FINAL STAGE TEXT SPEECH
Do you remember your first public speaking competition? Can you capture the feelings and emotions that went through you at that time? The anxiety, the rush of adrenaline, the sweating palm, the crowds, and the speech that you still didn't memorise completely. But still..you take a deep breath. You convince yourself that everything will be okay, that God is with you, and that the crowd will love you. *change tone..But then, from the deepest chamber of your brain, that deafening voice of doubt ; “Yeah, that's a great idea Ahmad but what if you.....fall down..”.
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*recumbent position* What do you do when you fall? Do you jump right up hoping no one will notice? Or maybe, do some push-ups hoping that people won't take you seriously? Are you more concern with what others would think?...than what you can get from this fall. What must you do when you fall ?..This is the question that we will find out in my speech, The Success of Failure. But first...is this tahi cicak? *gets up
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Thank you to the chairperson, judges, my fellow friends and to the people way in the back. Assalamualaikum to all of you and a very good evening
Ikhwah and Akhawat
Do you think I stayed down...to long? Have you stayed down...to long? Well I had. It was an old story actually. I still remember, I was 13 years old at that time. Fresh from primary school, all geared up for the excitements of high school. So, I decided to participate in a public speaking competition. I was given 6 minute to speak and I ended it in 2 minute. Without saying a word. *turn to a grieving tone, sobbing if possible..I was scared...scared of what other people woud think, scared if I say the wrong words, scared if people would think that I look like Indian (?!). I was so scared that it took me 5 years to ever talk in front of people again. Because you see, nowhere in any human history, an age where men are so obsessed with success. *fast talk*..These days, we got predictive statistics, key performance indexes, stock analysis, customer feedbacks, all for the sake of evaluating success. We even have judges, see *pointing to judges. People have always equate success with youth, energy, confidence, being top of the league, and out-performing others. *slow talk* But, we instill this idea too much until we left no room for failure. People are , in truth, dying for success...1 person commit suicide every 17 seconds, my friend. WHO said that 90% of the cases are caused by depression. Depress of what? Depress of what others would think, afraid of losing respect from people, feeling that he hasn't live up to other's expectations. You know, these are actually reasons unrelated to you at all. That is why the first step to recover from failure is toignore what others say to you. Because you know, there are people outside who doesn't even know you, who will make fun of you, and would like to see you fall. But you have got to realise that in the end, they are just another ...*kick the stage !!(didn't plan to, actually)...obstacle for you to dealt with.
Failure is not an unforgivable sin. In fact, failure help us to open the door to the biggest room in the world ; the room for improvement. There is always a way to overcome our shortcomings. Nevertheless, if you continue to regard failure as a deadend, then you are getting it. COME ON !! Be optimists of your chances, be like Dr. Robert Goddard, a scientist in the 20's, who had this ridiculous idea of flying a device to reach the stars above. He experiments hundreds of time, he calculate and recalculate his equation and when the time comes, he fired up his rocket...pheww *raise hand imitating rocket launching*!!!! His rocket was launched at Auburn, Alabama...*lowers hand imitate landing* and landed on Auburn, Alabama ....The rocket only flew 41 feet !! To add salt, the newspaper's headline on the next day, reads “Moon rocket misses target by 238,799 and a ½ mile”. I don't even know how much is that in kilometer. But what did Dr Goddard thought of his failure? He considers it as a “valuable negative information”. As it turned out, Dr Goddard's invention became the reason we landed on moon. You see, the same thing happened to all other scientist !! Benjamin Franklin commenting on his setbacks, “I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong”. While Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. All I need is one”. These great scientists who invent lightbulbs, spectacles and rockets are not being denial of their failure, instead, far from it, they embrace their failure. They follow the second step of transforming your failure into a success, which is positive thinking. They reform their mindset toward failure. Instead of saying “I had failed”, they said “I have not tried enough”. To them, each unsuccessful effort is a step towards a definite success.
But does the steps to success stops there? You see, all of us, we have a goal in our life. A destination. But what did we do? We go back and forth, we suspend , we procrastinate. “When I have more time, when I have more money, when I finish study, that's what I will do..” But we never take, the first..step...*pause...I took 5 years to finish my step..that final step which is turning my failure into a lesson. I took a long time to learn from it frankly. But now that I have been here, on this stage, and looking back, I am proud that I finally took that next step. Because you see, I wasn't given the talent to talk.(*imitating British accent) “Bloody Hell, I can't even speak in British accent”. But I was given an opportunity and I take it !! *sigh..So were you..what is your next step?..TAKE IT!!..I did not want to look back in my life and say, “ You know, I never tried that public speaking competition but at least I died without being humiliated, LOL *frown*!!”....If that sir, is how you want to live your life, then, I say you are too busy living in your shadows.
Ikhwah and Akhawat
Here me now, (*change into an angry tone) I'm gonna use every opportunity that my God gives to me because my faith teaches me that I am given youth before feeble (old age), health before illness, prosperity before poverty, leisure before occupation, and life before death !!!..*gentle tone...because Islam teaches US that there is such thing as being too late.... My friends from Cairo University, this is our moment. My brothers and sisters from Ain Shams, Azhar, Zaqaziq, Tanta, and Mansoura, our moment is NOW !!! . Chase your dreams, ignore the scorns and thorns that other people threw at us, believe in thyself, pursue that shining light of triumph waiting us at the end of the journey and even if you fall along the road....*fell down.....notice that you still made progress. Now, that is the successful failure !
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