The title of my speech is: The Unrealized potentials,
Let me show you exactly what I mean.
Picture here on my left a younger version of me. He’s in his teens. In front of him is the principal of his school. It’s not the first that François is alone with him in his office. Let’s hear what the principal has to say.
Principal: François, You have such good grades, should come to class, even if the classes bore you. You have so much potential.
Now change his clothes, This François is now wearing a basketball uniform. He’s in front of his basketball coach. They’ve surrounded by the team and they’ve just won the championship.
Coach: But you’ve made so much progress. You keep balling, even if it bores, you have so much potential.
Just to follow the rule of three, This François is now a little bit older, he has his electric bass. He’s in front of his bass teacher, one of the best bass players in Europe. They’re at the prestigious royal conservatory of Brussels.
Teacher: But you have such a unique perspective on jazz. You should continue. You should continue, Even if jazz is boring you, you have so much potential.
Just to hammer this point home, Here is a non-exhaustive list I’ve prepared About my unrealized potentials: ready?
- I have a masters in business and economics at Solvay VUB
- I have participated various competitions like: skateboard, kung fu, capoeira and I’ve won a video game competition
- I’ve been meditating regularly for 8 years, did a 10 days silent retreat.
- I can communicate in about 5 languages
- I used to a professional bass player and play about 10 different instruments
- I’ve performed and taught at international improv theater events
- I’ve written 4 novels and about 50 short stories
- I’m a certified nlp life coach
- i’m philosophy facilitator and had a philosophy podcast and I’ve been a radio host.
Here is the list of my current potentials:
- I’ve a fiancée to marry and a 6 month old daughter to raise.
- I’m working on an album and learning digital music
- I’m working on recording my short stories
- I’m learning juggling
- I started bodyweight fitness and cardio recently
- I’m experimenting with intermittent fasting
- I’m learning about marketing and investing
- I’m in the process of renovating a house, (And I could use some help/advice on this one)
- I’m learning leadership, public speaking and communication here at toastmasters.
There is a point in me listing all this. 1) The point of the icebreaker is to present myself and 2) I want to something about myself.
I love to learn. I LOVE TO LEARN ! To me, a day passed without learning something is a wasted day.
So whenever I feel that I’ve understood something, It’s usually the moment that I quit. It doesn’t interest me anymore. I’ve learned and I go on to the next thing Just as if a mystery has been solved.
And this has been great for me
- I have friends in different worlds
- I can talk about a lot of different things with a lot of different types of people
- I have a lot of skills
- I can connect people and translate things for people of different universes.
- I’m skilled at learning, or I learn things fast.
- I can take ideas and concepts from lots of different universes and apply them in novel situations
- I can mix concepts and create new ideas out of them
BUT there is a problem.
Picture here a group of people talking subject. This person will say A, this one also, maybe someone will say B, and maybe someone else will say C.
While this is going on, I’ll have 4 or 5 different ideas fighting in my head trying to get out of my mouth. Then I blurt out:
François: Z !
And those people talking will look at me weirdly and just say:
Yes… thanks for contribution… (weirdo)
And they’re right to react this way. It’s my fault, I haven’t taken the time to take them from A, all the way to Z.
This has been problem both in my personal and professional life.
Here’s a concrete example: When I arrived at my current job, they asked for my opinion on project A.
I answered something along the lines of: Think about Risks X & Y, that’s why I would do Z.
They reacted by looking at me weirdly. But it’s my job so I continued:
François: Z ! Z ! We must do Z !
And like it happened a few times in my career, they just answered:
Look, just shut up and follow the plan.
We’re one year later now aaaand…. I was right. We now have to take time, energy and ressources to undo all the work we’ve done last year and start over from Z.
This is the reason why I chose the pathway visionary communication, If I had been able to share what I saw effectively, maybe:
- the project would be well on its way to succeed
- there wouldn’t be frustration between all the stakeholders. (And actually a key person left a week ago)
- And maybe most importantly, I would be respected at work.
I’d like to close by saying that I feel that if I could just share my visions effectively, I feel that so many potentials could be realized.