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.