It was 1963 and I had fallen in love with ping pong.  I knew I was pretty good because I could hold the table by winning one match after the next and thus found myself playing older kids.  This was 4H camp at the eastern end of Long Island and we played outdoors subject to the glare of the sun and the vagaries of the wind.  The table top was marred from use and if my memory serves me right, one corner had a slight bow.  Anyway, I was having a great afternoon and my serve was on.  A skinny, pimple faced kid walked up to the table and slowly picked up the racket and quickly put me away.  He knew the Pause.

We came became friendly after the match and as time went on I was able to play him competitively but his long arms and speed were tough to beat.  One day, he told me, "David, you got no pause!"  I would have corrected his grammar, in respect to my mother's drumming, but I was much too interested in hearing what he had to say.

"The Pause," he said, was not just any ordinary moment in time.  It was that exact moment before contact with the ball was made.  It was the precise fraction of a second… perhaps a mille-second that you restrained your energy- you held back!  And then you let go.  It was this "holding back", this pause, that allowed the transference of far greater energy to the ball, sending it rocketing away from the face of the racket at speeds that  your opponent  could never anticipate.

I never forgot the "Pause."  Over the years, I recognized the Pause in use by many athletes.  It clearly wasn't my secret alone.  The "Pause" was everywhere.  Golfers had it.  Tennis players, too.  Quarterbacks knew it well.  But it would be over a decade before I saw it in use in business by a great lawyer, a negotiator.  I'll tell that story another time.  There is a more important point I want to make this time… Pause!

Find the "Pause" in your own sales presentations and in discussions and dialogues you have with associates.  Before answering a question, pause and reflect.  Before making a closing offer – "Pause." Experiment with your own Pause.  Hold it a drop longer than you normally would, till you feel the void, till there is an awkward vacuum looking to be filled.  Watch as people at the table lean forward to hear what is going to be said to fill the void.

The Pause is powerful.