Toastmasters International District 51 Serving members in
Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia
TESTIMONIALS - THE AMAZING JOURNEY OF TOASTMASTERS FROM
DISTRICT 51
The Failure of The Art of Failure
3 weeks ago, I put up an ambitious attempt on a speech with a
purpose to inspire my audience titled "The Art of Failure".
To my horror, it turned out to be a great sarcasm!! I was
supposed to inspire my audience, to give them the courage not to
fear failure, but I displayed something exactly the opposite. I
showed to them a real-life failure, there and then. My speech
about "The Art of Failure" was a total FAILURE.
Half-way through the speech, I suddenly got nervous and
forgotten all the rest of my speech. Then I just dragged and
dragged about whatever examples of failures of famous people
like Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln and whatever it was until I
see the green light was on, meaning 5 minutes had passed. Then I
just simply wrapped up my speech and quickly get myself off the
lectern.
That was the most embarrassing moment I'd ever experienced since
I join Toastmasters 6 months ago. The worst part of it was -- my
sisters were there. For almost 20 years, I've so successfully
portrayed myself as a role model of all my siblings (I'm the
eldest) with a lot of effort, and always been the one with
highest authority and an image of Sharene the Superior Super
Sister. BUT that night, my Tower of Confidence collapsed in just
a twinkling of an eye. Thanks to my own effort, I lost all my
self-esteem, totally.
But what I'd learnt after the fall of my Superior Kingdom was
just unbelievable. My evaluator, Clement tried his best to
encourage and motivate me. My audience, all very nice
Toastmasters and guests came to me one by one to encourage me,
saying that it was a good informative one!! If I was somewhere
outside Toastmasters, the audience would had shooed or booed me
off at my face. How was I touched!! I strongly felt the
sincerity and support of all of the Toastmasters that can never
be found anywhere else in this era of Kiasu!
This time, I had lost my superiority but I gained something much
more valuable -- humility (despite being confident). Sharene,
always bear that in mind.
Sharene Goh,
VPE, Bagan Ajam Toastmasters Club
Do
You Have A Simply Amazing Testimonial To Share?
As a
Toastmaster, I'm sure most of us have undergone a simply
amazing journey of self discovery and also benefited
immensely from the education program of this great
organization. If you have a good story to share on how
Toastmasters has transformed you to become a better person,
please write to me at district51web@gmail.com together with
your photo. I'm sure your story would inspire more people to
be a Simply Amazing Toastmaster - Clement Pang, DTM
(District 51 Webmaster 2006/2007)
