51吃瓜

Harriet Cummings

My name is Harriet Cummings, and I am a failure.

I鈥檝e failed at many things in life so far鈥攆rom my disastrous 7th grade piano exam to struggling to learn French despite my determination, to baking a cheese souffl茅 that never 鈥� souffl茅d. But why am I telling you this? Because we live in a society that laments failure when, in fact, failure can be really productive. Arguably, if you鈥檙e never failing in life, then you鈥檙e not taking enough risks. You鈥檙e stagnant. And if you鈥檙e not taking risks, how will you ever know what you鈥檙e truly capable of?

Of course, I can see why we fear failure. None of us likes to talk about the things we鈥檝e done badly. You don鈥檛 see politicians address the nation with a list of the endless bungles they鈥檝e made. The budgets blown, the lies told 鈥� Likewise, you don鈥檛 see actors at the Academy Awards strut up to the stage to announce, 鈥淪ure, this film was fabulous, but my last three movies weren鈥檛 so popular.鈥�

When it comes to public speaking at work, we are under a lot of pressure to perform well, especially when we want to impress our peers. And even in front of friends and family we鈥檙e eager to speak every word perfectly. Sometimes we鈥檙e even more anxious around people we鈥檙e close with because these people have long memories! Any mistake could be relived and retold for years to come.

For these reasons, I did my best to avoid public speaking most of my life. The fear that people would see me nervous, stumbling over my words, felt like too much to bear. When I did speak publicly, I spoke as quickly as I could, relaying the minimum information for fear I鈥檇 say something stupid. As a result, I never got any better. I never worked out my personal style or figured out basic things like hand gestures or eye contact. I thought I鈥檇 never conquer my fear.

It was only when I joined Toastmasters that things began to change. I liked how, no matter what happened onstage, people would be encouraging and supportive. Here, I didn鈥檛 worry about criticism. It was a safe space to get to know my speaking voice.

These days I鈥檓 part of Spa Speakers club in Leamington Spa, United Kingdom. I love how I get to regularly practice different styles and approaches, and I feel like I can take risks without worrying if things go wrong. I also enjoy seeing my fellow Spa Speakers do something outlandish, even if they don鈥檛 entirely pull it off. We all learn from each other鈥檚 bravery and willingness to take chances. If we can鈥檛 experiment at Toastmasters, where can we?

I encourage all speakers to embrace new possibilities and feel free to experiment. That鈥檚 the best way we can improve, knowing we鈥檒l receive positive and constructive feedback to figure out what to do differently next time. Failure should never be a dirty word.

In case you鈥檙e not quite convinced of the merits of failure, here are some examples from the history of great failures.

1 Henry Ford went broke five times before he finally made it rich with his car assembly line.

2 Beethoven initially struggled with the violin. His teacher warned his parents he might not be cut out to become a composer.

3 J.K. Rowling, Stephen King and Walt Disney all experienced several rejections. In fact, Walt Disney was fired from his job at a newspaper for supposedly having no imagination.

As for my own more modest ambitions 鈥�

I went on to master my 7th grade piano pieces. I tried that cheese souffl茅 recipe again and, lo and behold, it souffl茅d! Admittedly, however, my French speaking skills still leave much to be desired.

My point is: Let鈥檚 carry on trying without the paralyzing fear of failure. Let鈥檚 push ourselves to take risks, to understand that failure is an inevitable part of the process.

So why not print out our rejection slips? Tell a friend about something we got wrong? And, most of all, be proud that we tried. And that we鈥檒l keep on trying.