Something a bit different. At Fuckup Nights Toronto I told the story of a moment I genuinely messed up — a presentation at a large security conference for a previous employer that went sideways in front of a lot of people.
Why tell this one publicly
Security culture rewards looking infallible, which is exactly how teams end up hiding mistakes. Telling this story publicly is a small argument for the opposite: the people worth working with are the ones who can say what went wrong and what they learned.
What I took from it
Preparation is not the same as rehearsal, and confidence borrowed from expertise doesn't survive contact with a room. I've been a calmer, better-prepared speaker ever since — and a lot more forgiving of people having a bad day on stage.