Failure is Temporary
Friday, January 18th, 2008Failing is a natural part of life that everybody experiences. As people grow, mature, and branch out they inevitably run into circumstances that test their will and guts. In order to overcome failure you must realize that failure is a temporary condition. Nothing more and nothing less. Follow along with me as I tell a personal story about facing failure in speech contests. Enjoy 
November 2006 Area Humorous Speech Contest
My first attempt at bringing home first place in a speech contest was in November of 2006. All the details are still crystal clear in my mind. It was a cool, clean, and crisp Saturday morning. I was heading off to represent my club in the Area Humorous Speech Contest. I was on cloud 9 when I arrived. By the time I left I was disgusted and dejected.
3 people were competing that day. A heavy set man around the age of 30, a petite older woman around the age of 50, and myself. We were all there for the same reason: crush the competition and move on to the division level.
Competition makes me feel alive so I was pumped and ready to go. I was fully prepared to blow the audience away and take home the crown. I’d practiced the speech and its elements at least 20 times. My audience would be treated to a humorous speech about car mechanics and what they really do to your car. My opening was sure to draw them in, the body was sure to grab their attention, and my closing was sure to send them off laughing. It was nearly perfect. All I needed was for my name to be called.
15 minutes before the speeches began we drew numbers to decide on the speaking order. The heavy set man was first, I was second, and the woman was third. I took my seat and waited eagerly for the competition to begin.
The heavy man’s speech was ironically about his weight. He talked about why he was fat. He poked at his belly. He made a few jokes about the fattening foods he planned on eating later on that day. Then he went for the jugular. In a totally unpredictable move he began to explain how his mother was disowning him until he lost weight! The crowd erupted with laughter. He walked away from the stage and went back to his seat.
By my estimation he’d done a decent job. His opening was alright, he encouraged mild chuckles at his jokes, and he seemed to touch a sympathetic note by talking about being overweight. Good but not better than what I had in store.
Next up was me. As my name and credentials were being announced I readied myself for battle. I took it up a notch from the beginning. Unlike the first speaker I asked for audience participation. Everyone closed their eyes, held out their right hand, and imagined they were holding their auto mechanic’s face in their palm. Then on the count of 3 they all smacked his face for extorting thousands of dollars from their pockets!
As I expected they all exploded with laughter. They were hooked. I weaved in and out of disastrous run ins I’d had with my very own mechanic. They learned about how I’d suspected him of driving my car on a date, painting it the wrong color (twice), and even trying to hold on to it longer to pull more money from my pocket.
Each punchline brought more and more laughter. My confidence was growing with every passing second. For my ending I offered them one golden nugget of advice. I paused and used my serious lecture face “The next time your car breaks down on the highway and you feel your wallet getting lighter do yourself a favor…leave it there and go buy a bus pass”.
More explosions of laughter (the contest master was still laughing when he came to shake my hand as I exited the stage) .That was it! No doubt about it. I’d won. Everyone smiled and cheered as I took my seat.
Finally came the older woman. She told a story about the advantages of having 2 husbands to a crowd that was 85% woman. Every single woman in the house (they’re husbands obviously weren’t there) nodded in agreement. They giggled the entire time as she talked about how wonderful it would be to have 2 people buying clothes, 2 people paying for cars, and 2 people begging for her now divided attention.
The premise behind the speech was a good one. I didn’t care much for the delivery. Her speech was filled with double negatives, improper subject verb agreement, and other assaults on the english language.
After we were all done the judges left to tally the votes. Before I could make a move 5 or 6 people from the audience come over to congratulate me on a sure victory. Then the other contestants came over and did the same. I thanked them all and remained in my seat eager to her the official verdict.
The contest chair took the cards from the judge. With a look of uncertainty he began to make the announcements.
“Our third place contestant is…Marcus Smith” he said.
I looked around to make sure everybody else had heard that. Surely, something was wrong. DEAD LAST. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It took all I had to walk up to the podium, take my award, and return to my seat without absolutely pitching a fit.
My body temperature began to rise as I read the 3rd place certificate. Everything seemed so unreal. I could hear the 2nd place (the older woman) and 1st place (the fat man) being announced but it didn’t seem like I was in the room. They were in another world were people couldn’t understand the quality of a good speech.
After the competition was over I left quickly. I hopped into my car and slammed the door. I sped home weaving in and out of traffic like a NASCAR driver. When I got home I threw my certificate on the floor and tried to forget that I’d even been to a competition. I felt robbed.
Fallout from Losing
That experience left me scarred and jaded. A million questions ran through my brain. Didn’t my speech include EVERYTHING needed to win:
- Audience Participation? Check
- Attention grabbing opening? Check
- Great Eye Contact? Check
- Great Pace? Check
- Well Placed Jokes? Check
- Fantastic Witty Conclusion? Check
Things weren’t making sense. Thinking about the competition only served made my blood boil even more. I decided to continue entering contests until I won.
2007 Failures
I don’t want to depress you with stories of sorrow so I’ll just say this. During 2007 I got spanked in 3 more competitions. I was not pleased. Sadness 
, anger , and near tear drops :’( were the norm. That was up until December of 2007.
December 2007 Triumph
On December 3, 2007 I finally came out on top. This time I faced 5 skillful adversaries. 1 was a relative newcomer, 2 of them have been speaking for half of my life, 1 had spanked me in an earlier competition, and 1 speaks for a living.
The earlier beat downs I took taught me some things about topic selection, delivery, how to not throw tables when you lose, proper movement, story development, and how to really connect with an audience. I’d need all those tools on December 3.
So now came the moment of truth. Time to use all the tools. We drew numbers and I ended up going last. I was so focused on my speech that I barely paid attention to the other 5 orators. I had to ask around afterwards to find out that I’d beaten at least 3 great speeches.
My speech started off by taking the audience back to my childhood. I told the story of a childhood neighbor growing a garden in a neighborhood with notoriously poor lawns. The story had it all
- Intrigue
- Jealousy
- Humor (I spied on her)
- Visualization
- Focus on the audience
I didn’t stop with that story. I explained to them all how the story tied into their personal and professional lives. How they had the opportunity to grow through Toastmasters (the speech organization). How Napoleon Hill (Presidential Advisor), Peter Coors (Chairman of Coors Brewing Company), and Tim Allen (movie stare) all started out in a room just like the one they were in. I explained that they too could grow and achieve great things by exploring their creativity and expressiveness in Toastmasters. Thundering applause rang out at my conclusion.
I had finally done it! The lessons I’d learned from past failures came together in what was my best speech. Against the highest level of competition to date I’d finally come out on top.
So how does this relate to you?
Conclusion
Failure is a good thing when you allow yourself to learn from it. When you lose you are forced to look inside and discover why you didn’t come out on top. Are you unprepared? Are you overmatched? Did you take things too lightly? Did you overlook critical details? Are you really taking steps to improve? Did you give your absolute best effort? Have you learned anything from your past failures?
Always remember that failure is temporary and fleeting. Just because you’ve been trounced once doesn’t mean you’re cursed to lifelong failure. Every time I got thrashed in a contest I learned something. Every loss was an opportunity to figure out what people did and didn’t like. Every loss was an opportunity to experiment. Every loss was an opportunity to challenge myself and GROW.
Use your failures as learning tools to propel yourself to the next level. You (and the rest of the world) will be happy you did.
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