I know a hero when I see one. And when I came across this video of a young woman named Amanda with a speech impediment who, nonetheless, had the courage to perform on America’s Got Talent, Check out Amanda’s video. I was reminded of another young woman I met years ago who also was a hero. She, too, faced up to similar fears and obstacles that were holding her back.
It was during a Toastmasters club meeting, and it was one of the most inspiring, and moving, success stories I’ve ever personally witnessed.
An attractive, 30-something-year-old woman showed up to a meeting one day. She dressed professionally and had a great smile, but she also had a big challenge.
I went over and said, “Hello, I’m Marc. Welcome to our meeting. What’s your name?”
“I-I-I-I-I’m F-F-F-e-e-l-i-c-i-a,” she said with considerable difficulty.
Clearly it was painful for her to get a word out, let alone an entire sentence. I was taken aback, and I also was embarrassed because I wasn’t sure how to carry on a conversation with her.
But my discomfort was nothing compared to hers.
At the next meeting, Felicia gave her “Icebreaker”— a four- to six-minute speech about herself. She started off with, “Hel-l-l-o. I-I-I-I-I’m F-F-F-F-e-e-l-i-c-i-a.” Then there was a long pause. The more she tried to talk, the more nervous she became. As she got more nervous and anxious, she actually stopped stuttering — unable to get any sounds out at all.
Her attempt at talking was so painful to watch that most people either looked down or away from her as we all anxiously waited for her to finish.
I know she was embarrassed. I know she was frustrated. I imagine it was one of the hardest things she ever had to do. And I knew her stuttering had to be causing her untold problems in her day-to-day life.
And yet, she came back the next meeting. And the next. And the one after that. Slowly but surely, she trained her body and her mind to calm down. She taught herself to relax — to allow the sounds and words to just come out.
With great perseverance, tremendous hard work and focused training, Felicia conquered her stuttering problem. After a couple of years, she could give a complete, eloquent talk, and you would never have guessed that she had ever had a speaking problem.
At the time, I thought it was great, but I didn’t truly appreciate the magnitude of what Felicia had accomplished. Like the remarkable young singer on America’s Got Talent, this determined young woman took full stock of her disability and decided she was going to change her life. She figured — rightly — that it was worth going through the humiliation because the resulting rewards were greater than the pain.
And some 30 years later, I can honestly say Felicia’s was one of the most inspiring efforts I’ve ever seen.
What’s your greatest fear? What is the one big thing that’s holding you back? What obstacle is keeping you from doing what you do better? I challenge you to do what Amanda did and what Felicia did and confront your fears. Take some risk. Fix what’s wrong — even if doing so makes you uncomfortable.
Focus on what you can become — not what you are today.
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