MESSAGE #650 I THOUGHT MY FIRST TALK WAS A FLOP!

“I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures, those who make it or those who don’t. I divide the world into learners and non-learners.”
-BENJAMIN BARBER

I’ll never forget my first talk that I gave. It was at Montclair State University with the great Dr. Rob Gilbert to Disney interns. I decided to speak on the topic of goal setting. I spent quite some time preparing for the big day.

Well, Dr. Gilbert introduced me and I started talking about goals. I only spoke for a few minutes when he interrupted me and took over.

I felt bad. I felt like a failure. I felt that there was no hope.

But I didn’t give up. Instead, I thought, “What else could this mean?”

I later learned from Dr. Gilbert, that instead of just providing information, you need to use quotes, incorporate videos, tell stories, and give demonstrations to make your point.

And now, I feel very confident in my speaking abilities.

Instead of having a fixed mindset and thinking I wasn’t born to be a speaker, I had a growth mindset and focused on learning and improving.

That’s the key to reaching peak performance, it doesn’t matter whether you’re playing Bach or playing baseball.


Thanks for reading, and Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there.

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