Introduction
The author speaks to his experience as a petroleum engineer, particular his frustration that he was never able to personally present his work, but client presentations were always done by managers. It was explained to him that his talent was in engineering, and he was not particularly good at making presentations - it was a different skill.
He saw the sense in that, but instead of accepting that he would be forever relegated to working behind the scenes, he sought to improve his presentation skills. And when he did so, and made an informal presentation, he found that he was overcome by stage fright.
He recognized that his personal skills were always in the areas of math and science, and he was not particularly good at communication. And all the college courses he had taken had focused on heads-down skills and did not develop his presentation skills. While there was an excellent debate team and a "toastmasters" chapter at his school, he had not involved himself in them and focused on his studies.
(EN: IN the course of all of this, the author mentions he grew up in India. He doesn't make much of that fact, but it is likely true that the collectivistic culture does not foster the kind of communication that is more common in the west.)
To address those skills, he took the Carnegie course and enrolled in Toastmasters, and eventually won a prize in the area of public speaking. He found this curious, as the stereotype of a professional speaker is an extraverted person with strong language skills, as opposed to introverted technical types like himself.
His sense is that, as a person without much natural talent for public speaking, he did a lot of deliberate work to craft a strong presentation that would leave a lasting impact on his audience - and recognized this impact was more to do with the emotions rather than the logical construction of the speech.
It is much in the same way that people who are native speakers of a language become careless and sloppy with it, because they do it so naturally that they don't think about what they are saying. Meanwhile, a person who learns a different language as an adult is very attentive to getting the diction and grammar right, and often speaks the language more correctly than a native speaker.
This book is the author's attempt to share his emotional approach - which is not the only way to approach public speaking, nor necessarily right for all occasions, but he has found it to be effective.
He expects it will be particularly effective for introverts and immigrants. Introverts feel uneasy speaking in front of others, and do not have a great deal of energy - and in fact would not like to be the center of attention at all. Immigrants are also out of place in front of an audience of people who are foreign, and for whom they must adapt their natural style to accommodate a domestic culture with which they are not entirely familiar or comfortable.
He ends with a brief note on ethics: a person who becomes powerful at speaking wields immense power to influence people and even change lives through their speeches. It's a power that can be used for good or evil, so be aware of your motives and the impact you may have on others to ensure you use your power rightly.
This talk of power may sound overblown and melodramatic, but it is not. There are speeches that change peoples' lives in significant way. The reader can likely recall, with little difficulty, a time in which they heard words that stuck with them the rest of their lives - and as a speaker, he has heard from individuals whom he met who recalled some of the things he had said many years before.
Be aware of this, and do not underestimate the power of speech.