Here are some of my notes from a toastmasters CC2 speech I completed recently. This is not my speech, but rather an altered version to make it more suitable for reading

Failure is an Option

Failure is a difficult topic. Most people (and rightly so) have the notion that failure is a negative thing. But it should not universally be the case: Failure

  • is necessary for learning
  • allows for rapid growth
  • important for creativity

Failure is necessary for learning

Failure begins in childhood. As children, we learn to walk, talk and swim not through books, but through action. While you may say many of us are no longer children, this principle applies to adults as well.

If we want to learn quickly and effectively, one of the best methods is fail fast and fail often. In the article linked, you will read about the story where two ceramics teachers tried an experiment:

  1. First one encourage the class to build as many pots as possible.
  2. Second class encourage the class to build the best quality pot they could.

They found that the first class, although quality was not their focus; ended up building consistently better pots than the second.

Failure allows for rapid growth

One of the best ways to improve rapidly is knowing your limits.

Personally, the first time I went to the snow slopes with my high school friends, the experience was daunting. I and one other friend was left alone in beginner snowboard class whilst the more experience skiiers/snowboarders got to go out on their own. Not to be outdone we naturally (tried to) join them. Perhaps not surprisingly we failed quite hard; probably spent more time sitting in the snow than staying upright on the board whilst doing one of the intermediate runs.

But this was a testing experience which revealed to our folly that we weren’t as good as we thought we were. This is an important aspect of failure, it is humbling and lets you appreciate how little you know and more importantly allows you to leverage your experience to improve quickly and rapidly.

As a consequence of this experience my friend and I definitely improved quickly; far quicker than other classmates who were with us in the beginner class on our first day.

Failure is the platform for creativity

An field which relies heavily on creativity is stand-up comedians. Coming up with new material whole show is definitely a creative endevour. But how do comedians know what works and what doesn’t?

Well, Aziz Ansari decided that one way to do it is through selling tickets via lottery to first test his matieral.

HI. I’M COMEDIAN AZIZ ANSARI. I’M DOING A SERIES OF INTIMATE SHOWS TO WORK ON NEW MATERIAL FOR MY NEXT HOUR OF STANDUP COMEDY.

TICKETS ARE $10. TO GET TICKETS, FILL OUT THE FORM AND YOU’LL BE ENTERED INTO A LOTTERY TO WIN TICKETS FOR YOU AND A GUEST. PLEASE ANSWER THE QUESTIONS HONESTLY, IT’S VERY IMPORTANT FOR THE SHOW AND THOSE WHO LIE WON’T BE ADMITTED.

Which perhaps follows closely to the agile mindset; to prototype and continually refine, with no fear of failure, but just to iterate quickly so that you would fail fast and early.

So what?

What does all this leave to us? To improve on the public speaking stage:

  1. Do as many speeches as possible
  2. Use feedback and evaluations to improve quickly
  3. Try new things outside your comfort zone. If you can’t do it in a controlled environment, how can you perform in the real stage.