Roy Tang

Someone on quora asked:

How can I overcome fear when addressing the public?

Fear of public speaking is one of the most common fears (if not the most common - more than fear of death even), so in this you are in good company.

The first key to overcoming any fear is to face it head on. In this case, that means trying out public speaking, no matter how hard it seems or how badly you do. To try it again and again, until that fear is gone. You don’t have to speak in front of an audience of hundreds or thousands to practice, you can do smaller steps first, like maybe in a classroom setting. If you are having trouble for example with a presentation you want to do in class, ask a small group of friends if you could practice the talk/presentation in front of them so they can give you feedback. This will give you more confidence during the actual talk.

Speaking of confidence, another key is to learn how to express your ideas confidently. This means practice as well, with an example above. But the practice here isn’t restricted to speaking, you need to practice this at every opportunity. You need to practice expressing your ideas not only verbally, but also in written form. You need to be comfortable with the notion of presenting your ideas to people. One thing that can help is to have a like-minded group of friends, the kind you can have deep ongoing conversations with. Or join a debate team in school. Or even try discussing issues with strangers on internet forums (be careful with this one haha). Basically take any opportunity you have to practice expressing your ideas so that you have the confidence to present them to an audience.