Gallo Quotes

Science shows that passion is contagious, literally. You cannot inspire others unless you are inspired yourself. You stand a much greater chance of persuading and inspiring your listeners if you express an enthusiastic, passionate, and meaningful connection to your topic.

A muchos el universo les parece honrado; las gentes honestas tienen los ojos castrados. Por eso temen la obscenidad. No sienten ninguna angustia cuando oyen el grito del gallo ni cuando se pasean bajo un cielo estrellado. Cuando se entregan 'a los placeres de la carne' lo hacen a condición de que sean insípidos.

I don’t date men who use their fists, Mr. Gallo.” “My hands have many other uses that you’d quite enjoy.

New research into cognitive functioning—how the brain works—proves that bullet points are the least effective way to deliver important information. Neuroscientists are finding that what passes as a typical presentation is usually the worst way to engage your audience.

They think they know Leo Gallo. Anna is the only person who actually does.

the power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power.

Volver, lo sabe todo el mundo, es imposible. Luego de los abrazos y las lágrimas viene el verdadero reencuentro, estar frente a frente a los mismos cuando nosotros ya somos otros, frente a ellos cuando no sabemos quiénes son.

Every ‘no’ means you’re one step closer to ‘yes.

People cannot inspire others unless and until they are inspired themselves.

stories are just data with a soul.

Like every other tiny-ass town in the South, there were plenty of crappy Mexican restaurants to choose from. Not fancy Mexican like I eat in L.A. When I eat Mexican food in L.A., it’s like a kale salad with pepitas and soy beef tacos with fresh pico de gallo. In NC, it’s a five-dollar plate of cheese enchiladas with refried beans and a bowl of melted white cheese dip. Essentially you just walk in and ask for a plate of brown with a little iceberg lettuce, and it’s fucking delish.

Learning is one addiction I don’t mind admitting to. In fact, I celebrate it.

It’s been said that success doesn’t lead to happiness; happiness creates success.

Passion is the thing that will help you create the highest expression of your talent. —LARRY SMITH, TEDx, NOVEMBER 2011

Happy New Year Mira, no pido mucho, solamente tu mano, tenerla como un sapito que duerme así contento. Necesito esa puerta que me dabas para entrar a tu mundo, ese trocito de azúcar verde, de redondo alegre. ¿No me prestas tu mano en esta noche de fin de año de lechuzas roncas? No puedes, por razones técnicas. Entonces la tramo en el aire, urdiendo cada dedo, el durazno sedoso de la palma y el dorso, ese país de azules árboles. Así la tomo y la sostengo, como si de ello dependiera muchísimo del mundo, la sucesión de las cuatro estaciones, el canto de los gallos, el amor de los hombres.

Your career is your business. You are its CEO. Complacency breeds failure. As the CEO of your career, you must continually improve your skills, especially the art of communication.

La gente no es capaz de verse a sí misma y ese es el principio de todos los horrores.

Critón, le debemos un gallo a Asclepio. ¿Te acordarás de pagar la deuda?

I wrote this novella for all the girls  who have a mad girl crush on Izzy Gallo. Be fierce; grab life by the balls and follow your dreams!

Un attimo dopo, in quella confusione di membra, si stava chinando a posare le labbra sulle sue. Erano morbide e fresche, e sapevano di mare più del mare stesso. Clelia fu scossa da un brivido caldo e si sentì allagare il cuore.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Nothing great has ever been achieved without enthusiasm.

I’m a learning machine and this is the place to learn.

Yo también me gradué, empecé la universidad, la terminé, seguí diciendo que sí a los hombres, rompiéndome como un vaso barato contra las paredes de diferentes casas.

La primera profecía que cumpliste fue la de «eres igual a tu madre». Te golpeaban para que no seas igual a tu madre mientras te gritaban eres igual a tu madre.

En eso consistía ser puta: en gustar del gusto.

It’s not an opinion. It’s an offer,” the man clarified and chuckled, “the offer you can’t refuse.” “That only works in the movies.” Domenico’s lips kicked up in a smile. “You know, Mr. Gallo, my father used to tell me, ‘Have as much as you need to have and no more.’ I believe I already have what I need. I appreciate your offer, but I run legal businesses, and I plan to continue playing it straight.

I'm talking to a journalist and I really have nothing to say anymore, this is already uncomfortable. I feel the pain coming already. The brutal pain, when one day I should read your edit of whatever I say, because no matter what I say, no matter how I say it, no matter its tone, its frequency range, its decibel level or the way in which I put the words together, no matter my intentions and no matter the truth. What I'll read one day will be a chastised, manipulated abortion of your misunderstandings, your manipulations, your agenda and your amateur use of the English language.

I’m staying in town one more day, so think about what I said and give me a call.” Gallo stood up and looked down at him from his height imperiously. “Don’t make another mistake because I don’t forgive twice.” Blood surged to Dom’s head at the marching order he’d been just given. “I highly value my time, Mr. Gallo, and I never waste it on useless calls. Take my advice, don’t waste yours, either,” he said, matching the man’s tone and his cold stare.

Alchemy, however, is a chaste prostitute, who has many lovers but disappoints all and grants her favors to none. She transforms the haughty into fools, the rich into paupers, the philosophers into dolts, and the deceived into loquacious deceivers…. —Trithemius, Annalmm Hirsaugensium Tomi II, S. Gallo, 1690, 141

You’ve got to follow your passion. You’ve got to figure out what it is you love—who you really are. And have the courage to do that. I believe that the only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dreams.” —Oprah Winfrey

Most people spend more time planning grocery lists than thinking about their future.

Leaders are fascinated by the future. You are a leader if, and only if, you are restless for change, impatient for progress, and deeply dissatisfied with the status quo.” He

The first step to inspiring others is to make sure you’re inspired yourself.

As Daniel Pink notes in To Sell Is Human, “Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.”4

The trick is to find someone who doesn’t change you, but makes you better.

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Dicen que Dios escucha más a los pobres porque quiere más a los pobres, así que para algo tenía que servir la mierda de ser pobre.

When the Brooklyn rain comes down hopefully it will be to fuckin' wake you up

Esos seres que no arriesgan nunca en el amor más de lo que han perdido ya cien veces...

donde cantan gallos no pían las gallinas, si acaso cacarean cuando han puesto un huevo, así lo ha impuesto y proclamado la buena ordenación del mundo en que nos cuadró vivir. Va

SCREE! the strix yelled, ruffling its feathers. "What do you mean 'you need to kill us'?" Grover asked. Meg scowled. "You can talk to it?" "Well, yes," Grover said. "It's an animal." "Why didn't you tell us what it was saying before now?" Meg asked. "Because it was just yelling scree!" Grover said. "Now it's saying scree as in, it needs to kill us." I tried to move my legs. They seemed to have turned into sacks of cement, which I found vaguely amusing. I could still move my arms and had some feeling in my chest, but I wasn't sure how long that would last. "Perhaps ask the strix why it needs to kill us?" I suggested. "Scree!" Grover said. I was getting tired of the strix language. The bird replied in a series of squawks and clicks. Meanwhile, out in the corridor, the other strixes shrieked and bashed against the net of plants. Black talons and gold beaks poked out, snapping tomatoes into pico de gallo. I figured we had a few minutes at most until the birds burst through and killed us all, but their razor-sharp beaks sure were cute! Grover wrung his hands. "The strix says he's been sent to drink our blood, eat our flesh and disembowel us, not necessarily in that order. He says he's sorry, but it's a direct command from the emperor." "Stupid emperors," Meg grumbled. "Which one?" "I don't know," Grover said. "The strix just calls him Scree." "You can translate disembowel," she noted, "but you can't translate the emperor's name?

I love you, Carina Amelia Gallo. You were made for me, and no matter where you are or how much time passes, I will always find you, because our love is fated, and Romeo needs his Juliet.

Coins were first introduced into the British Isles, in large quantities, from Belgic Gaul and Armorica in the period 130–80 bc and soon British tribes began to mint their own. Gallo-Belgic

El objetivo de su vida, desde su adolescencia, es el placer con las mujeres, que da y recibe, no con indulgente ligereza sino con el orgulloso poder de un gallo de buen plumaje en un corral de gallinas. De esta satisfecha plenitud derivan todos los cardes secundarios de su vida: amistad con los hombres, humor rudo y directo, amor a la buena mesa y a la buena bebida, al juego, a su coche, a su radio, a todo cuanto posee y lleva por ello la impronta orgulloso del sembrador. Valora las mujeres al primer vistazo, las clasifica sexualmente y les dedica la sonrisa justa.

He oído decir que el gallo, clarín de la mañana, despierta con su voz altiva y penetrante al dios del día y que, alertados, en tierra o aire, mar o fuego, los espíritus errantes en seguida se recluyen: de

Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking,” Jobs told the graduates. “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

—Antes me formaba yo idea del día y de la noche. ¿Cómo? Verás: era de día, cuando hablaba la gente; era de noche, cuando la gente callaba y cantaban los gallos. Ahora no hago las mismas comparaciones. Es de día, cuando estamos juntos tú y yo; es de noche, cuando nos separamos. —¡Ay, divina Madre de Dios!— exclamó la Nela, echándose atrás las guedejas que le caían sobre la frente. —A mí, que tengo ojos, me parece lo mismo.

Salió fuera y miró el cielo. Llovían estrellas. Lamentó aquello porque hubiera querido ver un cielo quieto. Oyó el canto de los gallos. Sintió la envoltura de la noche cubriendo la tierra. La tierra, “este valle de lágrimas”.

Era la primera vez desde que había llegado a Gutshot que se despertaba antes que el gallo. Abrió inmediatamente la ventana de su habitación, pegó la cara a la mosquitera y gritó: ¡QUIQUIRIQUÍ! ¿TE GUSTA QUE TE LO HAGAN A TI, CAPULLO?

National Record Mart began when Hyman Shapiro and his sons Sam and Howard opened their first music store in 1937. A tiny storefront in downtown Pittsburgh, they called it Jitterbug Records and sold used jukebox records for a dime apiece.

I never married,” she says. “I never had children. I never made a family of my own. I threw my lot in with the Gallos, for better or worse. I helped raise you and your siblings. And I’ll help raise your children, too.” “I’m not having any children.

(Años después un doctorando me explicó que en una situación similar le salió un gallo, porque le estaba cambiando la voz en aquella época, y que sus compañeros empezaron a llamarle «gallito» como mote y así le quedó para siempre, para disgusto suyo.)

All this to say of course Gallo wants to get into your Little Mermaid panties. And if you don't get that, you're dumber than I ever thought, which gives me such a headache to even contemplate. The massive amount of your dumbness. It hurts me,' he whined.

—Odio las peleas de gallo —dijo Carmen Rosa y volvió a chocar con Sebastián. —¿Por qué? —preguntó éste. —Porque son una salvajada, un crimen contra esos pobres animales. —Mayor crimen es torcerle el pescuezo a las infelices gallinas para comérselas —gruñó Sebastián.

He oído contar que el gallo, trompeta de la mañana, despierta al dios del día con alta y aguda voz de su garganta sonora y que a esta señal los espíritus que vagan errantes, ya se encuentren en el agua o en el fuego, en la tierra o en el aire, huyen presurosos a su región.

Listen, Gallo, I’m gonna level with you. Folks out here are superstitious. Look around you. Our winters are black, and in the summer it’s just one long stretch of perpetual daylight. People around here don’t have much. They drink and they hunt and they sit around telling ghost stories.

Your Manipura. It was Erin Sharma's voice whispering in his head. It grants you the power to save or destroy the world. For the first time in his life, Paul Gallo realized that those things are sometimes one and the same. You were right, Erin. Only thing is, you were right about the wrong brother.

What’s the first thing you should do when creating a PowerPoint presentation? If you’re like many people you’ll say, “Open PowerPoint.” Wrong answer. You should plan the story first. Just as a movie director storyboards the scenes before he begins shooting, you should create the story before you open the tool. You’ll have plenty of time to design pretty slides once the story is complete, but if the story is boring, you’ve lost your audience before you’ve spoken a word.

y el espíritu a la lengua de la cobra. Todos los días se matan en New York cuatro millones de patos, cinco millones de cerdos, dos mil palomas para el gusto de los agonizantes, un millón de vacas, un millón de corderos y dos millones de gallos que dejan los cielos hechos añicos. Más vale sollozar afilando la navaja o asesinar a los perros

It’s just about being you and being cool with that. And I think when you’re authentic, you end up following your heart, and you put yourself in places and situations and conversations that you love and that you enjoy. You meet people that you like talking to. You go places you’ve dreamt about. And you and up following your heart and feeling very fulfilled.

Il messaggio di Gesù è che prima della fede viene l'etica, cioè il comportamento di ciascuno.

Ciertas cosas no hay que nombrarlas para que existan. Al contrario, existen porque uno no las nombra. Están ahí como un tesoro desenterrado. Un tesoro que al abrirlo desaparecería.

Passion isn't enough, but when passion meets aptitude it can change the world.

I packed my stuff, left my cactus BILLY with the neighbors, and got a taxi to the bus station.

Aw, dad... this isn't another one of those "oh, you're LUCKY you didn't have to peck dry corn and uncooked rice off the dirt!" kind of thing is it?

novelty is the single most effective way to capture a person’s attention.

Great conversations or presentations take you to ideas you’d never considered.

Our levels of desire, patience, persistence and confidence end up playing a much larger role in success than sheer reasoning powers.

Así pasa cuando sucede.

Sometimes the sweetest wine is squeezed from the grapes of wrath

The 18-minute rule isn’t simply a good exercise to learn discipline. It’s critical to avoid overloading your audience. Remember, constrained presentations require more creativity.

The only way to have a great career, says Smith, is to do what you love.

Storytelling is not something we do. Storytelling is who we are.

Así, como un perro agradecido, te sentabas a sus pies a mirarlo, a escucharlo arrobada, loca de amor, como si de su boca salieran uvas, miel, jazmines, pájaros.

La liberté n'est pas un aliment que tous les estomacs puissent digérer sans préparation - Jacques Pierre Brissot, Le Patriote Français

No me gusta ser hombre. ¿No se puede ser otra cosa? No hay otro sitio en el que quisiera estar - ¿es el pasado un sitio? -, pero tampoco aqui.

You have to really be courageous about your instincts and your ideas. Otherwise you’ll just knuckle under, and things that might have been memorable will be lost. —FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

The sequence that made Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Dream Speech” the greatest speech of the twentieth century had all been improvised. The words “I have a dream” are not in the original copy of the speech!

- Creo que hay que cambiar la mano de las recetas para el exito o el triunfo...Habria que escribir un libro util, al alcance de todos, de instrucciones para la derrota. Eso...porqueyo nole puedo enseniar a nadie a ganar al ajedrez ni a nada. Tendria que ser una especie de recetario del perdedor vocacional.Porque hoy,a quien le vas a enseniar a ganar? Y ya no hablaba de ajedrez, de truco,de gallo o de como pasarde cadete a jefe de seccion sin escalas. Hablaba de todo y algo mas: - Hay que enseniar a perder, viejo: con altura, con elegancia, con conviccion.Hay que escribir un Dale Carnegieal reves:"Como perder serguro" o "Derrotese usted mismo en los momentos libres", algo asi... Y seria un exito, porque le hablaria a la gente de lo que conoce. Eso necesitamos: un manual de perdedores. Y se tomo un mate frio, olvidado sobre la mesa, como si con eso subrayara algo de lo dicho,una verdad berreta, pero suya.

PIOGGIA Cantava al buio d’aia in aia il gallo. E gracidò nel bosco la cornacchia: il sole si mostrava a finestrelle. Il sol dorò la nebbia della macchia, poi si nascose; e piovve a catinelle. Poi tra il cantare delle raganelle guizzò sui campi un raggio lungo e giallo. Stupìano i rondinotti dell’estate di quel sottile scendere di spille: era un brusìo con languide sorsate e chiazze larghe e picchi a mille a mille; poi singhiozzi, e gocciar rado di stille: di stille d’oro in coppe di cristallo.

Durante l’inverno il mare sembrava appartenere a lei soltanto, il sussurro delle onde pareva bisbigliarle all’orecchio i propri segreti; ma non appena arrivava l’estate le sue lunghe e pacifiche passeggiate si riducevano ad attimi rubati al calar della notte.

A true superstar, [Shaquille] O'Neal is one of the most widely recognized athletes in the world, especially at waffle houses and all-you-can-eat buffets. Despite being born without the kind of body that would lend itself to being a dominant NBA center, Shaq's tireless work ethic has enabled him to become one of the game's all-time greats at the position. In his nearly fifteen years in the league he has almost managed to develop low post moves beyond backing over people, and he vows to one day make more than half of his free throws.

La Media Luna estaba sola, en silencio. Se caminaba con los pies descalzos; se hablaba en voz baja. Enterraron a Susana San Juan y pocos en Comala se enteraron. Allá había feria. Se jugaba a los gallos, se oía la música; los gritos de los borrachos y de loterías. Hasta acá llegaba la luz del pueblo, que parecía una aureola sobre el cielo gris. Porque fueron días grises, tristes para la Media Luna. Don Pedro no hablaba. No salía de su cuarto. Juró vengarse de Comala: -Me cruzaré de brazos y Comala se morirá de hambre. Y así lo hizo.

Seven principles that drive Steve Jobs - 1. Career - Do what you love 2. Vision - Put a dent in the Universe 3. Thoughts - Kick start your brain 4. Customers - Sell dreams, not products 5. Design - Say no to 1,000 things 6. Experience - Create insanely great experiences 7. Story - Master the message

most of the top skills required to future-proof a career fall under communication in all its forms: storytelling, public speaking, synthesizing and clarifying messages, translating information for different audiences and contexts, crafting an inspiring vision, developing relationships, and inspiring trust.

En casi todas las vidas existe una noche en donde las negruras del sufrimiento se precipitan; una noche oscura del espíritu, cuyo tenebroso recuerdo nos persigue hasta en los más irisados días de después. Noche durante la cual todo el amargo sentido de la existencia se destila segundo a segundo, en el insomnio. Hasta esa noche no se sabe la verdadera extensión de las horas. En ella los miedos no logran tomar voz, y se quejan las cosas con misteriosos ruidos, y palpitan los relojes queriendo adelantarse para escapar al deber de medir minutos tan hondos, y el viento y los perros ululan, y cantan los gallos ávidos de forzar el alba.

Men look at me and they see liquid sex poured into the body of their dreams. They want me so bad that they can't possibly imagine that what's inside that package might not appeal to them quite as much as the exterior. They say I'm everything they ever wanted - then they want to change everything about me. How I dress, how I talk, what I like, how I behave…

Storytellers like King make a conscious effort to incorporate metaphor into their speeches and presentations—the “promissory note” being just one of many metaphors in King’s speech. Metaphor gave King the tool to “breathe life” into abstract concepts: • “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” • “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.” • “I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.” • No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

At their best, old-fashioned military academies saved students from delinquency. At their worst, they drove boys to it by subjecting them to a culture that valued dominance, violence, and subversion of authorities. The experience is brilliantly told in Pat Conroy’s novel The Lords of Discipline, which depicts life at a military college similar to The Citadel in South Carolina. Although Conroy writes with both dismay and affection, others have offered a more scathing evaluation of these places. In his memoir, Breakshot, former mobster Kenny Gallo noted that his military boarding-school experience transformed him from “a disorderly brat into an orderly outlaw.” Recalling his career at Army and Navy Academy in California, Gallo writes, “I guess you could say my ‘normal’ social development stopped at military school when I was thirteen; I stopped developing as a healthy adult citizen and, first out of self defense and then out of pleasure, began honing my skills as a predator.”7 As

Y que me gana la risa. Empecé a reír poshombre con risa muy mía muy interna porque cuando no se entienden las cosas no queda otra cosa y además el lugar es santo y siempre hay que tener respeto ¿no? pero no podía parar y empecé a carcajearme. Lleno de miedo oí como los gallos contestaban y la bruta risa se repitió por los corrales cercanos, alzándose en las cuestas y caracoleando por las calles. Comprendí que algo había que hacer pacalmarla y me aticé un chingadazo en la boca con tamaña piedra. Pior. Más risa me dio al escupir tanto miedo ¡Es una enfermedá! Alhora que subió el sol y las gentes llegaban a rezarle a sus ánimas y a limpiar las sepulturas, a dejarles flores, Jaimias, hijo de Alquimias y Gameta, se estaba orinando de la risa. Mismito arriba de su propio nombre. ¡Véanme! Yo Jaimias Más Omenos. Jaimias Más Omenos. Mjt. Dijeron don Lobo y don Crepúsculo sin hacerme caso al pasar por ahí. Irreverente siempre fue ¡Cállense por diositosanto! no digan pendejadas que me voy a morir desta risa ¿no ven las lágrimas? ya ni respirar puedo.

I keep looking for a hole in his persona - something he thinks he knows that I know he's wrong about. Some cringey joke. Some moment where I puncture his ego, and like every other man I've ever met, he can't handle it in his temper flares. That's what I expect to happen, because that's what's always happened when I've tried to date men. They hate when you disagree with them, especially when you're right. They hate when you don't fawn over them. And most of all, they hate when you're different than the picture of you they created in their mind.

It’s not a serious project,” Laurence said as they crossed Castro Street. “Milton doesn’t think the human race will still be here in a hundred years, much less a few thousand. This is just his way of hedging his bets. Or assuaging his conscience.” “It’s gotten me three free trips to Greenland,” Isobel said. “Honestly, I think Milton’s opinions depend on how many interns he’s killed today.” She half-winked, to indicate this was a joke and Milton killed no interns. During the dinner, Isobel talked more about her career transition, from rockets to Milton’s Ten Percent Project. “I used to dream about rockets.” Isobel scooped a corn chip into the communal pico de gallo. “Every single night, for months and months. After we pulled the plug on Nimble Aerospace. I had these weird dreams that there was a rocket launch going up any minute, and we’d misplaced the final telemetry. Or we were sending up a rocket, and it looked beautiful and proud shooting up into the air, and then it collided with a jumbo jet. Or worst of all was the dreams where nothing went wrong, rockets just soared for hours, and I sat on the ground watching with tears in my eyes.

Colta da improvviso ottimismo, Clelia sentì l’impulso di siglare un patto con l’oceano, di sancire una promessa lasciandosi abbracciare dalle onde. Si liberò in fretta degli abiti leggeri e, dopo una breve rincorsa, si tuffò in acqua senza ulteriori indugi. Il mare l’accolse come se gli fosse sempre appartenuta, le diede il bentornato accarezzandola dolcemente, la fece sentire a casa. Chiudendo gli occhi, si sentì libera per la prima volta dopo troppo tempo. Per certi versi, non sarebbe mai più voluta riemergere. Se l’orologio dell’universo si fosse fermato in quel preciso istante, lei se ne sarebbe beata per l’eternità.

È un bene che non si ripeta due volte, la febbre del primo amore. Poiché è una febbre, e anche un fardello, checché ne dicano i poeti. Non si è molto coraggiosi, quando si ha ventun anno. Sono tempi pieni di piccole viltà, di minime paure senza fondamento, e ci si sente così presto vinti, ci vuol tanto poco a esser feriti; e si cede alla prima parola pungente. Oggi, avvolta nella comoda armatura della maturità che s'avvicina, le innumeri piccole punture della vita quotidiana non mi sfiorano che lievemente e sono presto obliate, ma allora - oh, allora, una parola detta a caso sostava a lungo, diventava un marchio rovente; e uno sguardo, un'occhiata di sopra una spalla s'imprimeva per l'eternità. Un rifiuto annunciava un triplice canto di gallo, e una mancanza di sincerità era simile al bacio di Giuda. La mente matura può mentire con la coscienza netta, con un viso ridente, ma in quei giorni, anche il più lieve inganno bruciava sulla lingua, legandoci al palo del supplizio da noi stessi innalzato. ========== «Se ci fosse mai qualcuno che scoprisse il modo di imbottigliare le memorie, come un profumo...» dissi. «Che non svanissero mai, non perdessero mai la freschezza. E quando si volesse, si potrebbe aprir la boccetta, e rivedere il momento...»

The most popular TED speakers give presentations that stand out in a sea of ideas. As Daniel Pink notes in To Sell Is Human, “Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.”4 If you’ve been invited to give a TED talk, this book is your bible. If you haven’t been invited to give a TED talk and have no intention of doing so, this book is still among the most valuable books you’ll ever read because it will teach you how to sell yourself and your ideas more persuasively than you’ve ever imagined. It will teach you how to incorporate the elements that all inspiring presentations share, and it will show you how to reimagine the way you see yourself as a leader and a communicator. Remember, if you can’t inspire anyone else with your ideas, it won’t matter how great those ideas are. Ideas are only as good as the actions that follow the communication of those ideas.

Hardy reinforces his narrative with stories of heroes who didn’t have the right education, the right connections, and who could have been counted out early as not having the DNA for success: “Richard Branson has dyslexia and had poor academic performance as a student. Steve Jobs was born to two college students who didn’t want to raise him and gave him up for adoption. Mark Cuban was born to an automobile upholsterer. He started as a bartender, then got a job in software sales from which he was fired.”8 The list goes on. Hardy reminds his readers that “Suze Orman’s dad was a chicken farmer. Retired General Colin Powell was a solid C student. Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, was born in a housing authority in the Bronx … Barbara Corcoran started as a waitress and admits to being fired from more jobs than most people hold in a lifetime. Pete Cashmore, the CEO of Mashable, was sickly as a child and finished high school two years late due to medical complications. He never went to college.” What do each of these inspiring leaders and storytellers have in common? They rewrote their own internal narratives and found great success. “The biographies of all heroes contain common elements. Becoming one is the most important,”9 writes Chris Matthews in Jack Kennedy, Elusive Hero. Matthews reminds his readers that young John F. Kennedy was a sickly child and bedridden for much of his youth. And what did he do while setting school records for being in the infirmary? He read voraciously. He read the stories of heroes in the pages of books by Sir Walter Scott and the tales of King Arthur. He read, and dreamed of playing the hero in the story of his life. When the time came to take the stage, Jack was ready.

En Nueva grandeza mexicana (1946), uno de los ensayos más ingeniosos sobre la ciudad de México, Salvador Novo considera que toda ciudad moderna debe elegir uno de dos destinos posibles: o extinguirse y mantener intacta su arquitectura (como la ciudad maya de Chichen Itzá); o pertenecer viva, transformándose y renovándose constantemente. Las ciudades y sus habitantes, escribe Novo, “se enfrentan por inescapable determinismo a un incómodo dilema: o la cripta honorable o la vida imprevisible: o la momia o el hombre: o el museo o la urbe”. Hasta ahora la ciudad de México ha logrado mantenerse viva y evitar el destino de tantos otros centros urbanos menos afortunados, que se han convertido en museos al aire libre o en meras atracciones turísticas sin vida propia. “A diferencia de Teotihuacán” escribe Novo, “ha sido el destino de México sobrevivir a costa de transformarse

Anaphora is effective in the building of a movement because it increases the intensity of an idea, and intense ideas sear themselves into our brain. There’s a reason why Winston Churchill chose anaphora as his go-to rhetorical device to rally the British people in World War II: We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. Business leaders often shy away from anaphora because they believe it’s a tool reserved for political speeches. Actually, anaphora can be seamlessly and comfortably incorporated into business presentations meant to inspire audiences to see the world differently.

Give the Audience Something to Cheer For Austin Madison is an animator and story artist for such Pixar movies as Ratatouille, WALL-E, Toy Story 3, Brave, and others. In a revealing presentation Madison outlined the 7-step process that all Pixar movies follow. 1. Once there was a ___. 3 [A protagonist/ hero with a goal is the most important element of a story.] 2. Every day he ___. [The hero’s world must be in balance in the first act.] 3. Until one day ___. [A compelling story introduces conflict. The hero’s goal faces a challenge.] 4. Because of that ___. [This step is critical and separates a blockbuster from an average story. A compelling story isn’t made up of random scenes that are loosely tied together. Each scene has one nugget of information that compels the next scene.] 5. Because of that ___. 6. Until finally ____. [The climax reveals the triumph of good over evil.] 7. Ever since then ___. [The moral of the story.] The steps are meant to immerse an audience into a hero’s journey and give the audience someone to cheer for. This process is used in all forms of storytelling: journalism, screenplays, books, presentations, speeches. Madison uses a classic hero/ villain movie to show how the process plays out—Star Wars. Here’s the story of Luke Skywalker. Once there was a farm boy who wanted to be a pilot. Every day he helped on the farm. Until one day his family is killed. Because of that he joins legendary Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi. Because of that he hires the smuggler Han Solo to take him to Alderaan. Until finally Luke reaches his goal and becomes a starfighter pilot and saves the day. Ever since then Luke’s been on the path to be a Jedi knight. Like millions of others, I was impressed with Malala’s Nobel Peace prize–winning acceptance speech. While I appreciated the beauty and power of her words, it wasn’t until I did the research for this book that I fully understood why Malala’s words inspired me. Malala’s speech perfectly follows Pixar’s 7-step storytelling process. I doubt that she did this intentionally, but it demonstrates once again the theme in this book—there’s a difference between a story, a good story, and a story that sparks movements.

At a crucial point of the Battle of Britain, when German warplanes were bombing London daily, every available British aircraft was in the sky to stop the planes from reaching the city. As Churchill sat in a car with his military secretary he said, “Don’t speak to me. I have never been so moved.” Churchill sat quietly for five minutes. He then turned to his secretary and asked him to write down a thought that would become one of the most famous quotes of World War II: “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”6 Only four words in that sentence are more than one syllable and, in six words, Churchill told the entire story of British courage and what it meant to the rest of the world: so much, so many, so few. Those six words summarize stories that fill entire books. “So much” stands for freedom, democracy, and liberty—much of which would have been eliminated if Hitler had not been stopped. “So many” represents the entire population of the British empire at the time and those who lived in the countries Hitler invaded. “So few” is a reference to a small number of English pilots, many of whom were killed in the skies as they defended their homeland.