Make Your Presentation Memorable: Attempt the Absurd

As the great Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes once said, “In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.” But what he could have said was, “In order to attain ______ (fill in the blank with any goal you wish to achieve), one must attempt the absurd.”

Most people who give speeches are pursuing the same goal with their presentations. They want to entertain, be informative and they want to be liked. They’ll scour the web looking for tips on how to do all these things and stumble across the same advice others have already found. Instead of standing out from the masses, they end up doing something that countless others have already tried.

The way around this is to be unique. Instead of sticking to the same methods, attempt the absurd—take the advice you’ve gathered and put your own little twist on the implementation. Don’t fixate yourself on standards, protocol or what is expected of you.