Toastmasters International Speech Contest Version
(Based on my recent book entitled: “W.E.B. Keynote Address – Running Life’s Race.”)
By Bill Baxter, DTM
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During the first fifteen years of my life, while I was growing up in Anaheim, CA; I attended Trident Junior High School, where I set the class record for the 50-yard Dash, with a time of 6.3 seconds. So, I decided to go out for the 8th Grade Track Team. I remember the day of a track meet where I was scheduled to run the 220-yard dash. I was so anxious to get into those starting blocks and start the race, I forgot to take off my blasted sweat-tops. There was a Santa Ana wind blowing that day! For those of you who never been to Southern California, or lived there, a Santa Ana Wind is a hot-dry wind that blows off the Mojave Desert, and gets up to gusts of 50 to 60 mph. When the starter gun went off, and I pushed off those starting blocks into the Santa Ana wind, it created a parachute effect! So there I was, running down the track like a dang fool in a parachute, with air resistant currents blowing up my front, my back, and both of my arm pits, making it impossible for me to catch up with my fellow competitors. To say that I came in dead last is an under-statement. This was not the proudest moment in my life, but there as a very important life-lesson to be learned there, which has had a strong impact on my life.
Fellow Toastmasters, honored guests and dignitaries:
Life is a race we all run to reach our goals and our destiny. The “Sweat-tops” in my story represent the very things that often slow us down, and keep us from reaching our goals. These could be Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities, nay-sayers, past failures, and even the fear of repeated failures. Let me tell you about a famous person who lived in the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century. Thomas Alva Edison had dyslexia, which is a Developmental Disability which affects one’s ability to read and write. When he was a child, one of his teachers said that he was completely addled (meaning scatter-brained)! Can you imagine what a negative effect that can have on a kid growing up if he takes that to heart? Whoa! Well if Thomas Alva Edison had taken what his teacher said to heart, we all would be having our Toastmaster Meetings by candlelight and kerosene lamps! How many times did Thomas Edison fail before he invented the electric light bulb? Last I checked the annals of history, it was over 5000 times. But, Edison persevered, He not only was successful in inventing the electric light bulb, but over 1000 patents, which included the phonograph, the mimeograph and the cinemascope. He was even credited for having built and designed America’s first film studio, the Black Maria, in 1893. Thomas Alva Edison went above and beyond his disabilities, his nay-saying teacher, and his past failures, as he threw off his sweat-tops, and ran his race with perseverance and endurance, and he crossed that finish line as America’s Greatest Inventor.
And then there were others, like Dr. Samuel Johnson, Alexander Graham Bell, Howard Hughes, the Aviator; and Albert Einstein. All of these men had developmental disabilities; but like Edison, none of these men let their disabilities detour them from being successful and reaching their goals.
What about you? What goals and objectives are you trying to achieve, and what things might be slowing you down? Could they be Developmental Disabilities? Nay-sayers? Past failures and the fear of repeated failure? My advice to you is to follow in the foot-steps and examples of Thomas Edison and Dr. Johnson, and throw off your sweat-tops! Keep a fast steady pace towards reaching you goals and destinies as you run the race with perseverance and endurance! Go above and beyond, and cross that finish line!
Mr./Madame Contest Chair.
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This speech took Second Place in the Toastmasters Area S-4 International Speech Contest (District 26) on March 7, 2020.
W.E.B. Blog. 