Just one more time (a 5 minutes 30 seconds prepared speech I recently presented)

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

Good morning Contest Chair, ladies and gentlemen and my fellow friends that have ever encountered failures in life.

I would like to ask how many of you, at any point of your life have dreams and ambitions? Ladies and gentlemen, I have a dream, and I have always dream to become a stand-up comedian. Where I can stand on a huge stage, wearing my 900 dollar coat, in front of 1000 thousand live audience, 6 spotlights, 7 cameras, 2 musical bands, and when I walk upon the stage, people would actually stand up and shout and jump and clap and cheer for me……

It’s good to have a dream.

It is fun, it is natural, and it is free. Every notable accomplishment in human history began as a dream.

But sometimes when dreams meet reality. It is not as beautiful as we think it is. As we grow older by the day, we turn our focus to adulthood, and when we realize that by the time we actually get older, we hit a wall, and we stop dreaming because we can’t see pass next week. Why? What happen? Somewhere along the way we learnt a painful truth. We learn that failing to achieve our dream hurts. Life introduces us to failures. And with failures, came along disappointments, discouragements, disagreement, hard circumstances and the very thought of stop trying and giving up. We hear an inner voice that says please no more. I can’t take being hurt again. We convince ourselves that it is better to just give up those things and do what we are suppose to do instead of longing and striving of what we are meant to do.

Ladies and gentlemen, Thomas Edison, one of the greatest scientists ever lived said “our greatest weakness lies in giving up, the most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time”. The question is, do we have the courage to try that one more time?

I was reading the form 5 English textbook. And I encountered an article that talked about a young man call Terry Fox borned in the 195o's. And you should know that Terry was a very good basketball player, He played for his school. And at the age of 18, Terry was diagnosed with cancer, and his right leg was amputated above the knee. That’s not fair, if anyone have the right to give up and just accept reality, he does. The amputation ended his ability to play basketball, but it did not kill his dream. Giving up was not on Terry’s mind. Despite of his physical limitation, against the advice of many. Terry was ready to try one more time. To raise society’s awareness about cancer, Terry embarked on a “Marathon of Hope”. In which he ran 5373 km across Canada’s Atlantic provinces, over 143 days. He won attention of millions of people as he struggled to run with his one good leg and artificial limb. At the age of 22, Terry lost the battle to cancer. But he was successful in founding the Terry Fox Foundation that raises money for cancer research. And this Foundation live until this day. He was an ordinary man like you and I, but he had one thing not many people have. He had the courage beyond ordinary to try one more time. Even at the point between life and death.

Ladies and gentlemen, when was the last time when you were put in a situation where you think that there is no hope left for you? When was the last time you stop trying and convince yourself that you were incapable and it was impossible for you to achieve? If you ever let a dream slip away I am here to tell you, please try just one more time!

If Terry Fox did not try his one more time he would never make a difference. If Edison did not try one more time, he would have never been known. If you were to forget every word that I said today it would thrill me, if you remember this. Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.