So this weekend I attended the Global Inspiration Tour by
Vusi Thembekwayo – the “Rockstar of Public Speaking” as proclaimed by the former
Australian Prime Minister, John Howard. This was one of the greatest moments in my
life as I came back determined I’m in the right path of my journey.
Listening to Mr Thembekwayo speak kind of helped me take the
decision to finally answer to my calling – standing in front of a crowd and
motivate at least 2 or 3 people. The two
words which still echo in my mind about Saturday morning are “Be Obsessed”. Mr Thembekwayo said passion is not enough,
instead, we should be obsessed about what we love – eat, sleep and drink it. It
is then that I decided obsession in not so bad, after all.
When I heard the man ranked third in the world by the
English Speaking Union International was coming to town, I thought this I must
attend. This guy is the big deal and his ticket will probably cost a fortune –
this is what I think to myself. Then I go to computicket and check the pricing
out, tickets start at R450. At this time I don’t have that kind of money to
invest in myself by getting myself a ticket – but the business-minded side of
my brain gets “businessy”. I immediately think an entrepreneur will always see
an opportunity – anywhere. So I write on my Facebook and Twitter accounts that
I’d love a ticket to the talk.
A day later, I see the EkasiEntrepreneur tweet saying people
can email and say why they deserve a ticket to the talk. So I send the email. Obsession:
not so bad after all.
This talk is the only thing I was obsessing over the whole
of the past week. Then Friday came, I got a tweet from Mr Thembekwayo himself
asking me to send my contact details, they (Mr Thembekwayo and team) may just
get me that ticket. A couple of minutes later, they called and told me to get
myself to the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).
I wake up on Saturday morning – so excited – I check my
phone for time and I see I have a new email from Elvis Sekhaolelo, founder of EkasiEntrepreneur. I read it and guess what? I got
myself tickets for two people from the email I had sent earlier in the week
motivating why I should attend the talk. I was so obsessed over this talk; I
ended up getting double the result.
During the talk Mr Thembekwayo shared his obsession for
public speaking and how it has kept him going even when he was booed on stage
at his high school and even when he was told he couldn’t do it.
I have an obsession too. I'm obsessed about being in the spotlight – I just want to be the centre of attention. Growing up I was obsessed about being a singer, then I was obsessed about being a TV presenter and then I was obsessed about being a lawyer – and for every one of those obsessions I had goals set on how I’d achieve them. I, in fact, started working my way to achieving them but I had not discovered my calling, therefore, my obsessions became my pastime fantasies. I guess I was just a dreamer from a small dusty town.
*Thanks to @vusispeaker and his team for the ticket! :)
