I used to live in a country on the other side of the world – actually it was Brazil in the old  days. My teenage son was at school there, and because of him I was introduced to debating competitions. The teams had  a short time to make their points and the expert debaters managed to pack an unbelievable number of words, and many eloquent gestures, into a very short time.  It was like watching on fast forward a recording of someone who was trying to exercise their way to losing weight. Considering that they drew lots for which side they would argue,  I was amazed by the passion with which they debated the motions.  In one competition, whose topic was the death penalty, the two teams had to switch sides half way through and argue the opposite case.  Life or death argued with the same passion.  “How” I asked a friend of mine “can they argue both sides of such controversial subject without showing any conscience?” “You foreigners don’t understand,” he replied, “most of the team are training to be lawyers, and it’s not convenient for a lawyer to have a conscience.”  True enough, and not only in Brazil!

The older brothers of the debaters, the practicing lawyers, had very different styles. Of course they were not under time pressure. The judge and jury were trapped, a captive audience, and it showed. With the lawyers there was no fast forward, it was more like slow motion. Resounding phrase followed resounding phrase, accompanied by flowing gestures accompanied by flowing robes that seemed to float in the air. Sometimes the action stopped completely as the lawyer made a dramatic pause, and the jury waited tensely for what seemed like minutes for him to produce his next telling point.

So that’s the secret of success. Learn to go fast, go slow, pause dramatically. Forget what you believe: Argue for life and death with equal passion.

Isn’t it an odd world that we live in?