Yow Kia

I remember there was once I attended Bradell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Club Chapter meeting, during the Guest Speaker Series session, a great speaker Pratheep (DTM) was sharing his experience in taking part speech contests. The essence of the sharing was taking part in a contest, it’s not about winning, it’s not about getting a trophy, it’s about what message you left to your audience to bring back home, it’s about the improvement that you have made. I absolutely agree with what he had shared. After all, the main objective that we join Toastmasters Club is to gain SELF-IMPROVEMENT.

Recently, there was a small dispute in my area contest – whether the Champion should be disqualified. And guess what, I was the 1st runner up. By nature, of course, my first reaction was – “YEAH!!” I might have a chance to represent my area for the division contest. The plus point was I was told that the chance was quite high! Haha… Then, I carried out with my script re-written process (Darren LaCroix [2001 world public speaking champion] said a winning speech is not written, it’s RE-WRITTEN) and I had practised the speech two times in front of two different crowds. Until last week, I felt that something was not correct (By the way, my 6th sense is quite accurate one… sometimes…). The contest is coming soon, how come I hadn’t received any official email informing me the outcome of that so-called DISPUTE. I was kind of impatient and SMSed my area governor for clarification. The reply was quite a disappointed one. She didn’t tell me the outcome, but she told me that they were still discussing about this matter. And she told me that even if I’m a stand-by contestant; I still have to prepare my speech. I was like…#$%^&*…. By the way, the feeling of preparing a contest speech as an actual contestant is different from preparing the speech as a standby contestant. Then I thought, there must be some hidden meaning in her words. Yup, I think I got it! She is right! Even though I am just a standby contestant, I still have to prepare my speech WHOLE-HEARTEDLY. I still can learn a lot of things during the script re-written process…

Yesterday, I just got a confirmation from division governor that the Champion was not disqualified. No problem, at least I got a clear answer…

Taking part in a contest is not about winning. It’s about self-improvement. I always remind myself since then… But, actually, the higher level you compete, the different kind of experience you can learn. Since I have no chance to compete in this division contest, I think it would be a great idea to get comments from the WORLD! I’m hungry for self-improvement; I want to be a great speaker! I have uploaded my Area Contest video clip in YouTube. Please leave me your sincere comments…

Tell me at least one point which is SPARKELD, and one point which is STUMBLED.

WHAT’S SPARKLED? WHAT’S STUMBLED? TELL ME NOW…

I expect to receive at least 100 comments… Please forward to your friends as well. Thanks!

p/s: CLICK HERE to compare to my club contest speech. It’s the same topic. But, I’ve modified the scripts.