GENE MOSLEY 

Let Your Humiliation Inspire You and Not Discourage You

Each of us fear humiliation to a certain to degree, and for some, the thought of embarrassing themselves in front of others keeps them from pursuing the dream in their heart. The truth is, you will have moments in life that you embarrass yourself. But don't let that humiliation discourage you, instead let it inspire you, so that you can realize the dream in your heart.

It was April 6, 2013. I walked into an old white church to compete in my first ever speech competition. I felt extremely confident as I strolled towards the church's conference room, where the competition would to be held. My confidence resulted from the fact that I'd practiced my speech 465 times which made me feel invincible. "There is no way I will lose this speech competition" I thought to myself as I entered the room with over 100 people.

It was easy to spot the other contestants because they also had on their business attire. It was four of us competing, and each of my competitors had been in the speech organization for many years and they had competed before. You see I joined the speech organization 5 months ago and after my club members seen me speak, they recommend that I represent the club in this competition.

You are probably thinking to yourself "You practice your speech 465 times?" and you are probably wondering besides winning, what inspired me to do so. To be real with you, I practiced that many times because of my fear of being humiliated. I feared getting up in front of the audience and forgetting what to say, mispronouncing words, or tripping over my feet. This fear inspired me to work on every minor detail of my speech; I even choreographed my body language.

The person who was hosting the contest brought all of us contestants together and explained the rules. The host then stood behind the lectern and told the crowd the competition was about to began. At this moment I started to get very nervous and doubt myself because I started comparing myself to the other speakers. "He talks extremely well, His suit is better than mine, wow He looks very smart" the more I did this, the more I felt inferior to the competition.

When the competition began, I stood in the back of the room. My hands were sweating profusely like I had small swimming pools inside of them and my heart was beating like a bass drum. The host said "The first speaker will be..." and he called another speaker. The speaker took the platform and did very well which only made me even more nervous. The second speaker was called and he did not do as good which gave me a little more confidence.

"The third speaker is Gene Mosley." This was it, my time to speak at my first speech competition in front of the biggest crowd I've ever given a speech in front of. "You got this Gene, you practiced 465 times. There is no way you can lose" I thought to myself as I walked towards the platform. I shook the host's hand, walked onto the platform and started speaking.

To my surprise, the audience was very engaged. They were attentive to my stories and laughed at my jokes. The speech was going just like I practiced. I concluded my speech and the audience applauded me as they had done the other contestants. I sat down and as the last contestant was speaking I envisioned myself getting the first place trophy and people congratulating me on my win.

When the last contestant concluded his speech, the judges left the room with the votes from the audience on who gave the best speech. Twenty minutes later, they walked back into the room and handed an envelope to the competition host. He walked up to the lectern, opened the envelope and said "This was a great competition and despite the places that the speakers come in, you all did very well. The 3rd place trophy goes to......" he called a speaker name that was not me and he did the same thing for the 2nd place. There was only myself and another speaker left so we both sat nervously awaiting him to call the first place. "The first place trophy goes to..." He called the other speaker's name and I was devastated. My mind reflected on each of those 465 practice sessions and I felt humiliated to do that much work and got last place.

I congratulated the contestants and I started walking out of the church. I got to my car and I heard "GENE!" I looked back and it was Earl, one of the members of my speech club. "Before you leave I just want to say you did a great job. This was your first speech competition and you went head to head with guys who have been in this organization for years. I know you are disappointed and maybe humiliated. But don't allow this humiliation to discourage you, let it inspire you."

Earl's words helped me to see the embarrassment from a different perspective. When I got home, I found the sheet of paper that I used to count my speech sessions with tally marks; I wrote positive messages on it for myself, and got it laminated.

I've carried this paper in my pocket for many years and it inspired me to win that very speech competition that I was humiliated at, the following year. Its also inspired me to realize my dream of becoming a Motivational Speaker and Author. All this was possible because I allowed my humiliation to inspire me, not discourage me.

I want to encourage you to embrace your humiliating moments while pursuing your dream. Embrace them by creating something that is a reminder that you have an opportunity to bounce back from your humiliation. Keep in mind that your dream is on the other side of your humiliating moments so let your humiliation inspire you, not discourage you because You Are WORTHY TO BE GREAT!

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