Simon Sinek describes recovering after losing his train of thought

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an excellent two-minute video from Simon Sinek at TikTok on March 17, 2025 titled What’s your worst public speaking horror story? It also is at Facebook and Instagram. He says about that potential worst moment that:

 

“In the speaking world, there is a big conference thrown by an organization called the Meeting Planners Association of America. Basically all the people from all the big companies and events planners that basically book all the speakers. And if you get invited to this conference, it’s a big deal because if you nail it you’re set for life - because all the people who will hire you for the rest of your career are in the room. And if you fail, I mean your career is basically over. It’s going to be rinky-dink little events for the rest of your life.

 

Anyway, as I was getting going in my career back in the Start with WHY days, I got invited to the Meeting Planners Association of America. I got to speak at it – great honor! I’ve given the speech 1,000 times; I know it inside and out. I’m out there, I’m on the stage speaking. I forgot my train of thought. It’s happened, I’m a pro. I know what to do: go quiet. Find your place, keep going. So I go quiet, not finding my place. Now the panic sets in. I look at my pad, I look at the audience. I don’t know anything that’s going on. I can’t ask the audience, ‘Can you tell me what I was thinking?’ That would be a disaster. My hands are sweaty. My heart is pounding. I don’t know what to do. My life is flashing before my eyes at the end of my career.

 

So I turn to the audience and I say, ‘Do you ever have that experience where you lose your train of thought and just sheer panic sets in? Your hands get clammy, your heart starts pounding?’ I say, ‘Well, I’m having that right now and let me tell you, I’m so glad it’s happening cause it makes me feel alive.’ And the audience erupted. And then I turned to the audience and say, ‘Can somebody please tell me what I was saying, cause I’ve completely forgotten?’ Somebody shouted out, I picked up and off I went. I got more applause for admitting what I was going through than for the actual speech. So it ended up working out okay.

 

I want to hear your horror stories as well. I wanna hear the time you were giving a speech at a wedding, a presentation for work, maybe you were standing on a stage as well. Tell me some of the horror stories you’ve experienced and maybe even how you turned them around, or how they didn’t get turned around. And the one thing we think is the most harrowing – I’ll send you a book just to say, ‘Sorry you had to go through that.’ So just put them down in the comments; can’t wait to hear from you.”

    

The cartoon was adapted from a surprised face at OpenClipArt.