If you are going to make a difference in this world and get things done on a larger scale than if you just did everything yourself, you will have to get good at communicating with others. All types of communication are important too, not just being able to talk to another person. If you have good verbal communication skills, but poor written communication skills then you will be severely limited on the things you can get done and the people you can influence in today's world of email, books, blogs, text messages, and tweets. If you are good at written communication, but not very good at verbal communication, you will be able to write great emails and reports, but when it comes time for you to preseent those reports or describe to someone what you want done, it'll be more than a simple challenge, it will be much more difficult for you to get done what you want to accomplish
I said before that all types of communication are important, this also includes non-verbal communication (body language) as well as other aspects of verbal communication that aren't normally thought about by most people. The way you stand, sit, walk, and breathe; the way your facial expressions show what you are feeling as you talk, your hand movements, tone of voice, inflection, volume (loud or soft); the pace of your speech, and the words you use (conversational or professional, jargon, technical words, slang, profanity, etc.) all effect how a person perceives what you are trying to communicate to them.
You need to consciously pay attention to how well you communicate verbally and in written communication, and practice it in order to get better at it,...and getting better at it is something that is absolutely necessary if you are planning on living a successful life in which you will need to communicate with and influence many people.
Think about it. Say you want to build a house for instance. Let's just say you already know everything necessary in order to build a house from the concrete foundation, to the wood framing, electical and plumbing work, drywall and masonry, painting, carpeting, heating and ventilation, etc. If you want to build one, you will need to either build it yourself or communicate with others to have them help you build it or build the whole thing for you. If you have to rely only on yourself in order to build it, it'll take you a heck of a long time, and will be very difficult or even almost impossible when it comes time to do things that require more than one person working simultaneously to do. But if you can communicate to others what you want done and how it should be done, then you can build a house in probably a couple of weeks easily! In order to communicate effectively what you want done, you will need to convey to the contractors what you want them to do and how much they will be paid for their work. You need to make sure they know what needs to be done which means you will not only have to talk to them, but also provide written documentation, drawings, and schematics. You also need to be able to answer their questions when questions arise or when situations or cirumstances change. This requires both verbal and written communication, and the better you are at each one, the more efficiently, quickly, and cheaply the house can be built.
This applies to anything you want to do whether it's something as simple as asking someone to fax a letter or send an email for you, something as complicated as building a house, or something even more complicated like a business! Get good at it, it's important!
