Manifesto

photo credit: Janex & Alba

manifesto

Noun
1. A public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially that of a political party

The CEO of our company will be delivering his manifesto today.

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It is fortunate that the Olympics are occurring the same week, because it allows us to draw many parallels with the championship. Similar to competitors in the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking, Olympic athletes will spend years trying to qualify at home, scoring in the top positions in semifinals, and attempting to win Olympic glory. However, like in all areas of life, they will at some point fail. It is inevitable, but it is not the failure that we dwell upon, but what that failure teaches us about winning that is important.

I remember losing my area competition this year. Though I had elements of a great speech, I did not connect with the audience. I believed that I was so good, that I didn’t need to worry about the connection. It would just work because I had prepared more than anyone else. WOW, was I wrong.

I learned a lesson that I would not have learned if I had not lost. If I had not failed, I wouldn’t have realized that intellectualism doesn’t connect, that most people like Chicken Soup for The Soul themed stories, and that it’s about the audience…its all about the audience. Your message is not as important as you think.

Sometimes I think that we diehard competitors get so wrapped up in the technical details of speech writing and delivery that we forget what really matters; our energy, our delivery, and our wardrobe are perfect but we left out something…the message. It is only then through failure, that we feel the pain of losing, allow it to temper our resolve, and don’t give up until we have won it all.

Keep losing, keep failing, and above all else…keep trying.

Final Results of the 2008 World Champion of Public Speaking:

LaShunda Rundles
Region 3 · District 50 · Texas, USA

Second Place
K. Loghandran
DNAR District 51 · Malaysia

Third Place
Katherine Morrison
Region 7 · District 31 · Massachusetts, USA

Vikas Jhingran (Region VII, District 31)

2nd Place Rory Vaden (Region V)

3rd Place Mark Hunter (Australia)

Next year I expect to see my name somewhere in that list.