up announcing Parrado as the event’s
speaker anyway, then waited anxiously
to see if he would actually show up. He
did, of course—and promptly delivered
a speech that utterly captivated the
EDS audience.
“I am happy to be able to share
with people these things I’ve learned,”
Parrado says. “I think at the end of the
day, everyone wants to answer that question—what do they have inside themselves? How would they react in a situation like that? If they have a financial
problem, or a health issue, and then they
hear about this guy who was nothing—a
small, young Uruguayan—who was able
to survive what he survived, maybe they
can learn from my example in their battle. I hope they think, ‘Maybe I can find
the miracle inside myself, too.’”
AIR FORCE FLIGHT 571
WHEN TO THROW
A ‘GRENADE’
Though Parrado’s speaking career formally began with his 1995 speech at
an EDS convention, his first speaking
appearance had come years earlier, at
a gathering of the Young President’s
Association.
“I had prepared some notes but the
way I put them on the podium, I
couldn’t read them,” Parrado says. “So
I couldn’t start. I was paralyzed for
20 or 30 seconds. And then I said to
myself, ‘OK, Nando, you’ve been in
more difficult places than this, so just
start already.”
The first thing that came out of his
mouth? “Hello, I shouldn’t be here
today. I should have been buried on a
mountain 25 years ago.”
Suffice to say, the opening line
caught the audience’s attention. The
speech went amazingly well, as have
most of his others since.
But Parrado says he’s certainly come
a long way as a speaker over the years,
learning the tricks of the trade both by
watching his fellow professionals and
through his own years of experience.
One of the most important things
he’s learned, he says, is how to keep
tabs on his audience’s interest as he
speaks. Even with a story as gripping
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, carrying 45 passengers, crashed in the
Andes Mountains east of Chile on Oct. 13, 1972.
Twelve passengers were killed instantly. Those who survived faced
frightening conditions. Nighttime temperatures dipped to 30 below
zero. They had almost no food, no shelter and only a limited ability to
make fire. They also had no warm clothing. Many of the survivors had suffered severe
injuries, and a few died in the days after the crash.
Days passed without rescue, and, the limited food supplies quickly ran out. The survivors deliberated before agreeing to resort to cannibalism. It was the only way they
could survive.
On October 30, tragedy struck again. As the survivors slept, an avalanche enveloped the plane, burying them in deep, suffocating snow. The avalanche left eight
more dead. In the weeks that followed, two more died from their injuries while
another succumbed to infection.
Finally, on December 12, Parrado set out to find help with two of his fellow survivors, Antonio Vizintín and Roberto Canessa. Parrado. They hiked through some of the
harshest terrain in the world without any climbing gear and only a bit of food.
After 12 days, Parrado and Canessa finally found help. The remaining survivors
were finally rescued on December 22 and December 23.
as his, Parrado knows the minds of
his audience members will wander. So
when he begins to sense a lull in their
attention, he takes action—by, as he
says, “throwing a grenade.”
To jolt his audience, Parrado tosses
in another dramatic turn to his story.
And the audiences comes right back.
“You learn through experience,” he
says. “You learn how to put different
feelings in your audiences and different
times, and when and how to do that.
The whole conference is not going to
be at the same level of interest. I cannot be totally exciting the entire time.
You’re going to have ups and downs.
And I’ve learned to sense that, and
when the time comes, you have to
throw a ‘grenade.’ I’ll tell myself, ‘OK,
Nando, time for a grenade.’”
Tim Hyland has been a
professional writer and editor
for 10 years. His work has
appeared in numerous
publications, including Fast
Company, Philadelphia City Paper and
Philadelphia Life. Hyland lives in
Flourtown, Pa., and can be reached at
timothyhyland@gmail.com.
