Toastmasters speech on Leadership lessons through three personal short stories
How many of you want to go to heaven but don’t want to die? How many of you want to reach the pinnacle of leadership success but are not ready to upgrade your skills? How many of you want to change the world but are not ready to change yourself?
Ladies and Gentlemen – today I would like to leave you with three little personal stories and three powerful mantras for leadership success which have impacted my life in a significant way.
Being Curious – Several years ago I ran a full-fledged IT team as a Project Manager for a large, glamorous IT consulting “sweatshop”. Reaching the office and spending 12-14 hours was a daily struggle and though I was earning well – it did not seem to justify what I was putting in. One day, I got a call from a headhunter who asked me if I wanted to do something different. Being curious, I said “Yes”. He asked me to show up the next day for an interview for an Engineering firm I had never heard the name of, and on top of that I was the first employee on the team. Though the proposition was risky, at that time, I remembered the words my dad once put in my ears – “growth begins outside the boundaries”. I took up the opportunity and never looked back – being the first guy on the team to building a complete IT Center of Excellence. Since I was curious, I ended up bagging the dream opportunity.
Just Jump – Some of you may have heard the story by Dr. David Schwartz that there are two very capable construction workers in our brains. Mr. Yay and Mr. Nay. They both are very efficient at their jobs. Now if you feed Mr. Yay more – it manufactures more and more positive thoughts. It produces reasons why you can, why you are qualified and why you will. On the other hand, if you feed Mr. Nay more – he will manufacture reasons why you are weak, why you can’t and why you won’t.
Many years ago, there was a girl I liked in my school. She was pretty – I was not. She was an extrovert – I was shy. She was confident but I was miserable. It was a match made in heaven. Asking her out was the equivalent of jumping from the tallest mountain for me. The dilemma was – “what if she said NO”. But one day I listened to Mr. Yay – picked up the phone and I presented my first Toastmasters Ice Breaker without having heard of Toastmasters ever before. She said “NO” – but it helped me conquer my biggest fear after which I was never afraid of anything again.
Do more, not less – When I applied for the Master’s program at a university in the USA – my parents paid all my fees. It was a huge cost and a huge ask for me from my parents and when I reached the campus – there was intense competition for whatever few campus jobs existed, and everyone was scrambling to beat the other ones in the race. There were around 40 professors in the School of Management Studies, and I started to send long personalized emails to them one by one about why they should hire me. After about 39 email applications, I ran out of patience and almost quit; but I put in some more effort and went all the way and submitted the job application to the 40th Professor as well. It was the 40th professor who ended up giving me a research assistant job and a full tuition fee waiver.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Thomas Edison failed more than 1000 times before he invented the light bulb. Had he stopped at the 1000th attempt, you and I would still be sitting in dark. Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he invented the first affordable car. Had he stopped at the 4th attempt, we would all be riding horses. Elon Musk failed three times before launching the massively successful Falcon rocket. Because of his persistent efforts, we may one-day commute to-and-fro from Mars.
So, friends – when you try – try all the way – and if you feel like giving up next time, I urge you to walk one extra mile, work one extra day, stretch one extra hour and you will be amazed at what happens next on your journey to leadership success.
