My friend Kelly Swanson fell off the stage!
She picked herself up, looked at the audience, and said,
“I will now take questions from the floor!”
Standing ovation!
Why is it that we waste so much energy hoping and praying that everything is going to be perfect?
That the speaker before you isn't going to run overtime.
The microphone won't pick up AM radio stations from Cuba.
The projector bulb won't blow.
The slide remote will work perfectly.
There won't be a fire drill in the middle of your talk.
No one in the audience will have a medical emergency.
The emcee won't decide to tell the story you were going to open your speech with.
Your box of 500 books won't arrive the day after the event.
Your luggage won't end up in Guam.
When you rise to speak, your clothes will rise with you.
The speaker in the breakout room next door won't be a celebrity.
And you'll arrive at the stage on-time, ready, and refreshed.
Murphy's law states that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”
And even if everything goes perfect this time…
How lucky can we be?
Kelly told me she waited nine years to use that “questions from the floor” line.
I'm sure she would have rather not fallen off the stage, but she was ready for Murphy.
Stop worrying and start preparing.
Every disaster is an opportunity.
When things don't go as planned, how will you turn the circumstances to your advantage and win the admiration of your audience?
