A couple of years ago I was a keynote speaker at a large gathering commemorating an important event. I had prepared carefully for it. I was eager to communicate with this August audience and looked forward to delivering my remarks.
The audience had been listening for quite a while to quite a few speakers. And so rather than dive into my remarks, I said: “We’ve all had a wonderful evening so far, but I also know you’re tired. I am reminded of the advice of my sixth grade teacher when we would ask him how many words an assignment should be: “long enough to cover the subject, short enough to be interesting.”
The collective sigh of relief was palpable. Everyone settled back into their chairs and relaxed. Now the audience was ready to listen one more time because they knew I would not drone on for too long.