About the Book

Book Description

Minutes of Magic is a collection of outstanding 4-minute speech transcripts, delivered by graduate students from top tier institutions such as Harvard University, Tufts University, The Indian School of Business, and more. Each speech was delivered in one of Professor Mihir Mankad’s “Arts of Communication” courses, and he has personally curated this list. The speeches represent the personal philosophies of some of the brightest young minds and aspiring leaders of our time.

This compilation of real-life speeches provides inspiration to triumph through tough times with gratitude and joy, illustrates the power of stories shared through the spoken word, and delivers a benchmark for speechwriting for a variety of contexts around creating impact in a short amount of time. The lessons and community reflections crystalize the joy of public speaking.

About the Author

As a Professor of Practice, Mihir Mankad’s time is focused primarily on teaching students and coaching executives. Mankad has grown his course on The Arts of Communication, which originated at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, into a global brand, inspiring students and educating leaders around the world.  Mankad travels extensively to teach a large number of courses of varying lengths at institutions and organizations around the world. 

Mankad also leverages his uniquely diverse background to bring in a practical approach to his courses. Prior to teaching, he was an acclaimed national television anchor in India, a leader of a major global nonprofit organization, and a management consultant at reputed firms like McKinsey (Mumbai) and Bain (San Francisco). His education includes a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Economics from Stanford University, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management (Dean’s Honors List), and a mid-career MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Mason Fellow and a John Kenneth Galbraith Presidential Scholar.

Finally, and relevantly, Mankad has been passionate about his teaching, and providing a safe and trustworthy platform for students of varying backgrounds to share their thoughts, ideas and stories freely. This has resulted in the formation of a powerful community of alums, who are part of various social media groups, and often serve as ambassadors of the power of communication within their own organizations and communities.

About the Speeches

Authors of the speeches hail from the aforementioned universities, and the commonality for all of these speeches is that each was originally delivered in the renowned and impactful course on public speaking, entitled The Arts of Communication taught by Professor Mihir Mankad. Most were recreated for a larger public audience in a TED-style event called “Faces of Community.”

Almost 40 sections of this course have been offered, to date. Within these course offerings, 3,000 speeches have been delivered by almost 2,000 students from institutions of global repute. This book is a collection of 80 speeches that created a significant impact in these classes, with many more available for future publications. All 80 speakers have consented to have their speeches featured in this project.

Grouped by themes, these speeches range from topics on living mindfully, overcoming obstacles, learning from grief, and many more. Peppered throughout the speeches are short outtake sections of Mihir Mankad’s top tips on speaking for maximum impact. 

10 Reasons to Read

This project maintains a unique identity and provides an engaging learning experience for a number of reasons.

  1. It showcases powerful examples of writing intended to be heard (vs. only to be read).

  2. It delivers pieces that are concise and precise. Four minutes to recite, and only two to read. Digestible for today’s attention-starved audience.

  3. It demonstrates excellence that a rigorous and reputed academic program demands, while maintaining a few natural imperfections of a live performance.

  4. It represents the voices of talented and motivated young people, most aspiring leaders. Understanding the thinking of this demographic on a range of subjects can be enlightening.

  5. It covers a good number of personal, and often “heavy” topics, allowing for powerful learning through osmosis. While books abound on how to win audiences through inspirational content, much rarer is the availability of a set of such honest, personal stories.

  6. Short Lessons are provided by Professor Mankad that provide context for the learnings that speakers attempted to incorporate.

  7. Speeches are reinforced by reflections from a small group of speakers and course alums that shed light on how and why a unique community was formed through a space of sharing personal ideas and stories, and also provide some food-for-thought “nuggets” from scholars and enthusiasts of spoken communication.

  8. Through the accompanying website, this project becomes visual with images of the speaker, accompanying videos of several of the speeches in the book, an upcoming podcast, and further opportunities for engagement.

  9. This is a constantly evolving project, with hundreds of excellent speeches still on deck for future publications and courses scheduled and available for new emerging leaders and artful communicators.

  10. At a time when the world is reeling in the wake of a global pandemic crisis, these speeches serve as a beacon of hope and strength, and play their small role in building resilience and cultivating healing in the nation and world. 

Expected Use

These pieces can be studied as benchmarks for speechwriting in a variety of contexts, ranging from inspirational and informative talks, to reframes and learning from adversity. They showcase the unique and personal philosophies of young men and women, providing a new lens to life. They also serve as high quality learning pieces around creating impact in a short amount of time. Indeed, one can continually push to learn how content can be packaged in creative and diverse ways to leave a mark in four minutes. 

These speeches will inspire, motivate, persuade, and stir their readers. They cut across various themes and provide profound perspectives on a range of topics for which conventional coaching is not available. Aspiring speakers must experience and immerse themselves in this world to move their own needle as a communicator and grow in winning hearts and minds. 

Inspiration

This project is inspired by a number of recent successful initiatives, such as Chicken Soup For the Soul and This I Believe on personal philosophies of famous and everyday people, and even the Humans Of New York project collating pictures and short stories on individuals from varied backgrounds. It takes some powerful features from each of these initiatives, yet maintains its own unique identity and opportunities for impact.