrating that is.

While I typically like to use stories from my own experience and own work, I often use this story from the folks at VitalSmarts, because it is so perfect. It comes from their book  Influencer .

I wanted to make sure the professional service and financial service firm owners would dial into that WII-FM, but the story didn’t include that context.  I could have mentioned that context while telling the story (if you want to see an example of how to make that transition, see the commentary below the video).

However, in the interest of getting them actively involved as quickly as possible, I broke them up into pairs early on in the story to give them the chance to connect with their individual sources of pain.

The more you connect your audience with their pain from the outset, the more they will care about what you have to say.

The Pain and Promise Story is a great way to do that.

If you know your audience has multiple contexts where they are feeling pain, you can mention those as part of your story. So, if I had chosen not to break them into pairs during the story, I would have said something like this after getting to the part where the leaders’ message had the opposite effect of what they intended:

“I’m sure everyone in here can relate to that unpleasant experience. For others…the place where you feel the most frustrated around others not being persuaded by your message might be when talking to potential clients…and when you’re trying to show them how your service could help them…and they just aren’t getting it…or maybe its situations with colleagues or partners in your firm where you would want to be more persuasive…”

This is a language pattern I learned from my hypnosis training. You offer a variety of possible connections the person can make, to help them connect with your message.

• Entries feed
• Comments feed
• WordPress.org

Presentation Storytelling Examples & Techniques (2024)

Learn techniques for telling a story in a presentation . Get narrative presentation examples and learn to apply storytelling in business presentations .

Joanne Camarce

8 minute read

Short answer

What should a presentation storytelling structure include?

Introduction

Rising Action

Falling Action

Storytelling in business presentations matters (a lot)

Stories convey a deeper meaning, idea, or lesson. They make us feel, experience, identify, and understand.

Most importantly for storytelling in business presentations, telling a story in a presentation makes people more likely to remember the message.

Researchers Dean and Chip Heath found that after a presentation, 63% of attendees could remember the story told by the presenter.

However, only 5% could recall specific statistics from the event.

Because stories allow audiences to visualize and imagine an idea or message, stories also make them better able to make decisions.

In other words, stories bring buyers, stakeholders, and decision-makers to better understand and remember your message. Which in turn enables them to make a decision and increases the chance they’ll act on it.

What is presentation storytelling?

Presentation storytelling is the art of using a narrative structure to convey information instead of dry facts. It delivers a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end that aligns with the presentation's objectives, making the content more relatable and memorable.

Storytelling in business presentations involves 2 complementing aspects: (1) textual presentation narrative, and (2) visual storytelling.

What is a narrative presentation?

A narrative presentation is a style of delivering information where the content is structured as a relatable story. It typically includes characters, a setting, a conflict, and a resolution, and weaves complex ideas, processes, and metrics into the narrative.

What is a visual storytelling presentation?

A visual storytelling presentation tells a story or multiple anecdotes using visual elements like videos, animations, and interactive content.

Modern storytelling presentations apply scrollytelling design which combines visuals and text seamlessly to let readers interact with the presentation as they scroll down the content.

How to use the 4 storytelling archetypes

Storytelling is the art of describing vivid ideas, beliefs, experiences, and life lessons through stories and narratives.

These stories stimulate a listener's imagination as you take them on an emotional journey. There are many ways to tell a story.

These story structures have been shown to work for narrative presentations and corporate storytelling, and they will work for you.

The Hero's Journey: Communicates a transformation from struggle to success

The Story Mountain: Builds tension and anticipation

Story loop: Joins multiple perspectives into a single narrative

In-Media Res: Grabs attention quickly

There are timeless narrative frameworks that have worked for storytellers throughout the ages from the methodologies of old, through Shakespearian plays to Apple commercials.

1) Hero's Journey

The hero's journey narrative archetype involves a hero who goes on a journey and returns as a changed person.

This storytelling template consists of three distinct parts, or "acts," that include a setup, confrontation, and resolution. It makes for a well-structured and engaging narrative.

2) The Mountain

The mountain storytelling structure strategically maps the tension and drama in a story. This archetype is represented visually as a mountain, with each section building to a complex obstacle that characters need to overcome.

Think of the protagonist at the bottom of the mountain. They must climb the mountain to reach their goal (your business goals in this case). They face obstacles along the way, and they must overcome those obstacles before they can reach the top.

3) Story loop

The story loop structure contains stories within another story. However, they aren't standalone stories.

Your first story is the most important. It's the core of your message, and you use the other stories to elaborate or explain your central point.

But you stop some of the way through it, leaving the audience in suspense. Then, you share part of the second story before moving on to the last.

Eventually, in the end, you bring it all together to make one cohesive point. The purpose of this storytelling technique is to provide context, background, or a different perspective to a central narrative.

Types of anecdotes you can use in your story loop presentation

• Customer success stories
• Personal experiences by clients
• Inspirational stories
• Fictional or hypothetical stories
• Historical or factual stories

Here's a short video explaining how to use a story loop:

4) In medias res (begin from the middle)

In medias res is Latin for "in the middle of things." With this storytelling archetype, the narrative begins in the middle of a scene. It skips over the background of the story and gets straight to the action.

To choose the right type of story for your presentation, consider your audience, the purpose of the presentation, and the emotional impact you want to create.

No matter what narrative structure you choose, include visuals, sensory details, and precise language to bolster your message.

If you want to learn more about this storytelling archetype, check out the video below:

Effective presentation storytelling structure

A well-structured story can engage and persuade your audience, making your corporate presentation much more effective and memorable.

Stories can be applied in any type of business presentation, such as a pitch deck, sales presentation, white paper, report, or business proposal.

A single document can include multiple stories that make up a joint narrative.

5 basic elements of a story structure:

1. Introduction

• Sets a relevant context with background information.
• Introduces the protagonist (business or product) and the current problem or challenge.

2. Rising Action

• Builds tension by detailing the obstacles and complications faced.
• Engages the audience with the steps taken to address the challenge.
• The turning point where the main tension or conflict peaks.
• Highlights the moment of greatest challenge and the decisive action taken.

4. Falling Action

• Shows the aftermath of the climax.
• Begins to lead towards the resolution, detailing the business solution and results of actions taken.

5. Resolution

• Wraps up the story with the outcome of all actions.
• Provides a clear ending, showing how the challenge was overcome and what was learned.

After developing your story structure, be sure to connect it to your core message by creating parallels and reinforcing it with examples.

Most importantly, don’t leave your audience with the realization that they need to take action without offering them an immediate way to act.

Effective storytelling techniques for presentations

The beauty of storytelling is that the possibilities are endless. There are so many ways to tell a story in presentations. It's just a matter of finding the right one for your unique needs and goals.

1) Build your stories around your audience’s pain points

Stories establish connections. But don’t confuse your story with your audience’s story.

Your audience doesn’t care about your story, and they don’t care about your product.

But they will care if they feel you care about them.

Understanding the audience's pain points, values, and opinions can help you weave a story into a narrative that aligns with their interests. It gives you the chance to be part of THEIR story.

Stop talking about yourself. Do this and see engagement blow up, conversions increase, and greater brand loyalty .

2) Establish common ground with your prospects

One effective presentation storytelling technique is to find common ground and share experiences with your audience to establish a connection and make them care about what you say.

These commonalities are what resonate strongest with your target audience.

Common-ground stories tell your audience a satisfied client of yours overcame a particular challenge they are experiencing themselves, and offer the lessons learned while overcoming it.

3) Tell stories that foster peer envy

Peer envy is one of the strongest motivators you can flame in sales presentation storytelling.

Simply put it just means telling the story of a known industry player that achieved remarkable results with the help of your product or service.

A peer envy story should present the initial challenge, the journey to overcome it, and the final enviable outcomes. Yet the reader should feel they can attain similar or better results by following a similar journey.

Here's a fragment of a podcast where Michael Bosworth touches on this very topic:

Business presentation storytelling examples

Here are some examples of famous brands that incorporated personal stories to convey a powerful message in their business presentations.

Zuora sales deck

The Zuora sales deck was aptly named the best sales deck ever . It is truly a best-in-class example of a transformation narrative set within the story mountain framework.

It masterfully narrates the shift to a subscription economy, emphasizing evolving consumer behavior.

And by highlighting the challenges businesses face in this new economy, Zuora positions itself as the essential solution.

The deck's use of data, visuals, and testimonials weaves a compelling story of transformation, urging businesses to adapt and thrive with Zuora or stay behind and decline.

Mign sales deck

Mign’s sales deck highlights the digital shift in musculoskeletal injury recovery, emphasizing the transformation from mass production to personalized care.

Mign applies the hero’s journey story framework and positions itself as the trusted guide in this transformation.

The deck contrasts "winners," who embrace new technologies like additive manufacturing and virtual care, with "losers," traditional manufacturers stuck in outdated processes.

Tinder pitch deck

Tinder's pitch deck effectively narrates the universal challenge of meeting new people and the fear of rejection.

By introducing a hypothetical user named "Matt," Tinder gives the reader a peek into the mind of their target user - an everyday nice guy scared to approach a girl he's interested in.

This concrete personal experience gives life to a basic human need that investors can understand intuitively and even relate to.

Tinder leverages this emotional understanding to make a compelling case for its solution - a platform that eliminates the fear of rejection.

The deck also applied great data storytelling showcasing Tinder's impressive statistics, emphasizing its global reach and popularity among Gen Z.

They also nail the one-liner. Their slogan "It Starts With A Swipe™" encapsulates the simplicity and effectiveness of the app, positioning Tinder as the modern solution to traditional dating challenges.

Brothers Pub restaurant pitch deck

Brothers Pub's pitch deck presents a captivating local business story, emphasizing the need for a fresh, community-focused social pub venue.

The deck tells the story of the owners’ journey, from the initial concept to securing a prime location in Northampton, highlighting their dedication and vision for the future.

The deck outlines the challenges faced by traditional pubs, with 7000 closures in the last decade, and positions Brothers Pub as the innovative solution.

LKE proposal

Legends Kratom Co. (LKE) creates a narrative around the origins and benefits of kratom. By telling the exotic tale of the medicinal tropical evergreen tree and its transformation into a beneficial supplement, the deck creates a vivid backdrop.

They take the reader on their discovery journey to Indonesia to find a supplier for the coveted plant.

This adds authenticity and allure, while their commitment to education and community showcases a heartfelt mission.

Testimonials provide real-world validation, making LKE's story relatable and positioning them as a trusted leader in the supplement industry.

Genius Workshop Event pitch deck

Genius's pitch deck for their storytelling workshop is a masterclass in selling an experience. The deck introduces Gabrielle Dolan's expertise, setting a foundation of trust.

The workshop's structure is presented as a narrative journey, guiding attendees from novice to storyteller.

The deck mixes video, scrollytelling, and vivid language to give rich detail to the experience it promises to provide.

The 90-day follow-up program adds an element of continued growth, while alumni testimonials serve as real-world success stories.

By framing the workshop as a transformative experience, the deck engages and entices potential attendees, showcasing the power of storytelling in action.

Barbie recruitment pitch deck

Barbie's recruitment deck immerses candidates into Barbie's vibrant world. With playful greetings and whimsical descriptions, it sets a creative tone.

The deck focuses on Barbie’s story as a human being (doll in her case), her values, and her experience, instead of focusing on the recruiting company.

The deck lists attributes and responsibilities that align with Barbie's ethos, such as "spreading positivity" and "rocking a pink wardrobe."

Nokia brand guidelines

Nokia's brand guidelines deck uses visual storytelling to effectively communicate the essence of the brand. It lets the visuals tell the story since they speak louder than words.

The deck begins by anchoring the audience in Nokia's mission and values, creating a narrative foundation.

It then unfolds the brand's visual identity, from color schemes to typography, weaving a cohesive story of what Nokia represents.

By providing clear dos and don'ts, Nokia ensures that its brand story remains consistent and impactful across all touchpoints.

This storytelling approach not only educates but also engages, making it easier for stakeholders to internalize and adhere to the guidelines.

nSure one-pager

nSure's one-pager effectively uses visual data storytelling to convey the benefits of their AI fraud protection for digital gift card purchases.

Introducing the challenge of ambiguous transactions, nSure lets the numbers tell the story.

With impressive numbers like their AI solution’s 98% approval rate. They can afford to.

The deck's visuals, combined with endorsements from industry leaders like AXA, make a compelling narrative that instills confidence in nSure's expertise.

Healthy.io proposal

Healthy.io's proposal uses video storytelling with real practitioners who tell the story of their experiences using Healthy.io’s solution.

The video testimonial from a practice nurse adds a personal touch, showing the positive impact on patient care. This brings the user's experience to the front and adds credibility to the proposal’s claims.

The proposal uses a transformation narrative to showcase Healthy.io’s remote kidney screening solution.

They highlight the challenges of legacy ACR testing against their modern home-based test using a smartphone app.

Principles of visual storytelling in business presentations

Storytelling allows you to simplify complex or abstract information and address any objections or resistance. As a result, listeners can better retain and remember the message, which improves the decision-making process.

Here are the main principles that can transform your narrative:

Authenticity

Authentic visuals resonate more with audiences. In an era where people are bombarded with staged and polished images, authentic, candid photos that reflect the reality of your work can make your message stand out and be memorable.

Your visuals should evoke a sensory experience. The goal is to cut through the noise and trigger a stronger emotional response.

For example, you can make the experience more immersive by adding interactive clickable elements, embedding videos, or images that highlight details or visual textures.

Scrollytelling can also play a crucial role here, allowing the story to unfold through interaction, as the audience scrolls through the narrative, engaging them in a multi-sensory journey.

You can see the difference that interactivity makes below. Which presentation would you rather read?

The stories told by your images must be relevant to your audience. Personalized visual storytelling, supported by data to understand what motivates your audience, can turn your story into an experience that resonates deeply.

Every story has characters that fit certain archetypes, such as the caregiver, the explorer, and the creator. Identifying with these archetypes helps your audience connect with the story on a deeper level, making your organization's mission more relatable and memorable.

Make your own storytelling presentation

We've curated an extensive collection of templates to help you achieve effective storytelling for whatever business presentation you need to make.

The business storytelling presentation templates below have been rigorously tested across various devices and refined with insights gleaned from real-world feedback.

They were designed with interactive storytelling at their core. They’ll serve you as handy visual storytelling aids to make your presentations engaging, memorable, and highly converting.

Grab a template!

Why the human brain loves storytelling presentations

According to neuroscientist Uri Hasson , storytelling fosters deep social interactions through brain-to-brain connections.

He found that when we hear stories, our brains mirror each other, helping us understand what the storyteller is feeling.

Called neurocoupling or mirroring, this process occurs across many areas of the brain, including the ones that are responsible for processing and understanding narratives.

So the human brain loves stories. But why?

The short answer is that ‌neural activity in the brain increases when we hear a captivating story. Our brains are made up of neurons, which are nerve cells that send messages throughout the body.

These neurons release neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) that transmit signals from nerve cells to target cells.

The most common neurotransmitters in the brain include:

When we hear a story, the neurons in our brain light up with activity. And according to neuroscientists, "neurons that fire together wire together."

This means that as we hear stories, the neurons in our brains are wiring together. As a result, we're more likely to remember the information we receive from a story.

Storytelling also triggers the release of dopamine ("the brain's form of candy") and oxytocin ("the love drug"). In other words, stories make us feel good.

Here's an infographic showing how storytelling affects the brain:

This can influence buying behavior because it helps to create an emotional connection with potential customers or buyers.

Telling a story, instead of making a sales pitch , is less intimidating to an audience.

The company or product you're describing is easier to understand, seems less complex, and provides relevant information in a format that's easy to digest and remember.

As a result, the buyer can relate to the product or service and will eventually want to purchase it.

Joanne Camarce grows and strategizes B2B marketing and PR efforts @ codeless.io . She loves slaying outreach campaigns and connecting with brands like G2, Wordstream, Process Street, and others. When she's not wearing her marketing hat, you'll find Joanne admiring Japanese music and art or just being a dog mom.

Found this post useful?

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Get notified as more awesome content goes live.

(No spam, no ads, opt-out whenever)

You've just joined an elite group of people that make the top performing 1% of sales and marketing collateral.

Create your best presentation to date

Try Storydoc interactive presentation maker for 14 days free (keep any presentation you make forever!)

• Presentation Hacks

How To Find A Story To Enhance Your Public Speaking Presentations

• By: Leslie Belknap

Stories constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.

– Dr. Howard Gardner, Harvard University

When you tell a story during your presentation, you can potentially activate up to seven areas of your audience members’ brains, as compared to the two areas of the brain that you can awaken if you tell only facts and stats during your presentation.

The power of storytelling is not news to most people; the benefits of stories have been extolled for years, especially recently with the rise of content marketing. Many people however still struggle to know how best to take advantage of storytelling during presentations. We all tell stories everyday, however for some reason when it comes to telling stories during presentations, most people freeze and get a bad case of writer’s block.

The challenge of finding the right story to tell during a presentation is understandable because during presentations the speaker is in the hot seat and the pressure is intense. Thus, most speakers want to stick with the facts to avoid seeming soft or unprepared to present the cold, hard data that proves their points. However being seen as soft and warm is an important reason why speakers should strive to discover at least one story they can share during their time in the spotlight.  According to a Harvard study , leaders need to project warmth to connect to their audience; projecting competence alone is not sufficient for most leaders to succeed.   Although projecting competence is clearly important, neglecting to demonstrate trustworthiness/warmth – a psychological conduit for influence – makes it very difficult for leaders to gain loyalty and to be persuasive in a sustainable way.

So, how can you find stories to tell during your presentations to ensure you engage your audience and project warmth?  Here are 3 suggestions to help you break through writer’s blocks to discover stories that will enhance your message.

1. Personal Story

Burt Helm, writer for renowned publications such as  The New York Times and Inc magazine ,  receives thousands of emails from business leaders and entrepreneurs who hope to be featured in one his upcoming articles.  Recently Burt showed me his inbox which contained 21,000 unread emails. The 21,000 emails had not been read because the sender had failed to captivate Burt’s attention by sharing a story worthy of an article.

When Burt told me the status of his inbox and the reason behind so many unread emails, I couldn’t resist asking, What types of stories capture your attention and imagination? He didn’t hesitate to respond by saying, personal stories . Apparently most people think that talking about their new round of funding or the latest features of their product are stories, but they’re not stories, those are updates worthy of a tweet perhaps, but not an article.

The same goes for presentations; your informative updates might be interesting, but they don’t fulfill the storytelling element needed for your presentation. According to Burt, the best stories start are personal, and are based on experiences such as your failures, epiphanies, fears, successes, and obstacles. Burt continued to explain that the most successful stories start with an unexpected complication and end with a transformation .

If you’re thinking about including a personal story in your presentation, think about the complications in your life, and how you handled those curveball experiences. You can also look for aha moments, or moments of transformation, and work backwards to discover the moment where it all began – the beginning of your story.

2. Customer Experience

If you cannot think of a personal story, are there any customer experiences that are relevant to your presentation material? If so, get permission from the customer to share their story, or change their name to protect their identity. You can even take the basic information from the customer’s experience and create a fictional story based on the customer’s real life experience.

Airbnb has done an exceptional job of reaching out to their customers to gather great stories from real people in their community. The stories are shared online as a content marketing initiative however the example can still serve as inspiration for public speakers.

If you go to all of the work of collecting stories from your customers, why not follow Airbnb’s lead and also use the stories for your own content marketing campaigns? I say go for it. People will love the customer stories on your blog just as much as they will love the stories when you share them during your presentation.

However, if you’re not as lucky as Airbnb and you cannot collect stories from real customers, create a fictional story based on your customers. The fictional story can be as simple as the example shown below.

In the example below, the slides have no words because the slides are only meant to serve as visuals to enhance the story as it is shared orally by the speaker.

In addition, these slides are only a small sample of the entire story – just enough to inspire you to create your own fictional story.

So, here’s the basic idea of this fictional story…

Jack and Jill meet through an online dating site. Jill enjoyed Jack’s witty profile bio that poked fun of his love for crispy bacon and walks through the snow, and Jack enjoyed Jill’s photos from her recent skiing trip in Utah. Jack and Jill decide to meet for their first date at a nearby coffeeshop. As soon as they confirm their plans, they both get butterflies of excitement.

To prepare for the date, Jill goes shopping to buy a new outfit, makeup, and some perfume. The entire time she is shopping, her mind is racing and her heart is pounding due to her excitement and nervousness.

To prepare for the date, Jack looks through his closet to find an appropriate shirt. Overall, he is relaxed and happy. He is looking forward to the date, but the butterflies he felt immediately after confirming the date are now long gone.

You get the idea, right? Your story does not need to be complicated to spark listeners’ imaginations. Your story can be simple and even fictional, but you should strive make it as descriptive as possible. Being descriptive is the secret to activating seven areas of listeners’ brains. 

3. News, Literature, and other Presentations

Pablo Picasso is quoted as saying,  Good artists copy, great artists steal. I f Picasso condones stealing from other artists, then it must be a good idea, right?

Public speakers should feel comfortable telling other people’s stories, as long as you give credit where it is due.  For example, if you read an article last week and the story is still sticking with you, then it is probably a good one. If it is relevant to what you do, your presentation material, and/or your audience’s interests, then you should probably find a way to make it flow within your presentation.

I recently stumbled upon an article that introduced me to Hustle Con . As a result, I have watched every Hustle Con presentation that is available on YouTube. I enjoyed all of the Hustle Con videos, however the two below were so impactful that I often talk about them with friend and colleagues. Because the stories shared within these presentations had an impressive impact on me, I will likely share the stories in some of my upcoming presentations.

Obviously I will not try to pretend that I am the founder of Pandora, or that Tim Westergren told me his life story directly. I will give full credit to Tim Westergren and Hustle Con. Because I am giving credit, I am borrowing more than stealing , and I suggest you do the same to enhance your own presentations.

1. How Tim Westergren Went From $400k in Debt to the Founder of a Public Company

2. How to Contact Anyone on LinkedIn with the Co-Founder of Vungle

What stories have stuck with you over time?

Conclusion:

Tell stories to activate up to seven areas of listeners’ minds, and to also project warmth during your time in the spotlight. When more areas of the brain are activated, people are more alert and engaged – which should be one of the main goals of your presentation.  In addition, leaders and speakers who are perceived as warm are generally more successful.

So, what stories will you tell to steal the show during your presentation?

Additional Resources:

5 Storytelling Tips for Presentations

The Neuroscience of Storytelling

Leslie Belknap

Join our newsletter today.

© 2006-2024 Ethos3 – An Award Winning Presentation Design and Training Company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policy
• Diversity and Inclusion

The 24 Best Motivational Speeches Our Employees Have Ever Heard

Published: July 19, 2023

It was halftime during one of my 7th-grade football games. And we were losing 14 - 0. With our knees planted in the grass, my team was quietly huddled, drenched in sweat and defeat. Suddenly, it was game over.

That's when our assistant coach burst into our circle and shattered our pity party, delivering one of the best motivational speeches I've heard to this day.

I can't directly quote him because he said some inappropriate things for a blog post (and, in hindsight, probably for a bunch of 13-year-olds too).

The point is he harnessed the power of words to rejuvenate a physically and emotionally drained team. And we came back clawing to win the game.

Free Leadership Lessons Guide

Actionable leadership advice from HubSpot's Co-Founder, Dharmesh Shah.

• Qualities of Confident People
• Leading By Example
• Recognizing Excellence

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Motivational Speech

A motivational speech can come from anywhere or anyone, but it usually has a specific audience in mind.

Whether it's a graduation speech, an all-company meeting, a championship sporting event, or a conference keynote, these speeches are designed to change how their listeners see the challenges facing them in the future.

Like in sports, being motivated at work is crucial for your performance. This rings especially true when you have a looming deadline, an important meeting, or colleagues or customers depending on your performance.

Think about the last time you felt generally unmotivated. What brought you out of that feeling? Sometimes all it takes to get you going is a good night's sleep or witnessing the benefits of your labor.

Still, other times, you might listen to someone say something that resonates with you — that alters how you've been looking at a particular task or problem.

Motivational speeches and speakers can come in all different forms, but this is the one thing they have in common — resonance. They resonate with the right listener at the right time and in the right way.

Who knows, this article is doing some for you right now. (I can dream, can't I?)

We selected 24 of the best motivational speeches from business, sports, entertainment, and other fields to help you stay motivated no matter what your work throws at you. Watch these videos if you want to feel inspired by a project.

Trust me, I was wiping my eyes after I saw them. And while the messages vary from speech to speech, they can put you in the optimal frame of mind for tackling and crushing your next big challenge.

(Disclaimer: Some speeches may contain NSFW language.)

Elon Musk: "The Importance of Never Giving Up" (2020)

Angela Ahrendts: "Leading with Empathy" (2023)

Arianna Huffington: "The Power of Sleep" (2023)

Tim Cook: "Inclusion and Diversity" (2023)

J.K. Rowling: “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination” (2008)

Sheryl Sandberg: "Lean In" (2021)

Jim Carrey: Commencement Speech at Maharishi University of Management (2014)

Steve Jobs: "How to Live Before You Die" (2005)

Matthew McConaughey: "The Pursuit of Happiness" (2022)

Denzel Washington: "Fall Forward" (2011)

Vera Jones: “But the Blind Can Lead the Blind…” (2016)

Oprah Winfrey: "The Power of Self-Belief" (2020)

Charlie Day: Merrimack College Commencement Speech (2014)

Brené Brown: "The Power of Vulnerability" (2013)

Kobe Bryant: “The Path to Greatness" (2020)

David Foster Wallace: "This Is Water" (2005)

Carol Dweck: "The Growth Mindset" (2020)

Al Pacino: "Inch by Inch" (1999)

Satya Nadella: "Empowering Others" (2023)

Sylvester Stallone: Speech from Rocky Balboa (2006)

Will Smith: Speech from The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Mel Robbins: "The 5 Second Rule" (2020)

Angela Duckworth: "The Power of Grit" (2020)

Kurt Russell: “This is Your Time” (2004)

The Best Motivational Speeches of All Time

1. elon musk: "the importance of never giving up" (2020), theme of speech: perseverance and resilience.

Elon Musk's "The Importance of Never Giving Up" speech about perseverance and determination is decisive.

In this speech, Musk emphasizes failing and learning from failures as keys to success. He recounts his life and career, demonstrating how he overcame challenges.

One key takeaway from Musk's speech is his advice to adopt a growth mindset.

Musk encourages listeners to view setbacks as learning experiences. He also highlights the value of perseverance, persistence, and taking risks.

Elon Musk's word serves as an upbeat reminder that perseverance, patience, and the desire to attempt things repeatedly in the face of difficulty are essential for success.

"If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it."

2. Angela Ahrendts: "Leading with Empathy" (2023)

Theme of the speech: empathetic leadership....

The "Leading with Empathy" talk by Angela Ahrendts emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence and compassion in leadership.

According to Ahrendts, leaders must view their employees as whole people with lives outside of work. Leaders can instill trust, respect, and mutual support in their employees and organizations.

Ahrendts emphasizes the importance of team mission as well. Leaders can inspire their teams by connecting them to a greater goal.

She believes that working together fosters creativity, innovation, and growth.

"Leading with Empathy" is a powerful reminder that leadership requires more than technical knowledge. To truly inspire and motivate their employees, leaders must understand their emotional needs and create a supportive, inclusive environment.

"Empathy is the glue that holds relationships together, whether they are personal or professional."

3. Arianna Huffington: "The Power of Sleep" (2023)

Theme of the speech: sleep and productivity.

The Huffington Post's founder, Arianna Huffington, emphasized the importance of sleep to overall health. In her 2023 speech, "The Power of Sleep," she discusses how sleep deprivation affects our health, productivity, and happiness.

Huffington observes that we have been taught to sacrifice sleep for success. She also mentions that well-rested employees are more creative, efficient, and effective.

To address these issues, Huffington proposes a cultural shift that recognizes sleep as essential to health and wellness.

She advises individuals and organizations to prioritize sleep, avoid technology before bedtime, and create a restful sleep environment. Sleep, according to Huffington, is a necessity, not a luxury.

By recognizing the importance of sleep, people and businesses can enhance their health, productivity, and general well-being.

Arianna Huffington's "The Power of Sleep" speech in 2023 emphasizes the importance of sleep and the dangers of sleep deprivation.

It promotes a culture where getting enough sleep is essential for health and well-being.

"Sleep is the Swiss Army knife of health, it does everything."

4. Tim Cook: "Inclusion and Diversity" (2023)

Theme of the speech: inclusion and diversity.

Apple CEO Tim Cook advocates for inclusion and diversity. He has been instrumental in the company's initiatives to advance fairness and equality inside its ranks and across the technology sector.

Cook has prioritized diversity and inclusion at Apple because he believes it is proper and necessary for innovation and business success.

Unconscious bias training, diverse recruitment, and employee resource groups contributed to his success.

Outside of Apple, Cook has advocated for LGBTQ+ rights and immigration reform. He has raised awareness of these issues and advocated for social change as a business leader.

Tech leaders and others have lauded Cook's commitment to diversity and inclusion. He has raised awareness of these issues, leading to significant change at Apple and elsewhere.

"Inclusion and diversity are not just buzzwords, they are fundamental values that drive innovation and creativity."

5. J.K. Rowling: “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination” (2008)

Theme of speech: failure.

In J.K. Rowling's 2008 Harvard commencement speech, the Harry Potter author explored how two phenomena -- failure and imagination -- can be crucial to success.

While failure can help you understand where your true passion lies, and where you should focus your energy moving forward, imagination is what will allow you to empathize with other people so you can use your influence to do good.

“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

"You have to understand your own personal DNA. Don't do things because I do them or Steve Jobs or Mark Cuban tried it. You need to know your personal brand and stay true to it."

6. Sheryl Sandberg: "Lean In" (2021)

Theme of the speech: gender equality and leadership.

Sheryl Sandberg's 2021 talk, "Lean In," encourages women to lean into their careers and leadership roles. She urges women to stand up for one another and themselves to overcome societal and cultural hurdles.

Sandberg highlights the need to have distinct objectives and goals and be prepared to take calculated risks to achieve them.

She also underlines how crucial it is for more female leaders to advance diversity and gender equality across all industries.

Sandberg's speech also emphasizes collaboration. She urges women to mentor other women and look for sponsors and mentors themselves.

The "Lean In" talk by Sheryl Sandberg emphasizes women's voices and perspectives in all aspects of society.

To remove barriers and foster more inclusive and varied workplaces and communities, Sandberg urges women to pursue their professional ambitions with confidence and with the help of their communities.

"We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women's voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored."

7. Jim Carrey: Commencement Speech at Maharishi University of Management (2014)

Theme of speech: taking risks.

Jim Carrey might make a living as the goofiest comedian around, but in 2014, he combined classic Carrey humor with unforgettable insight at Maharishi University of Management's graduation ceremony.

Jim Carrey opened his speech dishing punchlines, but he eventually opened up about his upbringing and the role fear plays in our lives. You can actually hear the amazement in the students' reactions in the video above.

“I learned many great lessons from my father -- not the least of which is that you can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

8. Steve Jobs: "How to Live Before You Die" (2005)

Theme of speech: life and career.

Considering the YouTube video of Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford commencement speech has 24 million views, it's likely that you've seen this one already.

In the speech, Jobs plays on two themes: connecting the dots (anecdote: how taking a calligraphy class helped inspire the design of the Mac) and love & loss (anecdote: how getting fired from Apple helped inspire his greatest innovations).

Perhaps the most memorable part his speech comes at the end, when he quotes the (now-famous) lines from the final issue of his favorite publication, The Whole Earth Catalog:

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

9. Matthew McConaughey: "The Pursuit of Happiness" (2022)

Theme of the speech: discovering true happiness and fulfillment in life..

In "The Pursuit of Happiness," famed actor and motivational speaker Matthew McConaughey provides his enlightened viewpoint on obtaining true happiness and fulfillment.

McConaughey presents a genuine and approachable study of what it means to live a fulfilling life through sincere storytelling and personal anecdotes.

The speech discusses the significance of authenticity and remaining true to oneself. McConaughey encourages people to define their success rather than succumb to social pressures or external expectations.

He stresses aligning our behaviors and decisions with our fundamental values and passions.

McConaughey expresses his conviction in the power of thankfulness and the importance of living in the present moment. He encourages people to create a grateful mindset, recognizing the blessings and possibilities surrounding them.

By appreciating the present and finding joy in the journey, individuals can experience more profound happiness and fulfillment.

"Happiness is not a destination. It's a state of mind, a journey, and a choice we make every day."

10. Denzel Washington: "Fall Forward" (2011)

In his 2011 UPenn commencement speech, Denzel Washington highlighted three reasons why we need to embrace failure in order to be successful. First, everybody will fail at something at some point, so you better get used to it.

Second, if you never fail, take that as a sign that you're not really trying. And third, at the end of the day, failure will help you figure out what path you want to be on.

“Fall forward. Here's what I mean: Reggie Jackson struck out twenty-six-hundred times in his career — the most in the history of baseball. But you don't hear about the strikeouts. People remember the home runs.

Fall forward.

Thomas Edison conducted 1,000 failed experiments. Did you know that? I didn't know that—because #1,001 was the light bulb. Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.”

11. Vera Jones: “But the Blind Can Lead the Blind…” (2016)

Theme of speech: perseverance.

Last year at INBOUND, Vera Jones told a moving story about the life lessons she's learned from raising her blind son.

She explains how having faith in your future and letting it lead you toward your true purpose will help you overcome blinding obstacles.

She also discusses how following your passion and trusting your vision develops empathy, which is a critical leadership skill.

“Passionately play your position no matter how bad things get. You are significant. Why we are here is not for our own glory. Ultimately, we're here to lead and serve everybody else. By doing that, we encourage others to do the same.”

12. Oprah Winfrey: "The Power of Self-Belief" (2020)

Theme of Speech: Self-Belief and Confidence

Oprah Winfrey's 2020 speech "The Power of Self-Belief" emphasized the importance of self-assurance. She attributed her success to her unwavering self-assurance.

According to Oprah, self-belief is not about being arrogant or overconfident. She stresses the significance of overcoming self-doubt and fear, which can prevent people from reaching their goals.

Oprah used personal stories to demonstrate how self-confidence has aided her in life and work. She encouraged her audience to believe in themselves and to embrace their inner strength.

The Power of Self-Belief" reminded us how important it is to have faith in ourselves and our ability to succeed.

"The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams."

13. Charlie Day: Merrimack College Commencement Speech (2014)

Best known for his role in the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, actor Charlie Day had lots of wisdom to share during the 2014 commencement speech at his alma mater, Merrimack College.

Day explained to the audience how college degrees are inherently valueless, since you can't trade them in for cash. Instead, it's you, your hard work, and the risks you take that provide real value in life.

“You cannot let a fear of failure or a fear of comparison or a fear of judgment stop you from doing the things that will make you great. You cannot succeed without the risk of failure.

You cannot have a voice without the risk of criticism. You cannot love without the risk of loss. You must take these risks.”

14. Brené Brown: "The Power of Vulnerability" (2013)

The video above is an animated excerpt from researcher Brené Brown's speech, " The Power of Vulnerability ." In the speech, Brown explores how our fear of not being good enough (among other fears) drives us to shield ourselves from our own vulnerabilities.

The alternative to wearing this emotional suit of armor: Embrace vulnerability through empathizing with others.

"Empathy is a choice, and it's a vulnerable choice. Because in order to connect with you, I have to connect with something in myself that knows that feeling."

15. Kobe Bryant: “The Path to Greatness" (2020)

Theme of the speech: embracing dedication, perseverance, and a relentless pursuit of greatness..

Bryant emphasizes setting ambitious goals and working tirelessly to achieve them. Through captivating storytelling and personal anecdotes, he reveals the sacrifices and relentless effort required to excel at the highest level.

Bryant's speech is a testament to the power of hard work, discipline, and a growth mindset in attaining greatness.

The speech also explores embracing failure as a stepping stone to success. Bryant shares how setbacks and challenges can fuel personal growth and resilience.

He encourages individuals to embrace failure, learn from it, and use it as motivation to push beyond their limits.

Bryant's speech goes beyond the realm of sports, offering valuable insights and life lessons applicable to all areas of life.

His relentless pursuit of greatness and unwavering commitment to excellence inspires individuals striving to achieve their goals and dreams.

"I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I'm like, 'My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don't have it. I just want to chill.'

We all have self-doubt. You don't deny it, but you also don't capitulate to it. You embrace it."

16. David Foster Wallace: "This Is Water" (2005)

From the opening minutes of David Foster Wallace's 2005 Kenyon College commencement speech , in which he questions commencement speech conventions, it's clear that Wallace has some serious wisdom to share.

The crux of his speech: Many of us are oblivious to our own close-mindedness. We picture ourselves as the centers of our own, individual universes, instead of seeing the bigger, more interconnected picture.

“If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is and who and what is really important, if you want to operate on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable.

But if you've really learned how to think, how to pay attention, then you'll know you have other options.

It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer hell-type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred — on fire with the same force that lit the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.”

17. Carol Dweck: "The Growth Mindset" (2020)

Theme of the speech: cultivating a growth mindset for personal and professional development..

In "The Growth Mindset," Carol Dweck, a renowned psychologist, and author, delivers an enlightening speech on the power of adopting a growth mindset for personal and professional growth.

Dweck's extensive research on mindset and achievement provides the foundation for her impactful message.

Dweck explains the difference between a fixed mindset, where individuals believe their abilities are fixed traits, and a growth mindset, where individuals believe their abilities can be developed through effort and learning.

She demonstrates how a growth mindset fosters resilience, learning, and innovation through relatable stories and compelling examples.

Dweck's speech resonates with individuals seeking personal and professional development, as she provides insights into how adopting a growth mindset can positively impact all areas of life.

Her research-based approach and engaging speaking style make "The Growth Mindset" an inspiring resource for individuals striving for continuous growth and improvement.

"The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even when it's not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset."

Famous Short Speeches With Inspirational Takeaways

18. al pacino: "inch by inch" (1999), theme of speech: teamwork.

Yes, this speech is from a football movie (Any Given Sunday), but trust me: This isn't your stereotypical rah-rah-go-get-'em sports speech. It's deeper than that. It's about life, and loss, and ... gosh darn it just listen to Al Pacino.

He's pouring his soul out!

“Either we heal as a team or we're gonna crumble, inch by inch, play by play, till we're finished. We're in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me.

And we can stay here and get the $&#@ kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell, one inch at a time.”

19. Satya Nadella: "Empowering Others" (2023)

Theme of the Speech: Empowerment and Collaboration

Satya Nadella's 2023 lecture, "Empowering Others," emphasizes the importance of leadership that empowers others rather than focusing on personal success.

He emphasizes the importance of leaders cultivating a culture of inclusion and belonging in which everyone feels respected and able to accomplish their best work.

Nadella also discusses the significance of technology in positive development. Some of society's most important issues may be resolved by technology, but proper development and application are required.

According to Nadella, empathy and emotional intelligence are essential for outstanding leadership. He suggests that Leaders listen to and understand. their team members' needs and motivations.

Leaders can develop a culture of trust and collaboration that will help the team flourish.

Satya Nadella's "Empowering Others" provides a special message about leadership in the current day. By emphasizing diversity, empathy, and responsible innovation, Nadella encourages audiences to strive for excellence while being mindful of their impact on others and the world.

"Success is not just about what we achieve individually, but what we enable others to achieve."

20. Sylvester Stallone: Speech from Rocky Balboa (2006)

Theme of speech: never give up.

I had to put this one next since it plays along the same themes as Denzel Washington's UPenn speech. In the scene above, from the 2006 film Rocky Balboa, the title character (played by Sylvester Stallone) is having a heart-to-heart with his son.

The advice he gives him: Don't let your failures or the adversity you face slow you down. Keep. Moving. Forward.

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.

You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”

21. Will Smith: Speech from The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Theme of speech: don’t let them bring you down.

Here's another speech from the big screen, this time from the 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness.

In the scene above, Will Smith's character explains to his son why he shouldn't pursue basketball (because he'll end up being "below average") before having a major change of heart.

“Don't ever let somebody tell you ... you can't do something. Not even me. All right? You got a dream. You gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they want to tell you can't do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.”

22. Mel Robbins: "The 5 Second Rule" (2020)

Theme of the Speech: Action and Overcoming Self-Doubt

The "The 5 Second Rule" speech by Mel Robbins promotes action to achieve goals and overcome concerns and doubts.

When confronted with a decision or action that needs to be completed but you are hesitating or procrastinating, countdown from 5, and then act. According to Robbins, this method breaks habit loops that keep us unhealthy.

Counting down and taking action may assist us in overcoming uncertainty and self-doubt and moving toward our objectives. For success, Robbins also promotes mentality and self-talk.

She believes that to realize our potential, we must consciously reframe negative thoughts and limiting beliefs.

Mel Robbins' presentation "The 5 Second Rule" is a practical and efficient technique to overcome procrastination and achieve goals.

Robbins inspires listeners to take command of their lives and achieve by emphasizing attitude, self-talk, and positive actions.

"You are never going to feel like doing the things that are tough, difficult, or uncertain, but you have a choice."

23. Angela Duckworth: "The Power of Grit" (2020)

Theme of the Speech: Spirit and Perseverance

Angela Duckworth examines the significance of perseverance and resilience in achievement in her book "The Power of Grit." According to Duckworth, grit—passion and determination—is essential for long-term success and overcoming obstacles.

Duckworth addresses grit and mentality, believing that people who view challenges and setbacks as opportunities for growth rather than threats will develop resilience and determination over time.

She advocates for a growth mindset, which believes people can acquire intelligence and other qualities through hard work. Duckworth places a premium on rigorous practice to achieve skill and mastery.

She recommends soliciting feedback, setting challenging goals, and intentionally improving abilities and succeeding. Angela Duckworth's "The Power of Grit" illuminates long-term achievement.

Duckworth emphasizes attitude, focused practice, and resilience to urge listeners to acquire grit and pursue their passions with tenacity.

"Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality."

24. Kurt Russell: “This is Your Time” (2004)

Theme of speech: inspiring and believing in your team.

The Miracle on Ice is still considered the biggest upset in Olympic hockey history. And for good reason. The Soviet Union won six of the last seven Olympic gold medals, and the U.S. team consisted only of amateur players.

It was obvious the Soviets were better. But, in the movie Miracle, which told the incredible story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, Kurt Russell's character — Coach Herb Brooks — knew that this game was different.

The U.S. was better than the Soviets that day. And his speech conveyed such a strong belief in his team that they pulled off one of the greatest sports moments of the 20th century.

“If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game… Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can!

Tonight, WE are the greatest hockey team in the world. You were born to be hockey players, every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time.”

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

How to Give Productive Feedback, According to HubSpot Managers & Editors

How to Write a Press Release [Free Press Release Template + 2024 Examples]

25 Best Slack Alternatives for Working Effortlessly in 2024

50 Fun Corporate Team-Building Activities & Outing Ideas Everyone Will Enjoy

Press Release Distribution: Top 11 Services + 4 Mistakes to Avoid

What is Public Relations? PR Definition Explained

13 Best Portable Apps in 2023

The 20 Best Free PDF Readers of 2023

The Ultimate Guide to Hiring a PR Agency in 2023

How Marketers Collaborate Effectively Across Departments [According to HubSpot Marketing Leaders]

Lessons on leadership from HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah.

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

100 Motivational Speech Topics

Choosing the right motivational speech topics can be a difficult task. It’s important to select topics that will engage and inspire your audience. Whether you’re speaking to a group of employees, students, or community members, the topics you choose should be relevant to your audience and be something they can connect to. 

To help you get started, we’ve put together a list of 101 motivational speech topics that will help you reach your desired goals. From inspiring stories to actionable advice, these topics will give you the tools you need to inspire and motivate your audience.

• Unleashing Your Creativity
• Unlock Your Potential: Harness the Power of Positive Thinking
• Embracing Diversity 
• Transform Fear into Strength
• Make Failure a Stepping Stone to Success
• Choose Courage Over Fear: Overcome Your Challenges and Reach Your Goals
• Start Small and Create Big Impact: Live with a Purpose and Make a Difference
• Discover the Power of Resilience
• Overcoming Adversity and Finding Your Purpose
• Cultivate Gratitude: Appreciate What You Have and Create a Life of Abundance
• The Law of Attraction: How to Manifest Your Desires
• How to Live a Fulfilling Life
• The Journey to Personal Growth
• Embracing Change
• Don’t Settle for Anything Less
• Make a Difference in the World: Find Your Voice
• Be Fearless and Believe in Yourself
• You Are Stronger Than You Think 
• Overcoming Challenges
• Taking Control of Your Journey
• Remember Your Why: Staying Inspired and Motivated
• Unlock Your Inner Wisdom
• The Potential for Growth and Achievement
• Unlock Your Hidden Potential
• Create the Future You Want
• The Art of Communication: Building Strong Relationships and Connections
• The Role of Positive Habits in Success
• The Journey to Success: Lessons from Inspiring Role Models
• Visualize Your Success and Make it Happen
• Unleash Your Inner Leader: Strategies for Becoming a Leader
• The Art of Self-Confidence: How to Believe in Yourself
• How to Reclaim Your Life and Pursue Your Dreams
• The Link Between Success and Confidence: How to Boost Both
• Making the Most of Your Time
• Don’t Just Waste Time – Invest It
• Prioritizing to Get the Most Out of Each Day
• Carpe Diem – Seize the Day
• Don’t Let Time Become Your Master
• Your Self-Worth is Not Defined by Others
• Start Loving Yourself Today
• Living Courageously and Reaping the Rewards
• Daring to Dream Big
• Rising Above Fear and Uncertainty
• Maximizing Your Productivity: Tips and Strategies
• The Role of Habits in Being Productive
• The Power of a Positive Mindset and Productivity
• Finding Your Flow: How to Get into a Productive State of Mind
• The Importance of Taking Breaks and Recharging
• The Power of Planning and Organization in Increasing Productivity
• Benefits of Eating Healthy: Why It’s Important for Your Body and Mind”
• Power of a Balanced Diet and How to Achieve It
• Importance of Eating Real, Whole Foods
• The Role of Hydration in a Healthy Diet
• Overcoming Cravings and Making Healthy Choices
• How to Make Healthy Eating a Sustainable Lifestyle
• The Power of Plant-Based Eating
• The Importance of Meal Planning and Preparing Healthy Meals
• The Connection Between Mind and Body: How Healthy Eating Affects Your Mental Health
• Overcoming the Imposter Syndrome: Believing in Your Own Enoughness
• Reframing Your Inner Critic and Believing in Your Own Capabilities
• Taking Pride in Your Accomplishments
• Confidence is a Choice: How to Make It Yours
• Creating a Confident Mindset
• Your Body is a Work of Art: Celebrate It
• Find Gratitude in Your Physical Being
• Your Body is a Temple: Treat It with Care and Respect
• Focus on Health and Well-Being, Not Appearance
• How to Overcome the Fear of Judgement
• The Art of Letting Go
• How to Reject the Pressure to Fit In
• The True Meaning of Freedom
• How to Pursue Your Own Path
• How to Find the Courage to Stand Out from the Crowd
• Overcoming the Fear of Criticism
• How to Let Go of Other People’s Opinions
• Live a Life Unbound by Society’s Rules
• The Art of Being Fearless
• The Courage to Choose Your Own Path: How to Tune Out the Naysayers
• Embrace Your True Self
• How to Find Authenticity in a World of False Standards 
• The Art of Problem-Solving
• Finding the Silver Lining: How to Make the Most of Difficult Situations
• How to Bounce Back from Setbacks
• Turning Challenges into Opportunities
• From Adversity to Triumph
• The Mindset of a Champion
• The Power of Focus and Determination
• Reaching the Summit: How to Achieve Success
• The Top of the Mountain: Celebrating Your Accomplishments and Looking Ahead
• The Secret to Staying at the Top
• Turning Dreams into Reality: How to Reach the Highest Level of Success 
• Climbing the Ladder of Success
• Reaching the Pinnacle of Achievement
• Achieving Success in the Face of Adversity
• Living with Purpose: Stepping into Your Potential and Making an Impact
• Don’t Just Survive, Thrive: Living Life with Intention
• Life Is What You Make It
• Appreciating What You Have and Going After What You Want
• Life Is Yours to Create: Making Your Mark and Making a Difference
• Embracing the Present Moment 

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, motivational speech topics can be used to inspire and motivate audiences of all ages. They can be tailored to specific audiences and topics, making them a great way to reach out to people who may be struggling with something. Whether it’s a fear of failure, a lack of self-confidence, or just a desire to make positive changes in their lives, motivational speech topics can provide the spark needed to make those changes. 

Related Posts:

Struggles and Ideas

Last Updated: January 23, 2024

15 Short Inspirational Stories with a Moral [Motivational stories]

Looking for some short inspirational stories with a moral message to motivate you in life? Check out these 15 awesome motivational stories.

Danny Newman

Looking for some short inspirational stories? I hope this post helps!

Inspiration can come from all sorts of sources.

A song on the radio might spur you into action.

Seeing somebody accomplish something extraordinary, defy the odds, or overcome adversity can do the same.

And sometimes all it takes is a simple inspirational quote !

However, when you’re truly desperate for a dose of inspiration, there’s one particular source that never disappoints:

Short motivational stories.

Humans have told each other tales of one kind or another for millennia, so it’s no surprise that inspiring stories pack such a punch!

In my experience, in a few paragraphs, these inspirational short stories can shift our thinking and compel us to make positive life changes.

Are you on the hunt for some of the best short inspirational stories with a moral message behind them?

Keep reading for 15 of my favourites!

Here we go then: 15 awesome stories for motivation, starting with one about how to catch a monkey…

Looking for motivational stories? You might like these…

• Best Books on Finding your Purpose
• Short Inspirational Thoughts For the Day
• The Story of the Thirsty Crow
• 100 Quotes on Believing in Yourself
• Insights on How to Encourage Someone
• 10 Tips on Growing Through What You Go Through
• 150 Encouraging Words for Friends
• 100 Great Quotes About Missing Friends
• 10 0 Quotes About Smiling Through Pain
• 100 Unforgettable Quotes about Happy Vibes

15 Epic Short Inspirational Stories with a Moral

Feeling in need of inspiration?

Here are 15 of my favourite short stories about motivation that should do the trick!

1. How to Hunt a Monkey (Inspirational Short Story about Letting Go)

“Do you know how hunters of old used to trap monkeys?” A man asked his child.

“Rather than chasing them up a tree or shooting arrows from below, they’d put a heavy glass jar with a narrow neck on the floor, which had the monkeys’ favourite food inside.

They’d then step back and hide, waiting for the unsuspecting animal to approach.

When it did, the monkey would reach inside, clench a fist around the food, and try to pull it out. However, the narrow neck of the jar would stop the poor monkey from getting its hand out!

It’d pull and pull, but to no avail. There was simply no way to get its hand out of the jar without releasing the food.

Rather than letting go, though, the monkey would persevere, refusing to drop its dinner.

The hunters would then approach and catch it to enjoy a meal of their own.”

“Don’t be like that monkey,” warned the man, “In life, to fight another day and grow as person, you must know when to quit, when to move on, and when to let go of whatever’s holding you back.”

Moral of the story:

Sometimes you have to let go and give up what you have now in order to receive something better in the future. Don’t let stubbornness be your downfall!

The best short motivational stories with a moral often remind us of our own self-worth. This one about a $100 bill does exactly that…

2. The Value of Money (Inspiring Short Story about Self-Worth)

At the beginning of a new school year, a class teacher stands up in front of her students holding a $100 bill.

She tells them, “Put your hands up if you want this money”.

Every hand in the room goes up, to which the teacher says, “I am going to give this money to someone here, but first, let me do this…”

She takes the bill and crumples it up in her hands, before asking, “Who still wants it?”

The hands stay up.

The teacher then drops the bill on the floor, stomps and grinds it into the ground, and picks it back up. “How about now?” she asks again.

“Class, I hope you see the lesson here. It didn’t matter what I did to this money, you still wanted it because its value stayed the same. Even with its creases and dirtiness, it’s still worth $100.”

She continues, “It’s the same with us. There will be similar times in your life when you’re dropped, bruised, and muddied. Yet no matter what happens, you never lose your value.”

Life’s hardships are inevitable and we’ll all be put through the ringer at some point, often through no fault of our own.

Don’t let these challenges alter your feelings of self-worth. You’ll always be enough; you have something unique and special to give and offer the world.

Next up: an inspiring story about two competing wolves.

3. The Two Wolves (Inspiring Short Stories about Life)

An old Cherokee chief sat down to teach his grandson about life.

“There’s a fight going on inside me,” he tells the young boy, “a fight between two wolves.”

“One wolf is evil. It’s full of malice, anger, greed, self-pity and false pride. The other is good. It’s full of peace, love, joy, kindness, and humility.”

“This same fight is going on inside you and everyone else on the face of the earth.”

The grandson was quiet, pondering this revelation for a moment before asking, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?”

The old man smiled and replied, “The one you feed.”

Good and evil exist within each of us. It’s our responsibility to own that reality and do whatever we can to nurture the good.

Motivational stories don’t get much better than this one about starfishes!

4. The Story of the Grateful Starfishes (Inspiring Story about Attitude)

One morning, an elderly man was walking along the beach when he noticed a young boy picking something off the sand and throwing it into the sea.

As he got closer, the man realized the child was throwing stranded starfishes that had washed up on the shore back into the breaking waves.

Approaching the boy, the man asked what he was doing.

“The starfish will die if they’re still on the shore when the sun rises,” he replied.

Perplexed, the old man said, “But that’s pointless! There are countless miles of beach and thousands of starfish. It doesn’t matter how many you return to the water, you can’t make a difference.”

Unfazed, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and tossed it into the sea.

“It matters to this one,” he said.

No matter the odds of success or the scale of the challenge, your actions can make a difference. It’s better to light a candle than curse the dark.

Every little counts. Doing something to make a positive change is always better than nothing!

This motivational story is a little sad, but it contains an invaluable lesson on self-belief…

5. The Elephant and the Rope (Best Inspirational Short Stories about Life)

One day a man walked past a camp of elephants.

Looking closer, he was surprised to see that these mighty animals weren’t held in cages or kept in chains.

The only thing stopping them from escaping?

A thin rope tied from one of their legs to a simple pole in the ground.

Confused as to why they didn’t use their strength to break the rope, he asked the trainer why they weren’t attempting to run away.

To this the trainer replied,

“As baby elephants, we use the same system. But, at that age, the rope is strong enough to stop them from escaping. They grow up like this, believing they can never break the rope, so even as adults they stay put.”

In other words, these powerful, magnificent and intelligent elephants didn’t believe they could free themselves, so they never tried.

Our personal beliefs are powerful beyond measure and often dictate our outcomes. They can work for or against us.

Identify your limiting beliefs so you can push against them.

These confidence affirmations should help!

Here’s another of my favourite inspirational short stories! This one’s about an exchange between a fisherman and a businessman…

6. The Fisherman and the Businessman (My Favourite Motivational Story)

Once upon a time there was a businessman who was sitting on the beach in a small Italian village.

As he sat, taking a brief break from the stress of his daily schedule, he saw a fisherman rowing a small boat back into the harbour. In the boat were a few large fish.

Impressed, the businessman asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” To which he replied “Oh, not so long.”

The businessman was confused, “Why don’t you fish for longer to catch even more?”

“More? This is enough to feed my entire family and even offer some to my neighbours,” the fisherman said.

“So what do you do for the rest of your day?” Enquired the businessman.

The fisherman replied, “Well, I’ve usually have caught my fish by late morning, at which point I go home, kiss my wife, and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap and read. In the evening, I go to the village to have a drink with my friends, play guitar, sing, and dance into the night!”

Putting his entrepreneurial hat on, the businessman offered a suggestion.

“I have a PhD in business! I can help you become much more successful. From now on, you should spend longer at sea and catch as many fish as possible. When you’ve saved enough money, buy a bigger boat to catch even more fish. From there, you’ll soon be able to buy more boats, set up your own company, build a production plant to can the fish and control distribution, and move to the city to control your other branches.”

To this, the fisherman asks, “And after that?”

The businessman laughs, “After that, you’ll be able to live like a king, take your company public, float your shares and be rich!”

“And after that?” Asks the fisherman once more.

“After that, you can retire, move to a house by the sea, wake up early in the morning to go fishing, then return home to play with your kids, kiss your wife, take a nap in the afternoon and join your friends in the village to drink, play guitar and dance into the night!”

Puzzled, the fisherman replies, “But isn’t that what I’m doing already?”

Be content with what you have. Do you really need to keep pushing for more ? Stress is often a choice. There’s joy and peace in simplicity.

Want a short story about motivation and karma? This one about a baker and some butter may do the trick…

7. The Baker and the Butter (Short Story about Motivation and Fairness)

A long time ago, a baker and a farmer lived in the same small English village.

These two men had a friendly arrangement in place, where the farmer would sell a pound of butter to the baker each day.

One morning, the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he’d received the correct amount.

To his surprise, he discovered that the farmer had sold him less butter than he’d paid for.

Angry about the unfairness, he took the farmer to court.

At the hearing, the judge asked the farmer whether he used any measure to weigh the butter.

“Your honour, I am but a lowly farmer and do not own a proper measure. I simply use an old-fashioned scale,” he replied.

“How do you weight the butter then?” Enquired the judge.

To this the farmer answered:

“Your honour, long before the baker started buying butter from my farm, I’ve been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when he brings me the bread, I place it on my scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it’s the baker.”

Karma’s a bitch! Be kind and fair to others and you’ll enjoy the rewards.

If you’ve ever read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, you may have already come across this next inspirational short story…

8. The Story of the Fig Tree (From “The Bell Jar”, by Sylvia Plath)

I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked.

One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out.

I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose.

I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.

Decide! Take action.

There’s no right or wrong answer when you’re choosing between two positive routes or outcomes. Wait too long and the decision will be made for you.

Searching for inspirational stories with a moral about happiness? Check out this next one…

9. The Pursuit of Happiness (Stories for Inspiration and Happiness)

There was once a group of 100 people attending a seminar on personal development.

In the middle of their talk, the speaker stops and decides to run an impromptu group activity. He hands out a balloon to each attendee and tells them to write their name on it.

The balloons are then collected and placed in an adjacent room.

The speaker then instructs the 100 attendees to enter that room and, within 5 short minutes, find the balloon with their name on it.

Pandemonium breaks loose as they charge in, pushing and colliding with each other as they desperately search for their name.

The 5 minutes pass and nobody succeeds.

The speaker then tells each person to pick up any random balloon and give it the person whose name is written on it. Within a few minutes everyone has their balloon back.

He then said, “What just happened with those balloons is exactly what happens in our search for happiness. We frantically look for it all around us, not knowing where it is.”

“Yet our happiness lies in the happiness of others. By giving them their happiness, you get yours.”

Moral of the story :

Happiness and fulfilment rarely come from selfish pursuits, but almost always come from doing good deeds for others. By helping others we help ourselves.

Next up: an inspiring short story about an indecisive ass!

10. Buridan’s Ass (Motivational Short Story about Decision Making)

A hungry ass finds himself between two equally large and delicious-looking bales of hay.

He looks from one to the other and back again, unsure which to choose.

This goes on for a long while until, unable to make a decision, the poor old donkey dies of starvation.

Once again, take action! Don’t linger too long on the precipice of a big (or small) decision when the outcomes are positive.

Save yourself a headache, take a leap of faith, commit, and enjoy whatever rewards that come your way, refusing to look back at what could have been.

If you’re trying to find true stories for inspiration, then this one about an Ancient Chinese army general could fit the bill…

11. The Clever General (A True Motivation Story!)

Thousands of years ago there was a famous Chinese general with a reputation for being an astute and cunning leader.

One day, at the end of a long campaign, this general decided to stop in a stronghold with a small battalion of soldiers, sending his main fighting force ahead to rest elsewhere.

Meanwhile, one of his enemies catches wind of this and decides to march his army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the general’s all-but defenceless position.

In the middle of the night, the general’s awoken by one of his men, who breaks the news:

The enemy’s close. They’ll be there before daybreak and the tiny band of soldiers in the stronghold will be no match for their numbers.

Hearing this, the general stops and pauses.

Understanding his predicament, he instructs his men to stand down, open the gates, take down the banners from the walls, and hide.

The general then removes his armour, dons a cloak, and sits on the battlements playing a mandolin as he looks out at the approaching army.

The enemy leader soon arrives. He recognizes the general immediately.

And orders his forces to halt.

He stops to think. He knows this general better than anyone, including his reputation for wily deeds and setting deadly traps. He waits some more.

The presence of this infamous general, sitting there with such nonchalance, makes him question himself. Was the information he received false? Is the general luring him into a trap?

Or is it a double bluff?

Is this a ploy to make him question himself and the general is, in fact, as defenceless as he seems?

He waits some more…And then he orders his forces to retreat.

First, your reputation is crucial and can deliver all sorts of positive outcomes.

Second, there’s often a cleverer, more strategic way to achieve your goals. Never assume it takes sweat, blood and tears. Look for a method of attaining the same results with less effort.

The plotline of many motivational short stories involves slaying a proverbial dragon!

12. The Dragon and the Treasure

In many ancient myths and stories the hero has to go on a long and perilous journey to complete their mission. A classic example?

The sleepless dragon that guards its treasure, breathing fire on anyone who so dares to steal it.

To get the gold, the knight in shining armour must, through guile or force, first defeat this beast.

Success lies on the other side of effort, which makes suffering part of the process.

Rather than avoid discomfort then, the ambitious must pursue it at all costs. Only by butting heads and pushing through such suffering will they ever attain the proverbial gold.

Feeling lazy? The next tale on this list of short stories for motivation should help!

13. The Queen’s Boulder (Short Stories about Motivation and Effort)

In ancient times there was a queen who ordered her soldiers to manoeuvre a boulder into the middle of the main road to and from town.

The queen then hid, watching to see who would stop to do the right thing and move it out of the way again.

Wealthy merchants and courtiers passed the boulder, barely giving it a second thought. A few of them blamed their queen for not keeping the roads clear. Yet none stopped to do anything.

One day, a peasant walked along with a sack of vegetables to sell at market.

He stopped, laid these down, and then pushed, tugged, huffed, and heaved the stone away.

Upon picking up his vegetables, the peasant saw a large purse full of gold and a handwritten note from the queen herself where the boulder had been.

The gold was a reward for whoever removed it from the road.

Laziness will never get you anywhere in life. Success almost always takes humility and hard work. Read these quotes about laziness for more insights on this topic!

Short stories about life don’t get much better than this one about a pear tree.

14. The Pear Tree and the Seasons of Life (Short Motivational Stories with a Moral)

There was once a man who had four young sons.

Wanting to teach them about the dangers of judging things too rapidly, he decided to send each of them on a journey, one after the other, to a distant pear tree.

Each son when in a different season, the first in winter, the second in spring, and so on.

At the end of the year he brought his children together and asked them what they’d seen.

The son who’d travelled in winter described a gnarled, twisted, and barren tree that stood stark and ugly against the land.

The son who went in spring disagreed. No, he said, the tree seemed full of hope and promise, with green buds along its branches.

The third son, who’d travelled in summer, disagreed once more. The pear tree he’d seen was covered in beautiful blossom that looked and smelled divine.

Finally, the last son, who’d made the journey in fall, disagreed again, describing a tree laden with sweet and delicious pears that tasted better than any he’d eaten before.

When each son had spoken, the father said they were all correct, because they’d only seen but one season of the pear tree’s life.

He explained to his sons that it’s foolish and impossible to judge something in this manner.

The essence of something, whether it’s a tree or their fellow man, can only be measured as a whole, at the end of the year, having seen it in its fullness. To make your judgment in winter is to miss the promise of spring, the beauty of summer, and the fruit in fall.

Refuse to judge yourself, life, or other people based upon a single mistake or challenging time. Refuse to let the pain of one season destroy the joy of those to come.

Last but not least on this list of inspiring short stories about life, we turn to a story about lumberjacks to teach us something about working smart as well as hard.

15. The Story of the Lumberjacks (Stories about Inspiration and Productivity)

Two lumberjacks of equal skill, experience, and stature work side by side, chopping down trees together every single day.

However, one lumberjack works non-stop, without taking a break, whereas the other takes an hour-long lunch break every afternoon.

Despite working for less time, both lumberjacks inevitably chop the same number of trees by the end of each working day.

Puzzled and frustrated, the lumberjack who works all day long asks the other how he manages to chop just as much as him while still taking a break.

To this, he responds:

“It’s simple. I spend that hour at home sharpening my axe.”

Breaks are vital to productivity. Work smart not hard!

Don’t Forget These Short Stories for Motivation!

Short motivational stories are some of the best sources of inspiration out there.

For me, personally, something about these memorable and emotive tales never ceases to shift my thinking, spark newfound enthusiasm, and convince me to do things differently in my life!

Have you been searching for inspiring stories of this nature recently?

Well, having covered 15 short inspirational stories with a moral on a variety of important topics, I hope this post has helped.

Looking for more ideas on inspiration? Click here !

2 thoughts on “15 Short Inspirational Stories with a Moral [Motivational stories]”

This is wonderful! I.m glad I found This sight.

This is so inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

Comments are closed.

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

To Inspire Your Team, Share More of Yourself

People respond to stories that convey vulnerability, humor, and humility.

It was once believed that scrubbing notions of the self from presentations and regulating emotions at all cost was key to being perceived as an effective leader. However, it’s becoming increasingly clear that in order to inspire people to follow you, sharing personal stories with vulnerability, humor, and humility allows audiences to see you as human and thus be inspired by you. The reason? Telling personal stories helps lead to more trust in relationships. We tend to trust people who we believe are acting as their real selves and demonstrating empathy. Increasing realness and humanity by sharing personal stories is one powerful way to build that trust. Luckily, connecting more personally in this way is a teachable skill. The author offers four steps that will help you add humanity to your presentations and increase your team’s inspiration.

My client, let’s call him Karl, was struggling to motivate his team. Karl came across as mildly stern even when smiling, and his presentational style in team meetings was clinical and measured. One-on-one, Karl was known to be a good listener and thoughtful boss, but in large forums, he tended to freeze, defaulting to offering quick solutions or doubling down on the company line when presented with complicated questions instead of taking time to share his own perspective. The result? His audience felt he was formal and lacked authenticity, and his employees gave him low marks for his ability to inspire.

• GS Gia Storms is a leadership coach and member of The Boda Group. She facilitates team and executive coaching from Los Angeles.

Partner Center

How to make a great presentation

Stressed about an upcoming presentation? These talks are full of helpful tips on how to get up in front of an audience and make a lasting impression.

The secret structure of great talks

The beauty of data visualization

TED's secret to great public speaking

How to speak so that people want to listen

How great leaders inspire action

• Self Confidence
• Public Speaking
• Communication
• Communication Skills

LEARNER STORIES

• Kanhaiya Sharma
• Ashfaq Sorathia
• Prateek Chawla

OTHER TOOLS

• Comparative Analysis

On This Page

Ever stopped to wonder why some leaders seem to effortlessly steer their organisations through change while others struggle with the pace of it? Well, leadership is not just about holding positions of authority; it’s about the profound impact one person can have on the lives of many.

In this blog, we aim to uncover the simple yet powerful leadership stories that have shaped the course of history, proving that leadership skills are not confined to grand gestures but often emerge from the small, empathetic moments that define us all. 

Join us as we celebrate these remarkable leadership stories that teach us the true essence of leadership – a journey of empathy, understanding, and positive change.

Definition Of A Great Leader

A great leader is like a guiding light, illuminating the path forward with inspiring and uplifting qualities. It’s not just about having a fancy title; it’s about embodying characteristics that make a positive difference.

According to a study by Harvard Business Review , effective leaders exhibit qualities that extend beyond titles and authority. Integrity, a cornerstone of great leadership, involves staying true to ethical principles even in challenging situations. Resilience, another crucial trait, enables leaders to bounce back from setbacks, fostering a culture of perseverance within their teams.

Decisiveness, a marked characteristic, involves making tough choices with a clear vision. Effective communication, as identified in research by Forbes , is a powerful tool for bringing people together through resonant words.

Collaboration, humility, and adaptability, supported by numerous leadership studies, contribute to a great leader’s strength and enduring impact. Titles may come and go, but the impact of a great leader endures, leaving a legacy that extends far beyond the realms of authority.

Short Leadership Stories

Now, let’s unravel the captivating short stories of leaders who, through their actions, transformed challenges into triumphs. Each story is a testament to the extraordinary impact that leadership skills can have on individuals, communities, and the world at large.

Nelson Mandela

In the leadership history book, Nelson Mandela’ s story is a symbol of resilience and making things right. Lovingly called Madiba, Mandela spent 27 years in prison yet emerged unbroken, holding on to a clear vision for a better South Africa.

While in prison, Mandela secretly studied Afrikaans, the language of his oppressors. He used this skill upon his release to build bridges and foster unity.

Mandela’s leadership was forged in the furnace of adversity. He worked tirelessly to dismantle the oppressive system of apartheid, paving the way for a more inclusive and just nation. From prisoner to President, his journey exemplifies the power of forgiveness and unity in bringing about transformative change.

In the face of deep racial divides, Mandela chose to come together and forgive over revenge. The moral of the story is that his leadership not only freed a nation but also became a global symbol of hope and inspiration.

Nelson Mandela’s story teaches us that real leadership goes beyond personal struggles; it embodies the enduring strength of kindness and the unwavering dream of creating a better world for all.

Malala Yousafzai

Hailing from Pakistan’s Swat Valley, Malala defied the oppressive Taliban regime that sought to silence the voices advocating for girls’ education. Before her activism, Malala wrote a blog under a pseudonym for BBC Urdu, detailing life under the Taliban.

This anonymous defiance laid the foundation for her courageous advocacy.

Malala’s leadership journey began at a young age when, despite grave risks, she openly championed the right of girls to receive an education. Her advocacy led to a tragic attack by the Taliban, resulting in Malala sustaining life-threatening injuries. However, this act of brutality only strengthened her resolve.

Malala continued her mission globally, becoming a global icon for girls’ education. In 2014, she became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Malala’s story illustrates that leadership knows no age and the pursuit of education can triumph over adversity.

Her courage echoes the sentiment that education is a powerful force for positive change, inspiring countless individuals to stand up for their rights and pursue knowledge despite their challenges.

The tale of Steve Jobs unfolds as a narrative of innovation, perseverance, and the pursuit of excellence. Co-founder of Apple Inc., Jobs revolutionised the technology landscape, leaving a lasting mark on how we live and interact with the world.

Steve Jobs’ leadership was characterised by a relentless commitment to pushing the boundaries of what was possible. His creative genius gave birth to iconic products like the iPhone, iPad, and Macintosh computer, shaping how we communicate and experience technology.

However, Jobs’ journey was not without setbacks. Ousted from Apple in 1985, he faced adversity but returned in 1997 to lead the company to unprecedented success. Jobs’ ability to learn from failure and his unyielding focus on design and user experience set a standard for innovation in the tech industry.

His story illustrates that great leaders embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and that setbacks are not the end but a prelude to future success. Steve Jobs’ legacy endures through Apple’s products and the ethos of pursuing excellence and innovation, a beacon for leaders aspiring to leave a lasting impact on the world.

Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg , the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, is a trailblazer in the corporate realm. Her impact extends beyond her executive role, defining her as a champion for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Through her influential book “ Lean In ,” Sandberg encouraged women to pursue their professional ambitions boldly. Sandberg’s Lean In Circles, small groups that meet to discuss gender equality, have reached over 40,000 participants globally, reflecting the grassroots impact of her advocacy.

She became a prominent voice, advocating for women to claim their space in leadership and break through gender stereotypes.

In the face of personal tragedy, losing her husband unexpectedly in 2015, Sandberg displayed remarkable resilience. Her openness about grief and determination to move forward resonated with many, highlighting her strength not only as a corporate leader but also as a person navigating life’s challenges.

The moral of the story is that Sheryl Sandberg is a leader who exemplifies leadership that goes beyond the boardroom, emphasising the importance of empowering others and showing vulnerability in the face of adversity. Her journey inspires individuals to challenge societal norms and work towards a more inclusive and equitable future.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr .’s leadership legacy goes beyond his time, marking a crucial chapter in the fight for civil rights and equality. As a Baptist minister, King played a key role in the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s.

King’s leadership was defined by his commitment to nonviolent activism, fighting for racial justice and equality. His famous “ I Have a Dream ” speech, delivered during the March on Washington in 1963, remains a powerful call for a racial discrimination-free society.

Facing challenges and violence, King persisted, leading campaigns against segregation and unfair laws. His efforts resulted in the significant Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, breaking down barriers to racial equality.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s story highlights the transformative power of leadership guided by a vision of justice. His dedication to nonviolence, unwavering pursuit of equality, and ability to inspire collective action leave a lasting legacy, showing us that leadership can create positive change and promote social justice.

As the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, Musk has redefined space exploration and sustainable energy. Musk’s leadership journey began with the founding of Zip2, an online city guide, to showcase his entrepreneurial spirit. Later, he co-founded PayPal, revolutionising online payment systems. However, it was with SpaceX and Tesla that Musk truly left a lasting mark.

Musk’s decision to open Tesla’s electric vehicle patents to the public in 2014 showcased his commitment to sustainable transportation. This move aimed to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles and demonstrated Musk’s dedication to addressing environmental challenges.

Musk’s unyielding commitment to ambitious goals and his hands-on approach have defined his leadership style. Despite scepticism and setbacks, Musk’s tenacity and willingness to take risks have propelled SpaceX and Tesla to immense success.

Elon Musk’s story illustrates that groundbreaking leadership often emerges from a combination of vision, determination, and a relentless pursuit of transformative goals. His impact on space exploration and sustainable technology showcases the potential of leadership to shape the future in ways previously thought impossible.

Angela Merkel

Serving as the Chancellor of Germany for 16 years, Merkel has been a central figure in European politics. Merkel’s leadership style is characterised by pragmatism and a commitment to diplomacy. She was crucial in managing the Eurozone crisis, steering Germany through economic challenges while advocating for European unity.

Her leadership during the refugee crisis of 2015 showcased compassion and a commitment to human rights. Despite facing political opposition, Merkel’s decision to welcome refugees underscored her belief in solidarity and humanitarian values.

As a key player on the global stage, Merkel’s leadership has often been tested, but her ability to navigate crises with resilience and diplomacy has solidified her legacy. Her impact extends beyond Germany, symbolising a steady hand in times of uncertainty and a commitment to values that transcend borders.

Angela Merkel’s story illustrates the significance of measured diplomacy, resilience, and compassionate leadership in addressing complex issues on both national and international fronts.

Abraham Lincoln

Serving as the 16th President of the United States during the Civil War, Lincoln faced the monumental task of preserving the Union and abolishing slavery. Lincoln’s leadership was marked by his unwavering commitment to preserving the United States. During separation and conflict, he emphasised unity and sought to heal the nation’s deep divisions.

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Lincoln in 1863, declared all slaves in Confederate-held territory to be free. This historic act underscored his dedication to justice and equality, shaping the course of American history.

Tragically, Lincoln’s life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet in 1865, but his leadership legacy endures. He is remembered not only for his role in preserving the Union but also for his profound impact on the nation’s moral conscience.

Abraham Lincoln’s story teaches us that leadership requires both strength and empathy, the ability to navigate crises with determination, and a commitment to principles that transcend the challenges of the time.

Rosa Parks 

Rosa Parks ‘ story is a powerful testament to the impact of a single act of courage in challenging systemic injustice. In 1955, Parks, an African American seamstress, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Parks’ act of civil disobedience became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. The 381-day boycott, led by Martin Luther King Jr., aimed to end racial segregation on public transportation. The Supreme Court eventually ruled in favour of desegregation, marking a pivotal moment in the fight for civil rights.

Rosa Parks’ quiet strength and defiance in the face of injustice resonate as a symbol of the collective struggle against discrimination. Her story illustrates that ordinary individuals, through acts of courage, can ignite movements that challenge deeply ingrained societal norms and pave the way for lasting change.

Rosa Parks’ legacy remains an inspiration for those who continue to advocate for equality and justice.

In conclusion, leadership isn’t just about big titles or fancy jobs. It’s more about having qualities like bouncing back from tough times, understanding others, being brave, and wanting to make things better.

From Mandela’s pursuit of justice and unity to Malala’s advocacy for education, from Steve Jobs’ innovative vision to Angela Merkel’s steady diplomacy, each leader has their own way of leading.

Even in our own lives, big or small, we can see traces of short stories on leadership. The quiet determination of Rosa Parks, the innovative spirit of Elon Musk, and the resilience of Sheryl Sandberg – these short stories resonate because they touch upon universal themes of human endeavour.

By Rishabh Bhandari

Top 10 best leadership development programs [2024], spiritual leadership and the interplay with spirituality in management.

Igniting Potential: Youth Leadership Explored with Inspiring Quotes

Kapable © 2024

• TERMS OF USE
• PRIVACY POLICY

• Business & Money

Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Amazon Prime includes:

Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.

• Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
• Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
• Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
• A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
• Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
• Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.

Buy new: $8.95 $8.95 FREE delivery: Tuesday, April 16 on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon. Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com

Return this item for free.

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select the return method

Buy used: $3.39

Other sellers on amazon.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

99 Inspiring Stories for Presentations: Inspire your Audience & Get your Message Through Paperback – December 14, 2015

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Deliver an outstanding presentation even to a tough audience
• Get your message through effectively
• Inspire and motivate others into taking the desired actions
• Start being regarded as an inspiring public speaker
• Print length 198 pages
• Language English
• Publication date December 14, 2015
• Dimensions 6 x 0.45 x 9 inches
• ISBN-10 151979097X
• ISBN-13 978-1519790972
• See all details

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (December 14, 2015)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 198 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 151979097X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1519790972
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.45 x 9 inches
• #992 in Running Meetings & Presentations (Books)
• #4,216 in Communication Skills

About the author

Barry powell.

Barry Powell is an entrepreneur, college instructor and a senior executive with more than 19 years of experience in the management of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as in human resources (training and development). He believes that a good leader is a good storyteller and that storytelling is at the heart of every business success.

Using the art of storytelling, he writes collections of inspirational or humorous stories and anecdotes that can help business managers, mentors and tutors enrich their presentations and lectures on business values, leadership and ethics.

Currently he lives in Bedford, UK.

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Start Selling with Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

5 Short Stories on Leadership

Last Updated on November 8, 2022

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a leader?

Leadership is a skill that can be learned, practiced, and improved upon that’s why inspiring stories of great leaders are good to read.

In this post, you’ll read success and failure leadership anecdotes that will give you an idea of what life is like as someone who leads others; and maybe by the end of this blog post, you’ll have found your new favorite story or two !

Hopefully, these leadership stories examples will help you to better understand your own style of leading for better goal-setting and what type of leader best suits you.

5 Leadership Stories

Table of Contents

The Soldiers and The Trench

There was a man on horseback who saw a group of exhausted soldiers digging a trench. On the side is their section leader who was barking orders.

The passerby asked the leader why he isn’t helping his team. The leader just said that he is in charge and tells his people what to do.

The man decided to pitch in and help the soldiers dig until the trench was finished. After that, he approached the commander on foot and told him that the next time their rank prevents them from supporting his men, he should notify the top command – and that he will give a permanent solution to it.

The section leader then realized that the person he was talking to was none other than the historical figure , General Washington.

Moral of the Story:

The best leaders are eager to help and give aid to their followers. In the context of work, this might mean reaching out to their employees to check in and do actual work.

They also adopt a progressive mindset instead of being attached to being in charge.

The Phone Call

One day, a manager was meeting privately with a staff member. The manager’s phone rang while they were discussing something important.

The manager ignored the call, not only once but thrice.

The staff member asked the manager if he wouldn’t take the call.

To that question, the manager only answered no because the phone call can wait while the issues they are discussing cannot.

Feeling valued, the two continued their conversation.

When you meet with your people, don’t let push notifications, texts, or calls constantly distract you. If they see that these things are more important than them, they won’t trust you and bring issues to attention unless it’s urgent. This will make the team feel like their problems aren’t a priority so most of the time nothing gets solved until there is an issue worth solving.

The Belly and The Members

A good leadership story for kids , this story is about some members of the Body who realized that they were all doing the work while all the Belly does is get all the food. They all agreed that the Belly was the laziest and unproductive member of the body.

After their meeting, they all decided to hold another meeting to discuss how unfair it seems. At the end of the long meeting that night, all the members voted that they’ll go on strike until the Belly agrees to have a fair share of work.

The unhappy body parts remained idle for a few days, hoping to starve the Belly. After some time, they stopped walking, moving their hands, and finally gave up chewing altogether in an attempt to stop feeding the belly with food and water!

As a result of their strike, the entire Body eventually collapsed and died without understanding how important the role of the Belly was.

A leader should learn how to recognize and appreciate each team member’s unique qualities as well as their shortcomings. After all, a good leader needs to make connections in the team so that everyone knows what they can bring to the table and why they are on it.

It’s Not my Problem

Once upon a time, there was a queen who was eating rice cakes and honey with her chief advisor on her balcony. As they ate, a drop of honey landed on the balcony railing as the queen was pointing at something in the distance. The chief advisor asked if he should call a servant to clean it up but the queen only laughed and told him that it was not her problem because it was just a drop of honey and someone will come and clean it later.

They continued eating and chatting as the drip of honey began to slowly drip down and landed on the busy street below. The advisor once again called the attention of the queen and told her that the honey has now fallen into the street and is now attracting flies. He asked again if he should call for a servant. Just like the last time, the queen yawned and replied that a little drop of honey that is swarmed by a few flies is not her problem. She added that someone would deal with it later.

Soon after that, a lizard rushed out from underneath the palace wall and began to catch flies with its tongue. Then a cat sprang from a nearby bakery, ready for some fun! The two animals batted each other back and forth like toys until suddenly, an angry butcher’s dog came charging at them and began biting the cat’s neck. The advisor now reminded the queen that the flies attracted a lizard, which then attracted the cat who is now being attacked by a dog. Once again, the queen just stretched and shook her head. She told her advisor to relax and those silly fighting animals are not her problem.

When the baker saw the animals fighting, he saw that a dog is attacking his cat. He then ran out with his rolling pin and began hitting the dog. When the butcher heard his dog’s cry, he ran out with his broom and started hitting the baker. Soon after that, the butcher and baker started fighting each other while the other shopkeepers nearby took sides and joined the fight. When the soldiers came along, some of them knew the butcher while some knew the baker. They too took sides and the battle just grew and grew in the streets.

The people began throwing rocks at the windows, tipping over carts, hurdling a torch through a window, and eventually, a fire raged and spread to the palace. The queen and the advisor were escorted out of the palace into the street below because the flames spread throughout the palace. Later that day when the fire had died out, they surveyed what remained of their land. Suddenly she stopped in front of where her balcony once stood and noticed a small puddle on the ground. She realized that it was honey and told herself that she should have cleaned it from the start. Now, all her kingdom was lost because of a drop of honey. From that day on, the queen never said “It’s not my problem!”

A leader should have the right mindset and act accordingly whenever a situation arises. If they don’t, their followers may suffer just like in the example of the queen in the story. Learning to listen and consider what others are suggesting is one of the greatest skills that all leaders should possess. Moreover, caring for the people working with you is essential to effectively lead them towards greatness.

The Stone Soup Effect

There was a wise, old man who lives his life traveling and meeting lots of different people. In his lifetime he’d seen so much that it gave him the opportunity to learn valuable lessons from each situation; all experiences are wonderful as they enrich him with wisdom.

One day, while walking through an unfamiliar village near the center, he met some new folks. He introduced himself and said that he was looking for a hot meal and a safe place to stay. The villagers humbly offered him a place to sleep however, due to having poor crops that year, they had very little food to feed the whole village. The old man was sorry to hear their woes and assured the folks that they don’t need to worry about the food because he is thinking of serving them some stone soup. All he needed were three things: a large soup pot, wood for the fire, and some water.

The villagers were all confused at the traveler’s request. They haven’t heard of stone soup and wondered if you can cook stone and get soup from it. The old man told them that it was the best soup he had ever tasted. They just need to bring him a pot and some water and he’d make some for all the village. The villagers did what he requested, when they returned with the items, the old man began preparing the soup. He took out a small silk pouch and did a great ceremony. After that, he reached in, pulled out a smooth, round stone, and dropped it into the boiling water. The villagers anxiously watched as the old man cooked and stirred the pot.

The traveler then asked for some cabbage and salted beef to add to the soup which the villagers willingly gave. When the old man noticed the villagers’ anticipation to taste the soup, he requested more vegetables to add to the soup such as onions, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms. When the pot was filled with vegetables and all kinds, the villagers realized that they have so much food to share with each other. Not only did they share vegetables and meat, but the baker also gave fresh bread and butter. When the old man finished the soup, he started giving it out to all the folks and shared a wonderful meal together. There was more than enough soup to feed the whole village and they said that it is the best soup they have ever tasted.

The mayor of the village then talked to the old man and offered to give him a great deal of money for the magic stone. The old man refused and told the mayor that it was his responsibility to make the soup without the stone but with just all the ingredients that they had earlier. He added that the mayor should find a way to get the villagers to work together just like what they did a while ago. If the mayor succeeds, he would give them the special stone.

The next morning, as the old man was preparing to leave the village, he passed by a group of children playing alongside the road. He called the youngest child and handed him a silk pouch with the stone. He then whispered to the child and told him that it was not the stone that did the magic, but all of them who helped each other.

Not all people born in a community become leaders. It’s not about the position you hold, but how you inspire and interact with people that make an impact on your community. A true leader will find ways to gain attention and trust from his or her followers so they will be willing to help out just as much when there is a need for support within their communities.

BONUS: Additional Resources About Leadership

• Real Life Inspiring Stories that Touched Hearts
• Who Are Some Great Leaders?
• 6 Funny Motivational Stories for Work

Make Everyday Count - Stay Motivated!

Sign up below to get our FREE e-book " 8 Simple Ways to Supercharge Your Motivation Everyday !"

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Get email updates on dynamic public speaking!

• Theater-Based Techniques
• Dr. Gary Genard
• What Our Clients Say
• Client List
• Dr. Genard in the Media
• Leadership Communication
• Fearless Speaking
• Voice and Speech Improvement
• Presentation Coaching
• Speaking Virtually
• Presentation Skills
• Executive Speech Coaching
• The Benefits of Deep Breathing
• How to Calm Your Nerves Before Speaking
• Leadership Skills: The 5 Essential Speaking Techniques
• 5 Ways to Captivate an Audience
• The Body Language Rules: 12 Ways to be a More Powerful Speaker
• 4 Characteristics of an Influential Speaker
• 6 Skills Building Exercises for Effective Body Language
• 7 Tips for Overcoming Audience Resistance
• 5 Rules for Succeeding with PowerPoint
• Great Speaking? – It's About Performance Over Content!
• 5 Key Tools of Vocal Dynamics
• 5 Secrets of Powerful Body Language
• 10 Ways to Stay Fully Focused when Speaking
• 25 Words or Phrases to Avoid in Speeches and Presentations
• 6 Rules of Effective Public Speaking
• 7 Key Components of Successful Presentations
• 12 Easy Ways to Achieve Presence and Charisma
• 6 Skills Building Exercises Video
• Funny Public Speaking Stories

Do you have a funny public speaking story? We’re looking for humorous, wacky, disastrous, or memorable moments in speeches, sales presentations, keynotes, speaking at meetings, toasts, and the like. Send your humorous story now to [email protected]. Stories may be included on The Genard Method's web site or in a book on this topic from Cedar & Maitland Press. We’ll be revising this page regularly, so feel free to check back to read the current funniest stories!

NEW STORIES!

Raoul Drapeau Inventor, Lecturer, Commercial Arbitrator & Author

"Disastrous" Public Speaking Story

When I was the Marketing Director for a New York City television station, I became an in-demand speaker. The first presentation I ever agreed to do was on   How to Give an Effective Presentation   for the MBA students at NYU’s Stern School of Business and I wanted it to be perfect. However, having never done any public speaking, I was quite nervous.

My husband helped me rehearse multiple times beginning a couple of weeks before, until I felt prepared. But I still decided to take notes on index cards to have with me as a reminder tool, just in case I forgot anything. 

The day arrived. My husband kindly took the day off from his job to accompany me, knowing I was still very anxious following a completely sleepless night.  I remember my heart pounding so hard that he said he could actually see my blouse moving! 

When I was introduced, I grabbed my cards, began walking up the three steps to the stage  . . . and clumsily tripped and my cards went flying everywhere.  There was some nervous laughter in the audience as the professor and I gathered my 23 cards and to my horror, I realized I had failed to number them!

I took my place at the podium, steeled my nerves and began with, “Lesson Number 1 of 'How to Give an Effective Presentation': Make sure to number your notecards!”  Everyone relaxed and we all laughed.  I then threw the cards on the floor and began my presentation with “Lesson Number 2: Rehearse and know your subject matter so cards are unnecessary!”

Thankfully, I had rehearsed enough and thoroughly knew what I was talking about to give a really wonderful presentation. I used dropping the notecards by explaining that “even experts and seasoned speakers get nervous.” And the final lesson was to inject humor into everything you do and your audience will remember you fondly!

I received a standing ovation and several students told me they thought I had planned the notecard drop as a brilliant and memorable way to begin. I have employed that notecard trick several times, but always on purpose! When I have coached clients who are nervous about public speaking, I share this story and one of them actually did this to put her audience…and herself... at ease! 

Sandy Sloane [email protected]     www.solutionsbysloane.com

An Ooops Moment

 Hi! I’m Bobbe White and my hair is too!

When speaking in St. Louis, the emcee introduced me this way: “Let’s give a warm welcome to Bobbe Whitehair!” The audience roared! That is, until they realized the emcee’s embarrassment and thought I might have been offended.

Well, his face was fifty shades of white, poor guy. Me? I was laughing too because it was funny! And quite accurate. A speaker’s goal is to get a laugh within the first 15 seconds. His faux pas certainly did and it broke the ice in a good way.

I now have written into my introduction: "Let’s give a warm welcome to a woman whose hair matches her name..... Bobbe White!!" I explain the introduction incident and it helps deliver my first point: laugh at your own expense!

Bobbe White Quincy IL www.Trylaughter.com

Bobbe White Quincy IL

"Where did I lose you?" 

I was giving a guest lecture at a local college, and one of the students, who was still dressed in the evening clothes that she probably wore last night, fell asleep in the middle of the room, in the middle of my lecture.

Her head was smack in the center of her desk and when the class was over, and she finally woke up. I asked, "Where did I lose you?" 

Robert Barrows R.M. Barrows, Inc. Advertising & Public Relations [email protected]     www.barrows.com

Lisa L. Demmi Inspirational Storyteller Social Media Speaker [email protected]     www.lisademmi.com

Jérôme Claveau

Brain Freeze

I must say that I have had the experience of brain freeze . . . and I was presenting to the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers! What did I do? I said, "OK, this is a test ... what did I just say?" Then I made a joke of it by saying "you ought to consider how upsetting this type of thing is to the kids!!" So my theory is to admit it and let humor carry the day!

Lois Creamer www.bookmorebusiness.com

Say, "What?"

I actually heard a speaker say before he started his presentation, "If you can't hear me, please raise your hand." And then he repeated himself...

Rob Anderson

Bats in the Belfry

During my first presentation to a University audience, I may have expected butterflies. But what I ended up with was very unexpected indeed.

The presentation regarding lowering medical costs was going well: the room was full, the audience was engaged, the stories were funny, and I was right on schedule. Who would have thought that such a small event can disrupt everything? Then, you may have heard that when you make plans sometimes God laughs.

Suddenly, a piercing scream from the audience disrupted my flow. Next, many participants stood up and began running from the room. Normally, my speeches elicit emotions but this was the first (and hopefully last) max exodus. A small, silent intruder had joined the audience—it was a bat! The bat was swooping around the room, diving and terrifying the audience.

Being the only person at the front of the room made me feel particularly vulnerable, and every loop of the bat’s escapade ended up coming directly at me. After much discomfort I ended up ducking (what's a braver word than hiding?) under the speaker's table until the bat hid behind a bulletin board. He kindly stayed there and allowed me to finish my speech, with assurance from the University that the bat would be safely taken outdoors. Looking back, I’m glad that I speak on health care and wellness, rather than leadership!

Scott Foster President, Wellco

“Ladies” and “Gentlemen”

While traveling with a Sister Cities/Chamber of Commerce business-exchange group to Nagaoka, Japan, I was asked to speak after breakfast about marketing in the U.S. Seeing an opportunity to show off my linguist skills, I asked my interpreter how to pronounce the words on the distant signs for “Ladies” and “Gentlemen.”

After practicing to myself, I began my speech with “Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen” in Japanese. This got quite a reaction from the audience. I delivered a killer 20 minutes of marketing wisdom, and sat down to generous applause. I was quite pleased with myself. Only later did I learn how strange my greeting was: One of our hosts gently inquired why I had started my talk with “Good Morning, toilets and urinals.”

Lee Rogers The Rogers Group Marketing and Advertising [email protected]     www.therogersgroup.us/

What Did You Say?

At a house party, surrounded by public speakers, I was talking to a guy who specializes in wellness topics. “I got a question for you,” I said to him after sipping a glass of Chardonnay: “When I'm flying, my legs swell. I drink a lot of water, but I don't want to give up my glass of wine. What else can I do besides wearing constrictive hose?”

Very excited to share his knowledge with me, the tall guy bent down a bit, and this is what I heard him say: “The next time you fly, pack a pair of golf balls with you in your carry-on. When you're up in the air, remove your shoes, place the golf balls under your feet, and roll.” He stood back up, and I nodded my head.

“Oh, like for circulation, like those Chinese balls you rub in your hands?”

He nodded in turn, and I moved on to talk to someone else.

So the next time I flew, I packed a pair of golf balls, and did exactly as he said. I removed my shoes, and proceeded to position the golf balls under my feet and roll them back and forth. Only it didn't work. The golf balls kept slipping out from underneath. I lost one as it rolled behind me, and the other as it rolled in front of me.

With my seat belt attached, I couldn't reach down far enough--or fast enough-- to catch them. I just watched them roll away. I began overhearing people say, “Hey, did you see that golf ball?” and “There's a golf ball rolling on the floor!” I kept quiet in my window seat and waited for the balls to roll back to me, which they did. I was able to retrieve them when the “Fasten Your Seat Belt” light went off. Then I packed those little balls away, too embarrassed to try it again.

The next time I saw this speaker, we happened to be waiting for our plane at the airport after a conference. When we had a few minutes to chat, I told him what happened. He looked at me and said: “Did you use a sock?”

I said, “What?”

“Did you slip the golf balls into a tube sock?”

The puzzled look on my face must have been a dead giveaway, and he started to laugh. I started laughing with him, once I realized I'd missed an important part of the instructions.

Jackie Dishner Author of Backroads & Byways of Arizona http://www.bikewithjackie.blogspot.com

And More From the Friendly Skies

A few years ago there was a flight approaching Glasgow airport in Scotland. The captain was on the speaker and the announcement went something like: “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. We have just started our approach to Glasgow and will be landing in about 20 minutes and . . .OH MY GOD!!!”. . . The mic suddenly went dead. There was complete silence in the passenger cabin. A few minutes later the announcement continued: “Hello again ladies and gentlemen. Sorry about that. Just as I was speaking to you, the stewardess was handing me a cup of coffee which spilled into my lap. You should see the front of my trousers!” A voice piped up from one of the passengers: “That's nothing! You should see the back of mine!”

It was a long, late flight from New York to Los Angeles. A lot of the passengers were sleeping, so when I made an announcement that we were serving snacks, I spoke quietly into the PA mic so I wouldn't disturb everyone. I said we had peanuts, cheese and crackers, granola bars, and Biscoff cookies. I then started serving, but when I reached one lady and asked her what she wanted, I had to burst out laughing when she said, “What the heck--I'd like to try some of your pissed-off cookies!”

I flew a regular route with a regular crew to Salt Lake City that always took us right over the top of the Grand Teton Mountains in Wyoming. The Captain would always point out the mountain range to the passengers as we flew over. One day the co-pilot said to the Captain that the next time we flew over the Tetons, he should tell the passengers where the name of the mountain range originated. The Captain said he wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole. I asked him why not, and he said it was far too risky. I said that was ridiculous, and it was nothing to be embarrassed about or ashamed of, so he invited me to make the announcement when we went over the Tetons. So I did.

I picked up the mike and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are now passing over the Grand Teton Mountain range of Wyoming. These 14,000-foot-tall mountains were first explored by French fur trappers who gave them their name. They must have been lonely for female companionship, because 'teton' is the French word for 'breast', so Grand Tetons actually means 'big breasts'. However, it must have been quite a long while since they'd seen a woman, because, as you can see, there are three major peaks in the Teton range!” I then hung up the mic. Within seconds, every flight attendant was crowding the cockpit saying, “We can't believe you just said that!” I began to worry I'd get in trouble after all, and I asked if the passengers were offended. “Are you kidding?” they said. “The plane is full of French Canadians! They loved it!”

Betty N. Thesky Author of Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase: Hilarious Stories of Air Travel by the World's Favorite Flight Attendant [email protected]     www.BettyInTheSky.com

Media Questions

My role as a member of an in-house public relations staff was to develop a series of hard-hitting media questions-and-answers for our executives. We wanted to ensure consistency of message when reporters called.

We sent the materials upstairs for review. What came back from our CFO was a comment written in an “angry” red marker: CHANGE THE QUESTIONS!

Apparently, this executive had adopted an alternative-universe strategy for facing reporters’ questions. But he eventually relented when told that we couldn’t actually tell the journalists to rephrase their questions.

The moral? Good preparation always will help an organization deal with crises, even if you have to massage egos a little bit along the way.

Tim Hayes Author of Jackass in a Hailstorm: Adventures in Leadership Communication [email protected]

Cover Letters

Sometimes, written communication may never make it to spoken communication:

As the president of a small firm which I founded 16 years ago, I’ve had a few surprises. I include in that category responses from job candidates who submitted ill advised cover letters with their resume. Here are some “disqualifying” comments I received:

Can I work from home or if not can you please let me know the address of workplace?

I would like to expand my knowledge and experience in marketing, whether by actively playing a role or by viewing managers working in these areas.

You will ask me why a person abroad USA would like to work in the United States. Shortly, the answer is: The most important and vital for me is my friend, he is working in the States and I wanna be together with, but the working place is not important. It could be New York or San Diego or other state but priority on the first two of course, somewhere else it doesn’t matter.

I also plan to return to school shortly for my Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) and of course, this calls for an increase in finances as college tuition has risen substantially.

When asked why I want to work in advertising, I answer simply, to make the world a better place.

Lisa Skriloff President, Multicultural Marketing Resources, Inc. Editor & Publisher, Multicultural Marketing News and Multicultural Travel News [email protected]     www.multicultural.com

I once gave a speech on marketing to a group of contractors. They met in a divey bar. I noticed that the men's room was decrepit—so I threw away my planned opening.

Instead, I started, “How many of the men here have used the bathroom tonight? And how many of you saw the marketing opportunity for contractors in there?” . . . After that, I could say anything I wanted; they paid attention!

Shel Horowitz Author (with Jay Conrad Levinson) of Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet www.guerrillamarketinggoesgreen.com

Who Wears the Pants in the Family?

As for the question, “Who wears the pants in the family?” – See Stephanie Angelo’s video

Stephanie Angelo, SPHR Founder, Human Resource Essential, LLC Co- Author, Serrated, A True Story of Survival, Recovery and the Pursuit of Justice www.hressential.com

Fly on the Wall

I wish I was a fly on the wall in the lecture room during a Texas seminar where I presented a couple of years ago. After I finished speaking, I walked out of the room, and without realizing it, forgot to mute my mic! I had more important things on my mind: heading directly into the ladies room! (can you see where this is going?)

Soon after the next speaker began his presentation, he and the audience became distracted by some strange noises heard over the sound system. It started with some rustling...followed by the flush of a toilet, running water, a faucet and then silence. Once everyone realized just what was happening, they let out a roar of laughter that could be heard everywhere within ear shot.

My husband (who was in the lecture room) flung open the door, came to my rescue and pulled my mic off, explaining that I managed to invite the entire audience into the ladies room with me! Fortunately, my bathroom visit was . . . uneventful. I was marched back into the lecture room (wearing a VERY red face) where I was met with roars of laughter and a standing ovation! The audience thanked me for the diversion from “standard” lectures. And of course, everyone said they were happy to know that I washed my hands.

I once made a comment during a lecture that, “My husband has some great new equipment and he kept me up all night!” I was referring, of course, to his new video camera purchase. But the audience's minds were already too far in the gutter.

Lynn Homisak, PRT SOS Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC www.soshms.com

Hummingbirds

I speak about hummingbirds, a topic popular with every audience I've ever had a chance to speak before. After each presentation I am gently mobbed by people with a personal story they want to share, or a question they’ve always wanted to ask. The stories are usually interesting, but the questions are mostly predictable.

One keeps recurring so often that I devised a potent response. The question is: “Is it true that hummingbirds migrate on the backs of geese?” The scientific explanation I used to give, as to why it could not be true, eventually bored me. Now my response is: “We have examined that phenomenon closely. And it isn’t true. What actually happens is the hummingbird carries the goose in its talons.”

It usually takes a moment before the questioner realizes they’ve been had. At that point, I explain why it's just a myth and has no basis in fact. Then we all have a good laugh.

Ross Hawkins, Ph.D. Professional Speaker and Founder and Executive Director The Hummingbird Society [email protected]

Yumber Lards

When I'm tired, I get a little verbally dyslexic. I had been preparing a guest lecture on LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) and sustainable materials for a senior class at a local university. It was my first time presenting to college students, and I had worked extra hard to make it interesting and fun.

When I came to the section on sustainable forestry, I inadvertently flipped some spelling in my head. Instead of discussing “lumber yards,” I found myself talking about “Yumber Lards.” Typically, I would have corrected myself and kept going. But the words “Yumber Lard” really struck me as funny, and I had to pause for a few moments and laugh before I could continue with my presentation. Some students laughed too, while others thought I was crazy. Either way, it was definitely a memorable presentation!

Holly Meadows Baird Registered Interior Designer with Powell Design Studio in Nashville, TN [email protected]

Embarassing Moments

Embarrassing moments are an occupational hazard for speakers. Isn't that why so many people are so deathly afraid of public speaking? But embarrassing moments can often make a presentation more successful rather than less.

I was doing my “Filling the Glass” keynote for a convention that happened to be at a hotel where I'd worked before and knew the manager. He was a somewhat shy but extremely conscientious individual. Though this was normally a great venue, they were having one of those days. Everything that could go wrong had: wrong room set up, not enough seating, wrong A/V, a sound system that kept cutting out, a microphone with a cord so short that it kept me tethered in one corner of the platform. The meeting planner and I spent the 90 minutes before the presentation trying to get the situation straightened out, with little success. The hotel had also posted the wrong room on all their meeting boards and on the in-house TV, so people kept dashing in late.

I turned the problems into a running, self-deprecating joke at my own expense. That generated a lot of sympathy. So the keynote came off well, and I got a great ovation. Then, as scheduled, I went out into the hallway to sign copies of my new book. When the doors opened, I saw that, in atonement for all the problems, the manager had supplied a large assortment of pastries and fruit and ordered a huge pyramid of champagne glasses set up.

A chef dressed in white was standing on the table next to the glasses. As we watched, he began to fill the topmost glass with champagne. It filled and overflowed, the champagne cascading down and filling the glasses on the levels below. While the entire convention gathered around him, he poured bottle after bottle into the top glass, and eventually filled every glass from top to bottom.

Then the hotel manager himself appeared before the pyramid. Obviously a bit embarrassed, somewhat flustered and unused to public speaking, he nevertheless called for everyone's attention. He made a short but gracious speech apologizing for the day's problems, assuring the group that the hotel was at fault rather than the association or the speaker. He got a laugh or two, and as his remarks went on he seemed to gain confidence. He added a few very kind words about me, probably in atonement, and concluded with a flourish: “Since the title of Barry's new book is Filling the Glass, I'd though it would be appropriate to fill all your glasses with champagne. So let’s raise a glass to the success of the conference and the book!”

Then, caught up in the moment, he grabbed the first glass his hand encountered. Unfortunately, it was near the bottom of the pyramid. There was a quick gasp from the crowd, a millisecond of complete silence, and a cascading sound of breaking glass and spilling champagne.

At least the pastries were delicious. By the end of the break, everyone had forgotten and forgiven the earlier problems. From that point on, in fact, the manager and the hotel were looked upon with nothing but affection. More important, the group was energized: a coherent whole rather than the collection of strangers. They all had the perfect conversation starter for their networking.

Embarrassment came quite a bit closer to home when I was on stage at a Los Angeles hotel, finishing up a keynote at an awards dinner for about 400 salespeople. The audience and I were in formal dress, and just as I was concluding my session, I noticed for the first time that I'd neglected to pull up the fly on my tuxedo pants. What was worse, the audience noticed me noticing it.

I quickly put on a face of comic surprise, and everyone roared. Then, as the laughter died down, I leaned against the podium, nodded knowingly, and said: “Remember the sales strategies we're discussed this evening. Remember all the tips and tactics. But above all, remember that none of them mean a thing . . . unless you remember to close.”

I got a standing ovation. And for the rest of the evening, people were discussing whether or not I'd planned the whole incident.

Barry Maher Sales trainer and motivational speaker, and author of Filling the Glass www.barrymaher.com

I was a corporate trainer for years. I’m a bigger girl, up top and on the bottom. In one class, I wanted to say, “I have some tips and hints for you, ” as I’ve said a million times in my career. Instead, I said, “I have some tits and hips for you. ” Not exactly what I meant.

Stephanie Schwartz www.RoadrunnerTrafficSchool.com

Make Lemonade Out of Lemons

A number of years ago, pre-PowerPoint, I was asked at the last minute to address a group of law office technology managers. I needed a presentation quickly concerning the trends in technology. So I borrowed a set of glass slides from one of our senior technology guys and headed to Minneapolis.

I had a printout of the presentation in hand and planned to review the presentation on the flight. I took the printed copy of the presentation out of my briefcase and placed it in the seat pocket and then fell asleep. Naturally, I left the presentation in the seat pocket when I deplaned.

That evening, I spent many hours holding the slides up to a light in my hotel room, realizing very quickly that the entire presentation was loaded with acronyms that I didn’t recognize. The actual presentation went well, however, because every time an acronym came up that I didn’t recognize, I made it a contest with the audience to define the acronym. That’s making lemonade out of lemons.

Warren Mills Principal, Afterburner Solutions: Accelerating Sales and Profitability www.afterburnersolutions.com

Poopy Situations

I am an author, radio show host, and motivational speaker. I mostly speak to moms and women in business groups about finding inner peace even in the midst of poopy diapers and piles of laundry. I have that unique pleasure of sharing stories with my audience about how I once had to pee in my child's diaper when there was literally no other alternative; about how I once had to sit in a poopy bath with my sleeping infant for 10 minutes until my husband returned from jogging and could help me with the situation; and about how I bathed my toddler in a movie theater restroom because he had such an enormous explosion. It's not the typical stuff you expect from your business meeting and it can be quite shocking. But it all works extremely well to illustrate how we can handle challenging situations in ways that do more than just “get us through,” but leave us grateful for them with a “bring it on” attitude.

Leta Hamilton Radio Show Host, Motivational Speaker Author of The Way of the Toddler: The Craziness of Modern Motherhood & the Spiritual Lessons I Learned from My Zen Masters in Diapers www.letahamilton.com

Swear Not to Rat on Shirley

Whenever I start a speech (locally), I have everyone raise their right hand and repeat after me: “I , So-and-So, swear not to rat on Shirley if she says naughty things about her siblings.” (It’s rare for my brother to go somewhere and NOT run into someone he knows, just like our father.)

The audience members swear, giggle a bit, and look at me strangely. Then I begin my speech about being primary caregiver for my Mother for nearly 20 years—with almost ZERO help from the siblings. At this point I remind the folks in the room they took an oath not to rat on me to my siblings. I ask if they remember that and does it make sense now? They laugh out loud while nodding their heads YES!!

One needs to insert humor into a speech—not necessarily a joke, but something that relates to the topic works wonderfully!

Shirley Green Founder, President Personal Records Organizer LLC [email protected]     www.prooganizer.com

That's What Teamwork is All About

This one goes back a ways, but as a speaking story it's one I'll never forget: Years ago, when I was a young and very green PR guy at Southern Illinois University, I got acquainted with Oscar Koch, the retired brigadier general who'd served as G-2, the top intelligence officer to Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., through World War II. He lived there in Carbondale, the home of his wife Nan. I knew none of his history, but found him to be a modest, gentle, intelligent and caring man and we came to be good friends. Eventually he asked me to collaborate on a book and we undertook what became G-2: Intelligence for Patton (still in print after forty years).

Gen. Koch was a Rotarian and early in our work he was asked to speak on the importance of intelligence in the Patton commands at a meeting of the Carbondale Rotary Club. He invited me to be his guest. I enthusiastically accepted. Then he said, “I want you to be there to support me. You sit over on one side and every few minutes nod your head yes, like you agree with everything I say.” “But general,” I said, “you're the world's foremost expert on this topic. How could my support possibly add anything?” “I don't care,” he said. “We're a team and intelligence is a team activity. That's the way we did it in Patton's briefings. No matter who made the presentation, the others sat alongside and nodded support. That's what I need you to do.”

Gen. Koch made a supberb presentation to his fellow Rotarians, of course, and I dutifully sat at the side of the room nodding my head. I felt somewhat foolish and hoped nobody noticed. But the general noticed. “Thank you,” he said after the meeting. “You made me feel like I was back in the G-2 tent reporting to Patton. That's what teamwork is all about.“ I still feel rather foolish about it—but immensely proud to have been asked.

Robert Hays Co-author of G-2: Intelligence for Patton, by Gen. Oscar W. Koch with Robert Hays, Schiffer Military History Series, 1999. [email protected]     home.comcast.net/~roberthayswriter/site/

And even more Funny Stories!

County Fair

I got booked to do comedy at our local county fair, which I should have realized was not a good fit, given that I do somewhat cerebral humor about being a suburban working mom, and there were more tattoos and body piercing in the crowd than I knew existed in California! My stage shared bleachers with the pig races, but the stands were full, so I figured at least I’d have a good audience.

However, right before I started, they announced that the mother of the pig race winner (Lindsay Lo-Ham) was in the livestock tent about to give birth. The stands immediately cleared out, and the only audience left besides my husband & teenage sons was a woman with several children. As it turns out, she wasn't there to watch me, but needed a place to nurse her baby, very openly. Needless to say, my sons weren't very interested in my show!

Lauren Mayer Lauren Mayer Productions – Corporate comedy & coaching www.laurenmayer.com

Good Fortune

For nearly 10 years I served on the faculty of Daniel Webster University in Nashua, NH, as an adjunct instructor of public speaking. One of the early assignments in the course was for students to present a speech to demonstrate a skill or process using audio-visual aids. One enterprising student chose as his topic a demonstration of how to make fortune cookies. He gave out copies of the recipe, explained the steps, mixed the batter from pre-measured ingredients, and rolled out the dough. I was impressed with the advance planning and preparation that went into the speech, but never more so than when he passed out samples of cookies he had already baked in the dorm kitchen.

The one I received contained the following fortune: “You are about to give a student an A on a speech.” He got his A!

Maggie Rowe, Wheaton, IL

Just Let Go

I have presented my smoking cessation and weight loss seminars to just about a million people. There is one memorable night in Texarkana, TX that stands out.

After about a half hour of lecture, I had a hundred or so people lie down on the floor for an eyes closed hypnosis session. I was about two minutes into the eyes closed portion of the presentation and the room was pin drop quiet. You could only hear the sound of my voice.

I said something like the following: “And now you can allow yourself to relax, unwind and just let go.” Right after I said, “let go,” one man passed the loudest amount of gas that you could ever imagine. All I could see and hear was 100 bellies going up and down and the sound of stifled snorting. It took all of my skills to recapture the group's attention and get them refocused on what we were there for. No one in that room will ever forget that night.

John Morgan johnmorganseminars.com

For 10 years I wrote job-search guides and thus did a lot of speaking. At one session, I had a man stand up unexpectedly, extend his entire arm at me and declare, “You are NO good. I have come to hear you three times and I still don't have a job.” I have since written other books, and I counsel small publishers and authors about their marketing communications. I always mention that they need to be prepared for the unexpected.

Linda Carlson Seattle Author and Marketing Consultant www.lindacarlson.com

Roll With It

Many years ago I traveled from DC to an eastern Long Island community hall to speak to an insurance industry group. There were several hundred people in attendance, and I was fairly young and nervous about the event. A few minutes into my presentation, I was interrupted by a loud bang. Then another. Then another... There was a bowling alley in the building! I quickly learned the rhythm of the bowling balls hitting the lanes, and I made it through the presentation with a few laughs. That roll-with-it attitude earned me more appreciation from the crowd than my speech probably would have on its own.

Maureen Wall Bentley, VP Brand Strategy

Believe It Or Not

Here’s the story, all true!

Junior Achievement is an educational program that provides a variety of different opportunities for businesspeople to teach young students about the business world. I taught a 6-week class (once a week) in a junior high school (Orlando, FL) for 7th grade students, and each week I spoke on an aspect of business, i.e., financial planning, marketing, etc. I tried to make every presentation very upbeat and fun, and I decided it would be interesting to take the students on a field trip to really SEE first-hand the complexity of a large business operation.

A major hospital was near the school, and it was an ideal location for my purpose. Across the street from the hospital was a Wendy’s. I arranged the field trip for a weekday morning and the plan included lunch at Wendy’s at 11:30 am (the timing was to beat the crowd); all was coordinated perfectly.....The field trip day arrives. The school bus takes the students and chaperones to the hospital. We arrive and break into a few groups with individual tour guides, hospital workers presenting all the ins-and-outs.

My group gets on an elevator. Along with my group, a hospital bed is wheeled in with a DEAD BODY in a body bag! Of course it was easy to tell what was in the bag. To try to break the tension, I calmly said to the students, “This is not usually the way a hospital visit ends. Most people leave well.” I could have DIED! So the hospital tour continues and concludes. All of the student groups reconvened in the dining area to re-board the bus.

Well, we’re all sitting in the dining room and waiting and waiting and time is passing. I said to one of the hospital employees, “What are we waiting for? We need to get on the bus.” This is the answer: “Oh, you haven't been told? The hospital is surrounded by police. We're in a lock down. There's a guy running around the parking lot dodging cars threatening to commit suicide.” Now what am I suppose to tell the kids???? I already had to “defend” a dead body. I nonchalantly told the entire group there was a delay with the bus. Well, finally, the guy killed himself. Then we had to wait for the “clean-up crew”.....The bus was eventually allowed to drive up to a back exit, where everyone boarded the bus ... and the students never knew a thing about the suicide. We, of course, arrived at Wendy’s late, and the manager was none too pleased. But I explained what happened, and that was that.

Sheryl P. Kurland Relationship/Marriage and Corporate Trainer Author of Everlasting Matrimony: Pearls of Wisdom from Couples Married 50 Years or More [email protected]     www.EverlastingMatrimony.com

I was giving a presentation at a BBB breakfast networking meeting when someone said that a car was rolling down the slope of the parking lot. They gave the license plate number: no one recognized it. It was several minutes into my presentation when someone gave a description of the car that I realized, to my horror, that it was mine. I dashed out into the parking lot to see that my car was very close to hitting another car. I got in and parked it correctly, making sure the parking brake was on securely, then went in to continue my presentation with a very red face and feeling very embarrassed. I made a few jokes about the episode, continued on and was very glad to have the whole thing over with.

Jennifer Ann Bowers, RM, LMT Rose Bridge Creations, Transforming your ideas into reality www.rosebridgecreations.com

Language Barriers

I was asked to present a 90-minute database programmer productivity session in many cities in Asia; starting in Singapore and ending in Taipei. All along the route, the conference promoters indicated there were no language translation issues or requirements; English and the programming languages of the products I was speaking about, dBase and Clipper would be enough.

Throughout Asia the presentations went exceedingly well; the turnout was phenomenal and the venues and presentation technology was extremely advanced with multiple large projection screens and high-quality audio-visual systems. In addition, the quality and depth of questions demonstrated deep understanding of the technologies and mastery of the English language.

When we arrived in Taipei, as was customary, I presented first. Also as customary, I started my session with a few questions to get to know the general knowledge and programmer demographics of the audience. It went something like this:

“How many of you use Ashton-Tate’s dBASE?” (On asking the question, I raised my own hand.) The Taipei audience was almost unanimous in raising their own hands. I continued.

“How many here use Nantucket’s Clipper compiler for dBASE development?” (Again, I raised my hand first.) And once again, nearly 100% of the attendees raised their hands.

“How many of you use dBRIEF, the most productive editing system for dBASE programming?” Amazingly, nearly everyone in the audience raised his hand! Either I was staring at 700 copyright infringers who unabashedly proclaim their theft in public, or I was simply engaged in a monkey-see, monkey-do early morning exercise program for my right arm and 700 or so other arms. In a blink, I knew exactly what to ask next:

“How many of you want to be a fire engine?” Fearfully, I watched as everyone’s hands went up. I might as well have been speaking to an alien society from Alpha Centauri-nearly 100% of the audience spoke Chinese, and only Chinese. It was very easy to see who in the auditorium spoke English, since they were the ones practically rolling on the floor laughing.

Bill French, Co-Founder MyST Technology [email protected]     myst-technology.com

When Everything Goes Wrong

I had one recently where I was to speak at the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota. When I checked into the hotel where the event planner had booked me, the hotel wouldn’t use the card used to book the room from the event planner. So I had to use my card to check in, which is fine because I knew they’d get it squared away with me. But I was speaking for free at this event and I really didn't care to potentially lose any money on the engagement.

Not only did the hotel force me to use my card, they wouldn't give me the special rate originally booked because I didn’t have the “form.” So my room rate was three times what it should have been and for the amount of time I was staying there the bill was over a thousand dollars!

When I pulled up to the Ritz, the man at the gate instructed me to let my truck be taken by the valet. I asked if they take credit cards and he said no. I asked about ATM’s nearby but he did not know. I think he could tell I “wasn’t from around there” and told me that there are very limited parking spaces the valet don’t use and that if I can find one of those I was free to take one. I got one. As I was getting my computer and other stuff out of my truck, I saw what my contact described as her car a few spaces away from where I was parking. She had done the same thing. And she was also just getting out of her car.

I decided it would be better to meet her without my hands full of my speaking stuff. So I put everything back into the truck real fast, closed the door and went over to meet her. When I came back to the truck, I quickly found out that I had locked the doors. I reached for my keys and realized I had put them in my bag. I had locked myself out of the truck, and no spare key!

My contact was very nice about my embarrassment as we went into the hotel. I asked the hotel manager if there was a local shop that could come to the site and get me back into the truck. He called someone the hotel had used before. It was about half an hour before I was to speak and the locksmith had just shown up. As soon as the doors were unlocked I was grabbing my stuff when the hotel manager came up and said he’d take care of the locksmith. “You focus on your speech, you’re probably nervous about it now, I’ll cover this.” I was very grateful.

With only a few minutes before the event was to start, however, my Mac wouldn’t hook up to their projection system. I didn’t have any other cable to make that happen, and neither did the hotel. Again the hotel manager came through and called an IT person and they tried to help me. Nothing worked. So one of my contacts had a portable USB memory stick and I transferred the slides I was going to use to it and then we used the event’s computer. And to top that off one of the contacts had to manually hit “next” on her computer to change the slides.

There was rain coming and the event planner asked me to cut the speech a bit short for the people to leave before it rained. I did, but not really on purpose. When I was speaking I had gone by memory and my memory failed. I blew through a half hour speech in about 10 minutes. When at the end I realized I left out a major part of my talk, I opened up the audience for some Q&A. At first there was no one willing to ask a question. I nudged them a bit and finally got them asking. Eventually the questions took on a life of their own and the event went over the time limit and ran late!

Gary Unger, Creative-at-large Author of How to Be a Creative Genius (In Five Minutes or Less) www.garyunger.com     www.linkedin.com/in/garyunger

Hard to Balance It All

Several years back, I was asked to give a speech to a room full of budding women entrepreneurs. I arrived at the event with a terrific speech, looking quite stunning in my navy blue suit. Just before my speech began, as I was talking with the emcee who would introduce me, I looked down at my shoes to see that I had one blue and one black shoe on. At first, I was embarrassed––but then decided to put it in my speech.

At the end of the speech, I reached down, took off my shoes and put them up on the podium for all to see. I reminded the listeners that every one of us is working hard to balance it all. Sometimes we get it all right, but we still don't manage to put on a matching pair of shoes! It was the greatest laugh I have ever gotten

Vicki Donlan Author of Her Turn: Why it's Time for Women to Lead in America VR Business Brokers [email protected]     www.vickidonlan.com

... And here’s one of my own:

Carry a Compact

Some years ago, when I was the International Student Advisor in the Department of Communication at Emerson College, I taught a summer course entitled “Introduction to Graduate Studies.” Emerson’s campus is across the street from the lovely Boston Common. Kitty-corner to the park is a Starbucks, where I’d go before class to have a coffee and look over my notes.

Since this was a summer course, the day was hot. With the front door being opened frequently, the interior of the Starbucks wasn’t very cool even with the air conditioning on. I had to keep mopping my forehead with napkins as I sat and prepared for my lecture.

The lecture went fine. It was only in the men's room after the class, that I discovered I had a large piece of paper napkin stuck to my forehead! The international students--undoubtedly trained in their universities to be deferential to professors--had sat through my lecture without a wayward look or a snicker. Since then, I carry a small women’s compact in my pocket and always check it before “going on.”

Gary Genard, Founder and President The Genard Method

25 Words and Phrases to Avoid in Speeches & Presentations

• Training Techniques

Main Office - Boston

[email protected] 617-993-3410

• Executive Presentation Skills
• Rehearsal & Preparation
• Group Presentation Skills

• Lectures/Literary

Ecology Success Stories: The Future Looks Bright

Global challenges like climate change can feel daunting. But science has helped society tackle major environmental problems in the past, and we can do it again. Cary Institute’s Peter Groffman will share inspiring examples of ecological success stories, where science has led to effective solutions and a cleaner environment for all.

Discover how ecosystem science has led to policy and management action that has curbed acid rain, reduced nutrient pollution to freshwaters, and conserved endangered species. Groffman will explore the factors contributing to these success stories, why teamwork is essential, and what we can learn from the past to address today’s challenges.

Free and open to all, this hybrid event will feature time for Q&A. Participants are encouraged to submit questions in advance during registration, so they can be woven into the presentation.

Event Supported By