Quora Answer: What Does it Take to Become a Public Speaker?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What does it take to become a public speaker?”

The very first thing you need is a reason.  If you are going to be a public speaker, it is because you have something to say.  Otherwise, what is there to talk about?  A public must be a thinker, and he must have opinions.  He must have the courage to take positions on issues of public interest, and he must have a cogent argument supporting that position. 

The second thing you need is the ethics of being a credible elocutor of a position.  You are undertaking the role of giving voice to the voiceless, and form to nebulous public opinion of the issues you put forward.  This means you cannot be vacuous, indecisive, stubborn, vacillating.  This requires a certain strength of character to stand by your positions. 

Finally, you require some facility with the art of rhetoric.  Rhetoric is the art of putting forward a cogent, coherent argument, for or against a position, in order to move that audience to this position.  There is a linguistic element to this, a theatrical element to this, and finally, a psychological element to it.  Rhetoric has four elements: pathos, ethos, logos and kairos.  This is a subject that should be examined in detail by any person who is serious about being a credible public speaker.