Beginner’s Luck

I recently joined Optima Toastmasters. The first prepared speech of a new member is called an Icebreaker speech. We are expected to introduce ourselves through this speech. I did mine on May,20 2010 and won the best speaker ribbon.



Madam President, members and guests…

Today is my icebreaker speech and i am confident i will do very well ...why? because i believe I have got beginner’s luck.

When someone new or naive achieves better than expected results it is referred to as beginner's luck. The belief that i have been blessed with this came rather early in my life.

My first play happened when I was in forth grade for a school annual function. Our class was divided into two groups. One group was of the students who were perceived academically oriented were handpicked to create charts and models for exhibition , and the other group to which i belonged were enrolled for a play. At such young age almost every one is shy; no body wanted to speak their dramatic dialogues....but i found them very intriguing. After each rehearsal and ended up with more and more of them .... by the time we performed on the D day my part was the biggest.
So even though I was not hand-picked to start with …I ended up with most of the recognition …

This good luck continued over years

My friend who is wannabe movie director enrolled in a short film competition. He had some male actor waiting to act in the movie, but as luck would have it …his draw of category sought him to create a movie on the female oriented subject.
I was at the right place at the right time to offer my friend to work in his movie ...My first short film came easy.

Another friend who is a musician had nine songs of his debut music album ready and needed someone to write a soulful English song...before he met me.
No kidding but people wait for years to get their song sung and released but it took me twenty minutes to write my first song that became part of an album. Hearing my song play on the speaker of music stores... is one of my fondest memories

I feel blessed.

Very honestly, the beginner’s luck does not work each and every time. There were many times when my experiences were not very good. But each time I had ended up learning a lot from such experiences …

when I came to US for the first time. I lost my connecting flight , this was first time i missed my connecting flight... being in a foreign land... i had no idea ..how will i get my next flight and how much it will cost ...and if my only contact in phoenix will wait for me at the airport
from this experience I learned to approach people for help when I needed one

Another time when my beginners luck went wrong was …After college i wanted to live independently, against the advice of my protective parents ...and got robbed by the landlady.
this bad experience was also great teacher.. it taught me to listen to my parents ...

when I look back at these good and not so good experiences I realize that how the leap of faith taught me so much. My life would have been without so many interesting learning’s ... if I had not tried .....

I also think that the beginners luck is not just a perception. When we go ahead to do things for the first time we do not have over bearing expectations. Our mind does not play tricks and scare of the worse, because we really don’t know. For example if you will walk for the ramp for the first time you will not fear falling down as you will be mesmerized by the cameras

Beginner’s luck is not the genie that grants only one wish; but a key that opens a door and allow us to pursue a whole new avenue in life

Armed with my conviction I draw courage to do new things and make most of the life .... and i can proudly say I life has been enriched by my faith in beginners luck