I am the type of person who will write, draw, and/or just create something – let it “simmer” for a day or two and then comeback and redo the whole thing. Why? I do not know – perhaps, I like to just torture myself? This practice or habit of mine leads to “Long Days Long Nights”.
When I was writing my speech for the Keynote address for Veteran’s Day. I believe I had less than a week to come up with a 20 minute speech and I went through 40 to 50 iterations up until the day of the event fine tuning the speech. At 2am the morning of the event I was still rearranging paragraphs to make the flow just right. Am I a perfectionist? Well perfectionism is something that can be said about my approach to what I set my sights on when I believe in that accomplishment. There is only one opportunity to make a first impression on people – especially with a speech and I wanted to make sure that I made a great impression. No matter how much time it absorbed or how much energy I spent for that hour I was at the event and the 20 minutes at the podium – I wanted to be on point.
MAKE A CHOICE – JUST DECIDE AND THE UNIVERSE WILL GET OUT OF YOUR WAY.
~ WILL SMITH
During this entire process of writing this speech – I am also trying to think about how I am going to engage a room full of 2nd graders. Every year, I volunteer to speak at my son’s school for veteran’s day. This year is different though because this year the class is vibrant and energetic. Plus, my son is so excited and he is feeding me ideas about what to bring in and what to say and what to do – it is great to see his enthusiasm (I hope he stays like this). I decide to make this process easier on myself and to let my son go down to the basement and pick out two to three of my old uniforms that he would want me to bring to his classroom. In addition, I told him to think about what other things he would want me to bring to his class. This little maneuver allowed me enough time to finish my speech before having to plan the activities for the 2nd graders. However, when I decided to have my son participate in the preparation – in suddenly hit me to have a class participation type of event instead of a “show and tell” like I did the previous years. Great, now I could concentrate on finishing my keynote speech.
You must have a determination to achieve excellence… ~ Martin Luther King
Once I prepared my speech, I let it “simmer” or gave it some shelf time and focused on trying to think about how to deliver the speech. I looked footage of at least 10 different people who I felt delivered great speeches and whom I felt delivered not so great speeches. I am the type to study the good and the bad. Why the bad? To figure out what not to do. I studied Presidents Kennedy, Reagan, Obama, Clinton and Bush. I looked at Ted Talks and then random Youtube videos of just bad presentations. I even studied my own previous speeches to critique my little subtle nuances. I wanted to make sure I did better this time than any other previous times on stage. I practiced for hours – using a paper copy as well as using a version on my iPad. Overkill? It probably was, but as I envisioned myself during the practices I knew every possible scenario. This helped relieved any “standstill” stage fright prior to going to the ceremony – since I was not able to practice at the venue beforehand.
I came back to the speech, read it and started all over again. Well – this time I did not start all over again per se, but I did have to change a few things. The opening content mainly because of the outcome of the election made my opening obsolete. The reason for this change is because I made a reference about being a part of a then President Clinton’s inauguration in the 1997 and well – I had to change the opening of the speech a little bit. I still kept the reference to being in the 1997 inauguration while serving the THE OLD GUARD OF THE ARMY – HOOAH!!! After a couple of more tweaks and proof reads the morning of the event. I was off to deliver the keynote address.
It is amazing that no matter how many times I do something like public speaking or a presentation – I still get nervous leading up to the event. However, once I get up on stage – after the first few lines I get a sense of calm and I am at peace. The practice pays off – I imagine. Both the keynote address and the veteran’s school event were a success. I really enjoyed both. The kids were so energetic and engaged. The feedback from the keynote address and the veteran’s day event were so positive. Again the hard work and practice paid off.
One of the most important lessons learned from these honors that I had from the past couple of weeks is that life does not stop. It was a struggle to try to keep up with the work of continuing to run a startup and fulfill the obligations that I promised that I would meet and do it with such a high standard. “Long days and Long nights” as much as it sounds like a burden it is as much as a privilege than anything else. Looking deeper into the meaning – it tells you that your time is in demand and what you are doing is very important. So if you have “long days and long nights” embrace it!
