Mark Bezos: A Life Lesson from a Volunteer Firefighter “If you have something to give, give it now” stated Mark Bezos, a volunteer firefighter and head of development for Robin Hood; a non-profit company helping to fight poverty. After his first job as a volunteer firefighter he learned an important lesson, of which he shared through his inspiring, well-rehearsed Ted Talk, that caught the audience's attention.
Bezos spoke about his experience at his first fire, where he was the second volunteer on the scene. He raced to the captain to get his assignment and found him with the homeowner, who was standing in the rain with an umbrella, pajamas, and no shoes. The captain waved to Bezos, and said "Bezos, I need you to go into the house. I need you to go upstairs, past the fire, and I need you to get this woman a pair of shoes." Shocked by his pity assignment, and envious of his …show more content…
However, the absence of fact seamed worked in this case as the talk was a personal story, and he rightly used the pathos technique to emotionally draw listeners into the presentation. Bezos spoke about how the homeowner must be having one of the worst days of her life: “she was standing outside in the pouring rain, under an umbrella, in her pajamas, barefoot, while her house was in flames.” This makes the audience feel sorry for the unfortunate circumstance of the homeowner, and creates a clear picture of her sorrow. He also, uses the same technique when talking about the despair of getting to the scene a whole 5 seconds after “Lex Luthor”, his nemesis, making the audience feel sorry for him. Lastly, Bezos also used the ethos technique within his presentation, as since he is a firefighter (an authority figure), the audience finds his story easily credible. Overall, I feel his use of the pathos and ethos techniques worked well in his talk, even though it lacked factual integrity
Bezos spoke about his experience at his first fire, where he was the second volunteer on the scene. He raced to the captain to get his assignment and found him with the homeowner, who was standing in the rain with an umbrella, pajamas, and no shoes. The captain waved to Bezos, and said "Bezos, I need you to go into the house. I need you to go upstairs, past the fire, and I need you to get this woman a pair of shoes." Shocked by his pity assignment, and envious of his …show more content…
However, the absence of fact seamed worked in this case as the talk was a personal story, and he rightly used the pathos technique to emotionally draw listeners into the presentation. Bezos spoke about how the homeowner must be having one of the worst days of her life: “she was standing outside in the pouring rain, under an umbrella, in her pajamas, barefoot, while her house was in flames.” This makes the audience feel sorry for the unfortunate circumstance of the homeowner, and creates a clear picture of her sorrow. He also, uses the same technique when talking about the despair of getting to the scene a whole 5 seconds after “Lex Luthor”, his nemesis, making the audience feel sorry for him. Lastly, Bezos also used the ethos technique within his presentation, as since he is a firefighter (an authority figure), the audience finds his story easily credible. Overall, I feel his use of the pathos and ethos techniques worked well in his talk, even though it lacked factual integrity