Not too long ago, I once watched one of my mentors and personal friends spend the entire night celebrating, catch about two hours of sleep, and then take the stage early the next morning looking like he just walked three miles in a hurricane. It was not pretty…not even a little bit.
Instead of taking the stage and starting to make excuses though, he turned everything around by walking up with high energy and saying, “In life, you’ll never grow as a person until you’re ready to step far outside of your comfort zone and take chances. What I learned over the past 24 hours was truly life changing, and it never would have happened if I was not ready internally to experience it firsthand.”
Then, he simply gave his rehearsed performance. The crowd was on the edge of their seats the entire time, just waiting to hear what happened to him and his revelation.
And just to be clear, the lesson here is not that it’s okay to stay out all night when you have a 9 AM conference booking the next day. Instead, it’s for you to learn that absolutely nothing can come from you giving an excuse on stage.
For example, let’s say that you start your performance a few minutes late. The common thing would be to say, “I’m sorry that we’re running a little behind this morning,” but think about it…the audience knows that you’re running behind, and they’re not going to empathize with you because you admitted it.
The people in attendance are there to be inspired and an excuse is not inspirational…but a great speech certainly is. So don’t apologize when you make a mistake; just make up for it by following up that mistake with a “wow moment” that re-captures everyone’s attention.