Mario Sergio Cortella - Como Aprendi a Falar Bem Em Público

Sometimes I finish a lecture and the person to praise me, unintentionally, she comes and offends me. Of course the intention is complimentary, but she turns and says: Cortella, you have the gift of the word. It makes me angry when someone says that.

. . Of course I want to be praised, of course I'd like her to says that I speak well.

I like that compliment. But the gift of the word, what does it means? That I don't have any merit?

That I did not no effort? That God called me and said "Come here boy, you'll speak in public"? It's been 62 years I am at school!

62 years as a student and teacher. For me to write 35 books I had to read more than ten thousand books in my life. Every day I'm in one place, learning, coming back, going wrong, doing it again, having to deal with what I did not know, making mistakes, going back, correcting, learning, sitting to see lectures from other people.

. . And after all that someone says you have the gift of the word.

It is what Moreira Lima, one of our greatest pianists, a magnificent man once he finished a concert at the Palácio das Artes, in Belo Horizonte, there at Afonso Pena and, wonderful as always, When he finished, a young man of 30 years arrived for him and said thus: I loved your concert, sir, I'd give my life to play piano like that. He replied: I've been giving mine. It's over 40 years, 8, 10 per day.

Of course! What Arthur Moreira Lima must have been born with? A capacity for perception that is stronger, as here in this auditorium, there are people born with a sensitivity, a taste a bit more accurate than others, there are people here who know when the food is ready by the noise, by the sizzle of food, others by the aroma, there are people here who have a better spatial vision than others, was born this way, but born so, if it hadn't been developed, didn't have the occasion, possibility, circumstance, it'd stay that way.

Therefore, attention: Is leadership a gift or is it a virtue? Leadership has elements of birth basis, but it needs to be developed. Sometimes they ask me how is that I've learned to lead a conference, a lecture, a class, a group?

You were born like this, right? Of course not. Then I tell a story from a few years.

I was born in Londrina, in the north of Paraná, I'm a hick, a redneck, that's how people from that region call us, and I moved with my family to São Paulo at the end of 1967. This year, its 50 years that I am living in São Paulo. In December 1967, my catholic-oriented family, arrived in São Paulo, moving to the capital on a Friday coming from Londrina, on Sunday, my family decided to go to church.

A church near my house where we had just moved in. We moved to Av. Angelica, in São Paulo, and nearby, at Maranhão St.

, there is a Catholic church called Santa Terezinha. And we all went together to church. Me, hick, sat down at the first bench.

I wanted to see the church, São Paulo, new people. . .

The priest began the Mass saying: As you know, it's now over last year, the II Vatican Council that from now on services will be held first in the national language, who is older here can remembers that until 1966 the Catholic Mass was in Latin, with the priest on his back and in 1966, with the change, priests started to look forward and the cult was held in local language. This is a significant change and the priest on that day said that from now on, it is not just the priest who get to be here at the altar, there will be the possibility of a layman, any man come up here at the altar and read. And we'll start today, with the possibility of a layman do a reading at the Mass.

Boy! You, come here. I had two possibilities in that time.

The first, which was my intention, was to leave running desperately, in a city like São Paulo, they would never find me. The second was to go there, and do it. I was trembling, but I went there.

I took the leaflet that he asked me to read, and to my bad luck it was a letter from Paul to the Thessalonians, I got stuck at this already. And I did a 2nd foolishness. Instead of supporting the leaflet on the shelf, I held it in hands and when you're nervous, you tremble, then you tremble more, You're trembling, and even today.

I do not know what I had read, and then I step down, the mass followed, on the following Sunday, I sat far away, in the back. The priest began the mass and said: Well, as we've been doing and you know, we're going to always count on the presence of a layman for reading the Gospel. .

. Boy, you that have read last Sunday. In the following week, What did I do?

On Saturday I went to check what would be the reading, In the other one I was already enjoying and stood in front, looking at the priest, in the other I was already doing the reading for the Mass of 8am, 9am, 10am, 11am and 12pm. Here I am. How lucky!

What a thing! Luck follows courage. But on the other hand, so that one can lead we must understand that we're not ready-borns.

You may say it's obvious. A lot of people say "I can not lead anything" I want to remember one thing, leadership isn't a gift, it's a virtue, it is an intrinsic possibility, A virtue, what is it? That which is virtual.

A rose is virtually contained in a seed. A plant is virtually contained in a bud. A human being is virtually contained in an embryo.

The virtual, if it is not followed, it perishes; but it is a possibility. Therefore, if leadership it is a virtue, not a gift, obvious question, answer not so much: If leadership is a virtue, who can lead? Anyone.

Attention: any and all people can lead something, but none of us leads anything. I repeat: any and all people can lead something, but none of us leads anything.