How can you make failure work… for you?
Today's guest post is written by Jill Douka is a Life Coach, International speaker, author and founder of
Uniqueness Development
Group.
How can
someone achieve something that he/she really wants? What kind of tools can one
use? What to expect, when your dreams and goals, do not
become real? I am sharing my experience with you,
hopefully it will help you achieve your dreams and goals!
It is a
great honor for a speaker to participate in a Tedx event.
Tedx
events, initiated by Ted, a non-profit organization that was founded in 1984 in
California, are prestigious speaking events that take place in many countries
around the world and aim to spread ideas that are worth spreading. In December
of 2012, one of my new year’s resolutions I set with my colleagues was to speak
in a Tedx event.
The first
thing we did was to contact with the leaders of Tedx events in Cyprus and
Greece, as I am Greek- Canadian. We did not hear something from them. In March
of 2012, I noticed that the selection process of the Ted speakers in California
2013 had started. The first requirement was to send a one-minute video of your
proposed speech to Ted and wait until your speech was chosen among thousands of
applications, in order to talk in one of the events which would take place in
14 different cities and in 6 different continents. I picked the Tedx event in Amsterdam (the closest
destination). If your one-minute video was accepted, then you could perform
your speech there for 4-6 minutes. I thought: “It’s ok! I have nothing to
lose!”
I could
never imagine how hard it would be to prepare a one-minute video so “amazing”
as to please first of all… myself. I had been working for over 4 weeks to
create the main body of the speech. The difficulties started when I finally was
ready to video the speech. To be more specific, I shot the video more than 60
times! Keep in mind that I have been working as a professional speaker for over
9 years. Two months later, having achieved a good result, I asked for feedback
from worldwide-recognized speakers who I knew from the Global Speakers Summit. I
did many changes. After 15 more shootings, the video was good.
You could imagine my disappointment when I received the rejection email
concerning my application for Ted. In their email, they suggested to attempt
next year. I wandered; do they send the same answer to everyone?
In May of 2012, I was talking with a dear friend from my mastermind
group. She shared with me how thrilled she was to be one of the speakers in
TedxChennai in India. I asked her how she got invited to speak and she told me
that one of our friends form a workshop we did together at Jack Canfield’s
event in Arizona was a member of the organizing committee. I asked her ‘Do you
mind if I contact her because I would, also, like to participate in this event?
-Of course not!’
So I contacted my friend in India and she informed me that there were
already many applications to look over and that I had no time to prepare my
speech outline for the event as the deadline was in some days. I sent her the
video and my speech within10 minutes! The one I had prepared for TED. She told
me that she would present my nomination at the committee and they would contact
me.
On the 30th of September, I talked about “Our Unique Failures”
in front of an audience of 1200 people together with 16 world class speakers
form 10 countries and 5 continents. I explained that failure is part of the
success. Failure exists only when you give up or when you keep on trying in the
same way. My participation in TedxChennai is a living proof.
Jill Douka is a Life Coach, International speaker, author and founder of
Uniqueness Development
Group. She has done coaching and training seminars to thousands people in 4
continents. Her goal is to support people to unlock their strengths, energy and
their goals. You may view her TEDxChennai talk here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQKTaJt48Bw&feature=plcp
