Professional speakers, like most people, want a lot of things.  Good work opportunities, true love, and parking spaces whenever they’re needed come to mind, and that’s just for starters.  Then there are some things speakers want that most people would find quixotic, to say the least.  Speakers want an endless supply of gigs; most people would find that really, really hard work.  Speakers want all eyes upon them, and by all, I mean thousands and thousands of eyes; most people would find that unnerving.  And speakers want people to stand up and cheer when they’re done speaking; most people would find that a bit over the top.

If you’re still reading, and thinking to yourself, yes, I am that speaker, then you need to swallow a few difficult truths that don’t quite apply to the rest of the world.  Here they are, then:  five difficult truths that speakers must learn to be successful.

1.You have complete choice – and complete responsibility – for the first few minutes of a talk. Those framing moments are yours.  If the speech doesn’t go well because it didn’t start well, the fault is entirely yours.  Audience can cause problems in various ways, and be difficult at various times, but the opening is yours.  If you choose to waste it by babbling about Schenectady, thinking that you’re connecting in some way with the audience in front of you – that’s your fault.  That’s not the audience.  Use the opening well – or take the blame for what happens next.

2.You have to rise above all the rotten luck and dealing that you’re going to experience along your journey to stardom. Speakers want to blame the meeting organizer, or the tech, or the tech people, or the time of day, or the sight lines, or the layout of the room that has you with your back to half the audience – but the truth is all of that is simply table stakes.  It’s the given, and you have to rise above it.  Make it work.  No whining.

3.Your time will come and go. This is one of the hardest truths for speakers to accept.  Your ideas on leadership, or social media, or creativity – those have their day.  They fit best to a particular audience, era, region, set of circumstances, and time.  Just as your day has arrived, it will pass, and your job is to retire gracefully from the stage just before that passing.  There’s nothing sadder than a speaker talking to an audience that no longer exists, leaving the actual audience in front of him wondering what the point is.  Don’t be one of those rock and roll singers who croaks out one last golden oldie to a dwindling audience of nostalgics.

4.Not everyone is going to like you. In fact, that’s a sign of success.  If you’re truly saying something unique and worthwhile, then some people are going to be upset by it.  If everyone agrees, well then, you’re not saying anything new or worth hearing.  Someone famous once said that you’re measured by your enemies, not by your friends.  Know who your enemies are, and delight in them.

5.A pro learns from everyone and everything. Once you’re a star, then your obligation to listen to your audience doesn’t go away.  Rather, it intensifies.  Your audience is there to keep you real as well as to applaud your every utterance.  If you stop listening you will become that diva that everyone despises, and who ultimately becomes irrelevant.  Keep going by keeping it real.

Are you a pro, or destined to be one?  You know who you are.  Take these truths to heart and avoid the trap of emptiness that success can bring.