The Best Talk till now - Dhananjaya J Hettiarachchi

" Dude, even if you are not a contestant, you need to go and hear this guy out" - one of my TM friend remarked. I was still sulking over the defeat at the Area Level Contest - I had the script, i had the delivery Sigh.. Sadly it didn't work out. 

I do, however, make it a point of attending contests as it is a true indicator of the level of the speakers you are competing with. More often, people make the mistake of attending their own club's session. It gives you such a parochial view on what the actual level is. Attending the Division Level was a wise decision. 

The highlight of the event was the one i had come for. A  talk by Dhananjaya J Hettiarachchi. It would be a shame to not verbatim his words here: 

1. Stop wishing and start wanting to become a great speaker. Everyone wish to become a great speaker, but when you align your action to your thought, you’ll start wanting to and will surely transform yourself.

2. Don’t have just a dream. Have a purpose. Because when you just work on a dream, you’ll easily get burnout when you fail at it. When you have a purpose, you’ll not stop at your goals and continue to set new benchmarks regardless of the outcomes.

3. “Who is your daddy?” – I refer to here the mentors(both genders). As you know, Dad’s are always the first person who support us regardless our success or failure. They push us and make us to come out of our comfort zones.  Hence surround yourself with daddy’s (both genders), rather than Venture Capitalists (who give-up on you, when you fail and only prefer to be with you when you are successful). Are you surrounded with daddy’s or VC’s?.

4. Don’t see your fellow competitors as your competitors, see them as your contemporaries. 

5. Be a better person, before you become a better speaker. If your life has never experienced tragic moments, you have no material. Take calculated risks and keep transforming yourself as better person every day.

6.  Never Give-up! Practice, Perseverance is the key to becoming a great personality. Magic is given to people who have never given UP! Never give upon your dreams and keep working on it passionately.