I made a mistake

 

Instead of finishing my TEDx talk by asking:

How many states of matter are there in nature?

 

I asked something along the lines of:

How many nature states are there in nature?

 

After my talk, nobody mentioned the mistake. Probably none (or only some) noticed.

This included me – until the video came out.

 

So how come the audience understood and answered the question?

 

First of all, let’s get one thing straight and call these things what they are – not mistakes, but “mistakes”.

 

Mispronunciations, using not the most ideal word, repeating yourself… all a very normal part of any conversation.

And public speaking is just one type of conversation.

 

So as long as you are giving the audience something of value, keeping them interested and engaged, they will not even notice those “mistakes”.

Or if they do, they will not care.

 

During my talk, the audience was able to understand my question because they had the context, the big picture.

And that is what matters.

 

What does not matter is having a perfect presentation, in the sense that you say everything perfectly, regardless of whether the audience gets anything out of it.

There is no growth in perfection and, honestly, no need for it.

Because if your audience doesn’t care, why should you?

 

Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuOJlU9YjO8

(If you are not a Slovenian speaker and watch the video with English subtitles, you will not find the “mistake” as I “cleverly” corrected it 😄)