Sunday, 24 March 2002

3 stages to greatness – I listened to a speaker this afternoon called Stef du Plessis from South Africa. His talk was pretty good. Yet much of the audience went wild. The MC gave an outlandishly generous summation of the value of the talk. It wasn’t that good. Yet people were treating him as deity. Why was that? A few factors came into play I believe: It seems that the overseas factor came into play – he was a visitor. It seems that the placement factor came in – he was the last speaker in a long, and often emotionally charged convention and followed a “hoax” presentation that was funny and yet strangely painful. It seems that the relief factor came in – his presentation went for an hour, after lunch. Perhaps we were glad to be at the end of it – the emotional load was too intense? It seems that the transference factor came into play – that the final illustrations he gave, of outlandish courage and human endurance of another man – were transferred to himself. Whatever the factors were – he was very well received. IMHO not so much undeservedly, but inappropriately. You may ask “So what?” and that is a fair enough question. I want to understand the process and the reasons why some are well accepted, and others are poorly received. I think a nice lesson comes from this on greatness. That there are three levels to greatness. We think we’re great – we think we are great. We act like we’re great. We’re precious. We’re obnoxious. We hurt people, not always intentionally, yet very efficiently. We pretend we’re not – we realise that we’re over the top, that our behaviour is not appropriate, that what Jesus said is true – that the meek shall inherit the earth – yet we outwork this by using words. We say “I’m trying not to…” or “I used to … but now I …” We truly are – when what we do speaks way louder than what we say. When you can be simply yourself and people know you are great and that you are humble. Pretense is not necessary – you are what you say you are. Congruity. Integrity. One. It is not until a seed falls to the earth and dies that new life comes. What do you think? 6:04:42 PM    Comments ()

Limericks - There was a young bard of Japan Whose limericks never would scan When they said it was so, He replied, "Yes, I know, But I always try to fit as many syllables into the last line as I possibly can." Anonymous 6:04:41 PM    Comments ()

Love - I arrived back in my room after a long afternoon of sessions at the convention, and there was a huge bunch of flowers waiting for me! My darling wife Sue had sent them through to congratulate me on my pending APS (Accredited Professional Speaker) presentation that was coming that evening. What a wonderful lady - who's guts I love! 7:02:51 AM    Comments ()

NSAA News Flash - At the 2002 Awards dinner in Adelaide last night there was a record number of awards presented. Nevin Award – the highest award given for service to the speaking industry and NSAA was given to Colin Bockman CSP from Victoria. Two life memberships of NSAA were conferred. Catherine Palin-Brinkworth CSP and David Griggs APS are both now Life Members. Seven new CSP’s were awarded: Thomas Murrell CSP (WA) Sharon Moore CSP (SA) Robyn Pearce CSP (New Zealand) (The first NZ CSP) Steve Wells CSP (WA) Anne Riches CSP (NSW) Robert Pritchard CSP (NSW) Heather Robertson CSP (SA) 22 new APS’s were awarded: Zeta Bishkov Lunette Mclean Brian Cooney Warwick Merry Lorraine Pirihi Brian Cloney Andrew Van Der Reest Barbara Brann Yvonne Gregory Tanya Lacy Dennis Webb Robert Pritchard Kevin Ryan Glenn Cardwell Margaret Rohan Kelly Victor Zalakos Santi Masa Cynthia Davis Joh Graney Andrew Bryant George Manolas John Lane-Smith Candy Tymson formally took over the reigns of National President. Congratulations to all. 7:02:51 AM    Comments ()