If you want to get what everyone is getting, do what everyone is doing.
Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen, my speech tonight is not simply about me, but also about being different. I have chosen this topic because it is something that is very dear to me and something I have made a personal philosophy and which I endeavor to live by.
I think it all started when I was 18 years old and in my first year at campus. That was about the time that I started to observe people’s behaviour and just to think about life. I was taking a walk with two friends and was in deep thought. They were chatting, but I was not paying attention to what they were saying. Then suddenly I said
“You know guys; I am pretty disappointed with the adult world.”
One of them asked me why and I explained that when I was going to campus I expected a lot of change and difference in the behaviour of the people around me. After all, they were adults. I always thought being an “adult” was a lot different from being a kid. However I felt after being on campus for a few months that the adult world was not what I had expected.
Everyone just seemed to behave like they were still teenagers. Nobody seemed to be outstanding in any way. There was no distinction, as far as I could see, between the 18 year old and the 50 year old apart from their age! Where was the wisdom and excellence I had come to expect. There was no change!
I did not know it then, but over the years I have come to see that the reason people don’t change is simply that they do not dare to be different.
Being different means:- Not being afraid to challenge the norm.- Being willing to take a chance.- Asking why.- Making your own track, not just following the well trodden path.- Charting your own course and destiny.- Being the person that you were meant to be. |
I believe that everyone is born unique. But through the years we work very hard to be like everyone else. We conform to society’s so-called