Is The Devil in The Imperfections?

One of the strangest and most amazing projects I’ve ever had land on my desk was to do a presidential campaign in the Philippines. We ended up not taking it on for practical reasons, but when something like that lands on your desk, you can’t just brush it off. You have to check it out. And we did.

Said and done, and before I knew it I was on a plane to Helsinki for further transportation to Hong Kong and on to Manila. This would turn out to be a very special trip loaded with amazing experiences, connections and friends. I ended up staying in Manila for a week, attending meetings, lunches, dinners and drinks. Sleep was something that I didn’t do a lot of. I promise to tell you more about this adventure sometime, but for this post, I want to share with you what happened afterwards.

The day before my planned return to Sweden, Finnair went on strike. This was not good. My trip was already on a tight schedule and I had a talk booked in Stockholm the day after my return. After much hassle, I somehow managed to book a ticket back, but it was anything but the direct route. The trip back pretty much took me half way around the world and about 25 hours. And that was after a week of already very little sleep. When I landed in Stockholm it was early in the morning of the same day of my talk.

There was not much point in sleeping, so instead I took a shower and went for Coffee at my regular place. If you take a good look at the picture below you can tell from my eyes how exhausted I am. Double espresso please!

Even though there was an apparent risk that this talk would not be one of my best, canceling was not an option as one of my rules of engagement is to NEVER cancel a gig. It’s a good rule, but it has consequences (some of the more interesting of which I’ll tell you about another time). I got into a cab that took me over to the Filmstaden venue on Hötorget in Stockholm where the talk was scheduled to be held.

As the venue started to fill up, some switch went on in my head. There was just no room to be tired anymore.

So I rocked away with my talk which was in Swedish for a Swedish audience of marketing executives. Luckily for me, I had done this particular talk many times before, so I could do it on routine. Or so I thought. Because this too, it would turn out, had it’s consequences.

I came back on stage after showing a video clip and blasted away in full gear with my comments to what we had just seen, but now something felt wrong. The audience seemed uneasy and disturbed and there was whispers and giggles in the air. Time stood still for a moment. I understood that something was wrong, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it could be. I felt the pressure building up and a drop of sweat running down my forehead – what the hell was wrong?!

Suddenly I realize that I’m speaking in English instead of Swedish. And to make matters worse I’m over-compensating for my lack of sleep by speaking very passionately. In the wrong language. Everybody in the audience is trying to figure out what in the world is going on. Is he trying to prove a point? Or is he just tooo waaaaay guru to speak in Swedish all of a sudden?

Finally after what feels like forever somebody pulls up the blinds in my mind. “Eh, pratade jag precis engelska?” (“ehrr, did I just speak English?”) I ask in a suspicious tone before I burst out laughing, and so does everybody else.

The funny thing is that this incident was a real turning point in the talk. Suddenly we had all laughed together at something and broken the invisible wall that sometimes exists between the speaker and the audience. The talk ended up being one of the best ones I’ve ever done.

So why am I telling you all this? Well – I guess my point is that we don’t have to be so afraid of making fools out of ourselves on stage (or off for that matter). Perhaps errors are simply human and charming, like dents on a vintage guitar. Sometimes these things are what makes the appearance memorable and good. They can build up tension which upon release trigger bonding laughter.

Perhaps this insight will also make you a better speaker when you can relax a bit more and just go up there and vibe with the audience instead of lecturing to them; when you realize that errors can actually bring you closer to the audience; that the devil is actually in… well… the imperfetions.