Ali Hammoud

Date:01st August 2018

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Date:01st August 2018

Why this book ?

I found what I was looking for, thanks to my instinct and Warren Buffet.

At first, I was reading general business book with no focus on a subject or specialty. Then I don't know if it's a skill that we acquire when we become aggressive, hungry readers, worrying about life ending before finishing the reading list. The skill of knowing exactly what we really need and has to develop and for me it was self-improvement (and what falls under, above and around it) and public speaking.

Warren Buffett

I follow up, read and watch anything related or written by Warren Buffet,and in one of the articles I read, it stated:

"In his office in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, Warren Buffett displays only one certificate of his education. It isn't for his bachelors degree from the University of Nebraska, or his master of science in economics from Columbia Business School. It is for completing the "Dale Carnegie Course in Effective Speaking, Leadership Training, and the Art of Winning Friends and Influencing people", dated January 23 1952.

The instructors on the course "made you do all these crazy things to get out of ourselves", Mr Buffett says in the new HBO documentary Becoming Warren Buffett. But "if I hadn't had done that, my whole life would have been different".

So Mr. Buffet is giving the biggest credit to Dale Carnegie course, so I decided to read all Dale Carnegie books and the book in hand is the first one.

Couple years ago, I started my reading journey focusing on business books. I was reading a book or two per year. Beginning of 2017, I changed my reading pattern and decided to put a plan, I named it "Book reading strategic plan - 2017", I prepared the list, bought the books and managed to read ten whole books which for me was a big achievement taking into consideration the complexity of my work and personal life challenges and responsibilities.

During 2017 journey, I was preparing and working on my 2018 onwards list of books and the list now has sixty six different books out of which ten has been read so far (upto end of July 2018) and another ten should be finished by the end of the year.

I was taking notes, pictures by mobile camera for pages that highly inspired, attracted hit something inside me or made me feel that it can be reflected or applied in my work or personal life.

Dale Carnegie book -"How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public speaking"– was number ten for 2018, when I finished it I decided to do what many had advised and recommended to do after reading a book:

- Try to summarize it in a page or two
- I decided to add to that and share the lesson I personally learned from the book and post it on my website, so from now on expect a page or two on every book I read.

It was page 240 that made me feel : yah, That's the one! No need to continue reading and the message you are looking for is found, it says:

Books ! There is the secret ! He who would enrich and enlarge his stock of words must soak and tan his mind constantly in the vats of literature. "The only lamentation that I always feel in the presence of a library', said John Bright, "is that life is too short and I have no hope of a full enjoyment of the ample repast spread before me.

Studies showed that people fear public speaking higher than fear to death, 54% of American adults rank fear of public speaking higher than fear of death. The truth is, if you don't know how to speak in public, you could be hurting your professional and personal life.

Inspite of that and that everyone is initially nervous about public speaking, but anyone can learn to overcome this fear and deliver interesting speeches with confidence.