英文演講稿：

Can you remember a moment when a brilliant idea flashed into your head?

It was perfect for you, and then all of a sudden, from the depths of your brain another thought started forcing its way forward through the enthusiasm until finally it shouted “Yeah, great idea but what if you fall on your face?”

What do you do when you fall on your face?

Do you try and jump right up and hope no one noticed?

Are you more concerned with what other people will think than what you can learn from this?

Mr. Contest Chair, Friends, and the people way in the back…

Ouch!

Did you feel I stayed down too long? Have you ever stayed down too long?

After 4 years of business school I went out and I went for the American Dream. I bought a Subway sandwich shop. Oh yeah.

You’re all impressed, I can tell. I don’t wanna brag or anything but in 6 short months I took a $60,000 debt, and I doubled that debt.

That’s right, I turned Subway sandwich shop into a non-profit organization.

I financially fell on my face.

But then I remembered I was not the only one from my hometown of Auburn, to fall on his face.

You see, 100 years earlier my childhood hero, Dr. Robert Goddard, had a ridiculous idea about building a device to take off from the ground and reach the stars. Dr. Goddard was the reason we landed on the moon.

I remember when I had my ridiculous idea. I was listening to a tape of Brian Tracy, a great speaker. He asked a question, he said, “What would you dare to dream if you knew you wouldn’t fail?”

I struggled for an answer and then BING! I’d be a comedian. But you have to understand my background, I wasn’t funny. I wasn’t considered a class clown. In fact, the first time my brother ever laughed at me was when I told him I wanted to be a comedian.

Ouch!

Who do you wanna be? What changes do you wanna make in your life?

So many of us can see clearly where we wanna go, and yet, we go back and forth, “If I just had a little more time...” “If I just had a little more money...” “If..If the kids were just a little older..”

But we never take that first step.

Dr. Goddard’s first flight took off in Auburn and landed in Auburn. It only reached 41 feet, but it was a first step.

There are strangers out there, people who don’t even know you, who will make fun of your first step.

When the local press found out about Dr. Goddard’s ridiculous idea to reach the moon, and his first flight, the next morning the headlines read, “Moon rocket misses target by 238,799 and a half miles.”

Ouch!

But those strangers are part of your process.

We also have friends and family that love us and don’t wanna see us fall on our face.

Imagine my parents’ reaction when after stretching their budget to help me through college, seeing me fall on my face, and then I come home, “Mom, Dad, I wanna be a comedian.”

I was met by silence.

Ouch…

They too are part of your process.

After a year of struggling in the comedy world, I’ll never forget one night.

I was bombing for 20 minutes, it was horrible. So, I went for my surefire bit. I brought a woman up from the audience, and she stood directly behind me. She put her hands forward in place of mine.

It’s an old improv technique, she would tell the story with her hand gestures as I would tell it verbally. And it works best the more animated the hands are, well, this woman stood there like an ancient statue.

She didn’t move. I turned to her in desperation and I said, “Please do something with your hands.” She did.

Ouch!

I immediately called my mentor, Rick. I said, “Rick, I bombed. Like they...I died. They hated me.”

And Rick said, “So.” “What do you mean so?”

How do you argue with “so”?

And then Rick reminded me, “Every comedian, every speaker, anyone who’s accomplished anything has fallen on their face. It’s part of your process.”

And then I remembered Subway. I fell on my face, but I never took the next step. It’s the step after the “Ouch!”

That’s so important, it’s so difficult. We don’t like the “Ouch”, we don’t wanna take that step but when that foot lands, ahhhh, you are gonna like that feeling. We learn from the “Ouch.”

In an effort to reach the moon, Dr. Goddard said, “Failures I consider valuable negative information. Information essential to each step getting closer to the moon.”

Dr. Goddard was an “Ouch” Master. We need to be “Ouch” Masters. If you’re willing to fail, you can learn anything.

I still have my day job, but now in my hometown, in a comedy club, my picture hangs on the wall.

But it’s because I took the step, after the “Ouch.”

I wasn’t given the gift of making people laugh. I was given the opportunity to take a next step.

So were you. What’s your next step? When will you take it? Take it.

I didn’t wanna look back on my life and think, “Never did try that comedy thing but instead I paid all my bills.”

We’re all gonna move forward and try and reach a point but we’re gonna reach a point at, headed to our goals, where we get stuck, and we can’t move. And...but we’re so afraid of that “Ouch” we forget that if we lean forward and take a risk and fall on our face, we still made progress.

Go ahead and fall. FALL FORWARD