24/07/2014

Speak & Deliver in Kuala Lumpur

A Public Speaking Blog For the Speaking Public: Speak & Deliver in Kuala Lumpur:

Rich Hopkins, been there already 7 times, this year will be different for him.

"91 of us are going to be competing Thursday, and only 9 will advance to the Finals, and out of them, only 1 will crowned World Champion. The rest will be slightly celebrated by their friends and family, and even their local districts - but the overall feeling will be disappointment for most, and a feeling of being a downright 'loser' for others.

Nevermind that all of them will have won their District Contests, and 8 of the final 9 can say they made it to the Finals, and two of them can even say they finished in the top 3 in the WORLD. They will be branded by some, and perhaps by themselves, as LOSERS."


NOT ME. Not this year. There's a whole movie out there where I let myself be branded as a 'loser' in this competition - albeit a loser who never gives up. This year, that's just not going to happen."


Read the original. Most important, this year, he decided to concentrate not on winning but on delivering his message, and having done it feel a winner together with 30 ooo others. As it should be!


16/07/2014

Optimism

Card from 1977 May

That was printed as an expression of optimism from me. Just finished my PhD and was between those two works.

Yes, I have been researcher at CNRS of Gif for 4 years,
but my contract was not renewed any more.

Yes, I have been promised a year contract as Visiting Fellow at NIH in Bethesda, but the official paper needed for the visa did not arrive yet.

Finally, last minute it did arrive, and I did work there for three years, as each year I got yet another year contract.

It was not easy, as for 7 years, my next year work was not assured and I had to be very optimist to believe it will work out at the end and I will get the next contract.

Till, 1980, when it did not. I had to go back to France, look for work and, finally, all my life changed and from Research Chemist I become Company Founder and leader and Apple products importer and distributor, in the middle of the most exciting years of the growing personal computer industry.

It is great to be optimist and not worry too much of the future, even if it is not always easy to do so, when you are head of the family as I was. And, when it does not go as you expect, it can happen, as it did with me that something new wonderful waits for you at the end of one path of the tunnel.