Walk with proven achievers

All great masters learned from great masters before them. This is true in western culture , eastern culture, ancient cultures like that of Egypt, China, India as well as the modern global village we now live in.

It is no coincidence that all the emperors in the past sought the best teachers to teach their children. Or students of Great masters eventually become great artists , great craftmen or accomplished music composers themselves.

Every year parents sweat out in long queues trying to get their children into " famous " or " established" schools. When my daughter received her honours degree, I said this a rare accolade from a "world class university". Indeed , Nanyang Technological University, the university she was reading Biology, consistently ranked top half of the " best 100 University in the world" .

Why must we always learn from the best ?

Good teachers cut short our learning period and inspired us to achieve more.

So we have to learn from this and look for "good mentors" in Toastmasters. Mentors are not for life. Mentors are there only to get us to a good start. Just like Shaolin Kungfu, once you have learned enough, you must leave the mountain, get more experience in the field and constantly looking for a new mentor who will hopefully bring your skills to a higher level.

Some mentors positioned themselves as the yards stick of your success. You do what I did. Don't go too fast. They use their past experience as a benchmark for everything you do. When that limits or slows down your progress , it will be a clear signal that you should look somewhere else for inspirations.

My own motto is " walk with proven achievers". I want to be a good communicator. So I look up to established speakers or leaders with track records. They are my inspirations...... they can do more for me than a teacher can.

Of course , I will still be for ever grateful to all the mentors and teachers who have made me what I am today.

NTU Convocation 2009

Getting ready for my daughter's convocation at Nanyang Technological University tomorrow. Father is more excited then the daughter.........I have a sweet taste of achievement. The feeling is more intense then that I felt at my own convocation 30 years ago at the same venue. Share my joy !

Taichi fan Dance

I have been involved with this Taichi Group for years. Some of you might remember my speech at the Division A Speech Contest last year where I spoke about lessons from Taichi. This video clip was taken at the recent joint Installation Dinner of 8 Toastmasters Club in Johor Bahru.

Joint Installation 2009

Joint Installation
Date : 11th July 2009
Venue: Austin Hill, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Participating Clubs: 8
Attendance : 220 pax
The great performance on Saturday night prove the followings are correct

• That Toastmasters train only "LEADERS"....we do not waste time training followers or "Supervisors" who cannot push performance to a higher level
• That all toastmasters are leaders. ........once given a fixed time slot and 100% control of that time slot,will perform their best.......spurred on only by our total subscription to the Toastmaster Core Values R,I,S,E ....where E is for dedication to Excellence
• That Toastmasters meetings can start on time and end on time, no matter...... how many clubs , how many strangers ( some of you were working with your co-worker for the first time , right?) are involved.
  
• That Toastmasters learn best in team work and moments of enjoyment.......as Dr Ralph Smedley rightly put it.
• That Toastmasters who reach out to test their skills in Communication, like taking part in this Joint Installation Dinner for 8 clubs, are handsomely rewarded...... every time.

Toastmasters clubs in Johor Bahru has come a long way. From a humble singular Johor Bahru Toastmasters club , the number of clubs has mushroomed. When I took over as the Division Governor, I had a vision. I called it vision 2020. That means 20 clubs with minimum 20 members each. That vision is now fast becoming a reality. We are at the verge of being able to form a independent division here in Johor Bahru.