The fear of public speaking has held many people in bondage all their lives. Successful professionals may be holding high positions and earning high income, but when they face public speaking, they shake, tremble and fumble. The fear of public speaking has hindered many of us all our lives in becoming successful. Many toastmasters too were once victims of fear of public speaking. Some continue to be so. The difference between those who have managed to overcome the fear of public speaking and those who don’t is the decision to take action to confront the fear and improve on their public speaking skills.
“How I Overcame My Fear Of Public Speaking” was the speech Wong Kok Wah used for The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club Speech Contest for the International Speech And Table Topic Speech Contest held on 20 March 2014. In this speech, Kok Wah shared with us how he was overwhelmed with the fear of public speaking when he was in primary school and how it continued to held him captive right through into his adulthood. This fear even affected his job to a point where he eventually lost his job.
- International Speech Contest (Club Contest)
- Speaker: Wong Kok Wah, ACG, CL – Member of The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club
- Club Contest on 20 March 2014
- Title: How I Overcame My Fear Of Public Speaking
Table of Contents
My First Victory In Toastmasters Area Speech Contest
I remember the first time I represented my club for the first time at the Area Speech Contest. I was excited, elated, exhilarated. That was until I told my sisters about the good news. They were horrified. They looked at me and said,
“Are you sure?
You can’t even speak looking at yourself in the mirror!
How can you speak looking at hundreds of people?”
They did not believe me until I took out the little trophy that I won at the club contest and showed it to them and they said,
“Wow! It’s fantastic! It is beautiful. How much did you pay for it?”
My First Storytelling Contest
Ladies and gentlemen, some of you may think that my sisters were exceptionally harsh and brutal and they are. However the fact is, if you have known my background, my public speaking background, during my younger days, you would have understood.
In order to tell you that, I will bring you back all the way to my primary school days when I participated in my first speech contest, storytelling contest. I did not have any mentors or anyone to guide me.
The only guidance I had was from my friends and the only storytelling experience they had were the lies they told their teacher when they missed school.
I still remember that vivid moment when I stepped forward in front of the whole school with hundreds of teachers and students. And I started,
“Gur … Gur … Good morning, teachers … fr … fr … friends … today I’m going to … tell you …. a store .. store … story.”
I don’t think I’m going to go through the entire embarrassing and horrifying experience. However I think there’s no need for me to help your imagination to know what happened. I stammered from the beginning until the end. Everyone laughed at me. If that had been a humorous speech contest, I would have won hands down. However, they were not laughing at my humour. They were laughing at me.
My Fear Of Public Speaking
My self-confidence completely left me. I wanted to speak well but I could not. From then on, all my peers began to call me names. They started to call me,
“Kok … Kok … Kok … Kok Wah.”
Those who were taller than me would step forward and knock on my head and said,
“Kok … Kok … Kok … Kok Wah.”
My teacher tried to help me by encouraging me to step in front of the class to speak. I turned her down because I didn’t have the courage to face the class. After a while, I turned inward to my own world and developed a phobia, and that phobia is: whenever I’m stressed, I will stammer.
My Fear Of Public Speaking Caused Me To Lose My Job
This phobia continued on into my early teenage years and early adulthood. 12 years after I left school, my polytechnic, I lost my job as an engineer but I got a job as a sales engineer even though I had no prior experience.
I remember how this phobia came back to haunt me on my very first presentation. Now when you are asked to speak about a product that you know nothing about, to an audience you do not really care about, with a skill you do not really have, it is very stressful.
And when I began the presentation,
“Good morning, … ladies and gentlemen, … this morning, I … am … going to present to you … my company’s … new product…”
I was stunned!
My stammering came back and I just could not stop it. I was so horrified that my boss decided to enrol me in a presentation course. But because of my heavy work commitment and my sales target, I neglected it. After a while, my confidence got worse and I was asked to resign from my job.
Toastmasters – My Turning Point
I lost that job but ironically at that very moment, I got an opportunity to take on an assignment to train other people who lost jobs like me in career management. Now I know that was an opportunity and quite coincidentally that was also the same time whereby I met my sponsor who sponsored me to Toastmasters Club.
He told me I would be a better speaker and I would be able to build up my confidence. I jumped at the opportunity because I knew that “if it is not now, it is never.” When I first failed during my primary school speech contest, it was because I lacked the courage to face my past.
When I failed my sales presentation, it was because I lacked the commitment to learn. That is something I will always remember: that is in order to be successful, you have to have the courage and the commitment. That is why I decided to change.
Stay Committed
Now, ladies and gentlemen, many of you would have your fair share of challenges, your fair share of failures. But the question is do you have the courage to pick up those challenges and the commitment to carry it through. Because if you do, I can assure you that you will enjoy what life has in store for you; and there will be satisfaction and fulfilment.
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