Most people (56.8%) around the world identify as introverts<\/a>, according to a 2020 study from The Myers-Briggs Company<\/a>. Those with an introverted personality<\/a> are often reflective and self-aware, prefer to write rather than speak and feel tired after being in a crowd.<\/p>\n Naturally, many introverts aren’t big fans of public speaking<\/a>. Addressing an audience might be an inevitable part of professional life, but the average introvert<\/a> probably isn’t clamoring to get in front of a group.<\/p>\n Related: I Work With Warren Buffett. He’s Probably the Smartest Person in the World \u2014 Here’s the Best Advice He’s Given Me. <\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Even the most successful business leaders<\/a> in the world aren’t immune to stage fright.<\/p>\n Warren Buffett<\/a>, the 94-year-old billionaire chairman and CEO of conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway, considers himself an introvert<\/a>. In his biography The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life<\/i><\/a> by Alice Schroeder, he admits that speaking in front of a crowd used to make him physically ill.<\/p>\n “I was terrified of public speaking,” Buffett says. “You can’t believe what I was like if I had to give a talk. I was so terrified that I just couldn’t do it. I would throw up. In fact, I arranged my life so that I never had to get up in front of anybody.”<\/p>\n Related: In Leadership, Introversion Is Underrated \u2014 and Warren Buffett and Bill Gates Share How They Use It to Their Advantage.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n After Buffett<\/a> graduated from Columbia Business School, where he studied under investor Benjamin Graham, he returned to Omaha, Nebraska. There, he saw an advertisement for a public speaking course using the Dale Carnegie method.<\/p>\n Buffett<\/a> was familiar with Carnegie’s 1936 self-help book How to Win Friends & Influence People<\/i><\/a>, and he’d even signed up for a Carnegie public speaking class in New York \u2014 before he backed out and stopped payment on the $100 check.<\/p>\n Buffett decided to give the course another chance in Omaha.<\/p>\n “I took a hundred bucks in cash and gave it to Wally Keenan, the instructor, and said, ‘Take it before I change my mind,'” he recalls in The Snowball<\/i>.<\/p>\n Related: 5 Mega-Successful Entrepreneurs Who Are Introverts<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n In Keenan’s class at Omaha’s Rome Hotel, Buffett<\/a> discovered the key to conquering his public speaking fears.<\/p>\n “The way it works is that you<\/b> learn to get out of yourself<\/b>,” Buffett explains. “I mean, why should you be able to talk alone with somebody five minutes before and then freeze in front of a group? So they teach you the psychological tricks to overcome this. Some of it is just practice<\/a> \u2014 just doing it and practicing.”<\/p>\n Practicing under the same conditions in which you’ll speak or otherwise perform can help promote success in high-pressure situations, Sian Beilock, cognitive scientist and current president of Dartmouth College, told <\/a>Entrepreneur<\/a> <\/i>in 2022.<\/p>\n Related: Steve Jobs’ Public Speaking Power Moves Remain Just as Relevant Today, 13 Years After His Final Keynote at the Apple Developers Conference<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Additionally, it can help to take a step back as the event draws near, according to Beilock. Then, during the high-stakes moment, she suggests interpreting physiological responses positively; for example, consider sweaty palms or a racing heart signs of excitement rather than anxiety.<\/p>\n “And it worked,” Buffett<\/a> says of the psychological techniques he learned in his public speaking class many decades ago. “That’s the most important degree that I have.”<\/p>\n Buffett<\/a>‘s certification of completion for the Carnegie course, dated January 1952, hangs above the sofa in his office, according to Schroeder’s account.<\/p>\n Related: I Spent a Day Living Like Billionaire Warren Buffett. Here’s What Happened.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Now, Buffett<\/a> stands in front of an audience of 40,000<\/a> at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting, where attendees line up hours before the event to listen to the Oracle of Omaha speak.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.entrepreneur.com\/images\/misc\/1728313963_warren-buffett-introvert-73562040.jpg?width=1000\")
Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images. Warren Buffett. <\/sup><\/p>\n