Listen Openly

"OK, the next thing that we have to do is very tricky and sometimes difficult, but when you are listening to criticism, you must listen openly. And what that means is that you are sincerely, truly going to listen to what the person has to say, that you have not already made assessment and adjustments; well, they don't know what they're talking about, well, they're just an idiot, well, they're stupid anyway. No, openly welcome and listen to what they have to say. Now, you may choose later on to throw it out, but be willing to listen openly, because if you don't listen openly, what you do is you run a big risk of missing something that could possibly be very valuable information to you, that could make you better. And especially when we're talking about public speaking, public speaking is such an ego thing, that's it's hard to listen, it's hard to listen openly to criticism. But that's the best way for you to find out potential things that you could improve upon."