I've been bad at updating with my Toastmaster speeches - expect speeches 2-5 to show up eventually. In the meantime, here's my speech #6. This module is about vocal variety - about pitch and tone and pauses. I think I did a pretty good job of that. I need a bit more volume adjustment (someone suggested I whisper at certain parts... or feign a whisper at least), but otherwise I think I did well with that aspect of the speech. I got a lot of positive comments on my pauses, which accords with my own interpretation of my abilities. I think I do pauses very well. I also got some positive comments on my pitch during a few brief moments of levity.
Things to work on include my hand gestures, awareness that I often (almost always) use the word "So..." to introduce a speech or topic, and my nervousness as I approach the podium. A pretty constant refrain, in other words. I'm really not sure what I can do to deal with the nervousness, because I'm rarely all that nervous once I'm actually speaking. Also, for the second speech in a row I've gone past the 7 minute mark, which is the red light moment. I'm still within the 30 second grace period, and this time I managed to finish without cutting anything, but I need to do a better job of organizing the speech to fit my time constraint. One evaluator, who otherwise really liked the speech, said I could have slowed down just a tiny little bit, but had I done so, I would have gone over time. Food for thought in any case as I write the speech.
In terms of the content, I think I hit some really strong notes. I like the speech itself for the most part, though my introduction is a bit weak. The main evaluator commented that she would have liked a more structured intro that lays out where I'm going with the speech exactly. I feel like I did actually do that, but maybe in my delivery I missed something, or didn't emphasize that enough. I think the message is very strong, though I am concerned that all of my speeches kind of circle around the twin themes of recognizing priveledge and personal development. I may go somewhere completely different for speech #7. I have a month to figure it out.
The content of my speech is below. As always, what I have here does not fully represent what was delivered. I typically go off-track for about 25% of my speech, improvising different word structures, word usage, or even themes during the actual delivery. I find this helps me stay a lot more natural, and helps me avoid the use of notes. That being said, the gist of what I delivered is here.
Luck: It's A Baseball Metaphor
How do we achieve success? Success in business, in pleasure, or in play. Most people agree that there are two components - luck; that random chance that something good goes your way, outside of your control... and merit; what you bring to the table on your own, what you control.
I think most of us recognize that you can't be successful without some measure of luck. Stanford University did a study where they asked incoming students to reflect on how luck played a part getting into Stanford, and most of them had no problem identifying their good fortune. They commented on things like being born into a family with resources, having a teacher reach out to help them when they were younger.
To paraphrase President Obama:
There are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you're successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.
It's not enough to have merit, in other words - success requires luck too.
So I think we can all agree that merit and luck are both important. But the real question is, which one is more important? This is a big question, because it changes how you relate to others. If success is mostly based on merit, that means people who lack success must lack merit.
I used to think that merit was more important than luck.
I recognised that I was lucky to be born in Canada to a middle class, university educated family.
I recognised that I was lucky to be male, and white, and straight.
I even recognised that I was lucky to be taller than average, because for men height correlates pretty well to success.
But fundamentally I thought that it was my work ethic and my smarts that were the foundation of any success that I found. I put in my time and thus created my own luck.
My thoughts on this have changed. Through reading and personal development I recently had a revelation, which I'll get to in a little bit.
Let me talk about myself for a minute. I'm quick on the uptake, I'm adaptable, I'm articulate. I learn new systems and processes very quickly and I can communicate my understanding of them very well. This is what I define as intelligence, and luckily for me this is what a lot of people define as intelligence. Being smart in this particular way is valued, right here and right now.
But go back a couple thousand years, before we had such easy access to information, and it isn't your ability to parse but your ability to retain information that would have been more important. And I'm not great at retaining information. In that world smart is defined in a different way, and suddenly I'm not smart.
The same thing can be said of my work ethic. Right here and right now a strong work ethic is highly prized, above and beyond most other qualities, but in other cultures, that's not neccesarily the case. In other cultures social awareness, or the ability to follow orders; those are important. In those cultures my work ethic doesn't matter, and I wouldn't do as well.
My revelation in other words is that I'm not only lucky for having been born with the characteristics that I have, but that I am lucky to exist in a world where those characteristics are valued.
So, you're asking yourself, why does this matter? What difference does it make if you think luck is more important than success? It matters because when you recognize and that everything underlying your success is based on luck, it becomes incredibly important to be humble. Not in ignoring your skills or abilities, but in refusing to assume that others who lack success therefore lack quality. Recognize that anyone who finds success owes a debt, a luck debt, to everyone who doesn't, because the biggest difference between success and failure is just luck.
I'm going to bring it back to the title of this speech, and leave you with a metaphor that really resonates with me:
Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.
Don't be that person. Thank you.
