Quora Answer: What is More Challenging to Successful Public Speaking: Fear or Being Unprepared?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What is more challenging to successful public speaking: fear or being unprepared?” 

People do not actually fear public speaking.  What they fear is embarrassment, ridicule, and looking foolish.  We know this because otherwise reticent people can loquacious when in familiar company, talking about subjects and issues they are passionate about.  They are comfortable with the audience, and they are confident in their knowledge.  Overcoming that fear of public speaking is about extending that circle of comfort outwards to include increasingly unfamiliar audiences. 

Being unprepared feeds into that fear of ridicule, which is then construed as a fear of public speaking.  In a sense, they are the same.  Fortunately, there are methods and means to be prepared, even for impromptu speaking.  Public speaking is simply a skill which can be mastered by all.  That is what Toastmasters is about.