If I can learn to become a great speaker, anyone can

Speaking in public is in the top 10 list of American fears according to the National Comorbidity Survey of more than 8,000 respondents published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Public speaking makes the top 10 list of American fears as measured by what people search for on the Internet, according to Bill Tancer's book Click. Because early humans who feared dangerous situations were more likely to reproduce, being afraid is thought to be selected for by natural selection. This theory explains why fears of snakes, bugs, heights, water, and sickness are so common because they were dangerous situations that early man faced often in Africa. Scott Berkun in Confessions of a Public Speaker does a brilliant job of linking the fear of public speaking to the way the human brain is designed for maximum survival of early humans. Speaking is a core competency for any physician executive.