The Greatest Speech Ever: A Call to Defiance

Let me start this post with a disclaimer: If you start your day by checking mail and replying to Facebook Status updates…you are doing yourself a great disservice. I will develop that argument at a later date. Just know that you had better be doing more constructive things that relate to your MAJOR GOALS in life first…then Facebook and Social Media can come up at a designated ‘leisure hour’.

That being said, at one of those leisure hours, I was chatting on Facebook with my dear friend (Tattoo) who is in Nairobi. After the punches we normally give each other online, the conversation shifted to more important matters. It went something like this:

Tattoo:What are you writing about what I am doing?

Me: Am writing about ‘the Greatest Speech Ever’. Can you guess what it is and who ‘speached/speaked’ it?

Tattoo: Sawa,waiting [That is Swahili meaning…its OK…but I want to hear that now!!!]

What is in it for you in the speech?

One question Tattoo asked in our conversation is the pivotal point of this post. She asked: What does the greatest speech ever have to do with me? Friends, the answer to this all important question concerns every reader today. It concerns every person ever born. Closer home, this answer concerns every Visionary and it is extremely important in terms of Designing Legacies. So, I am pretty sure that at this point in time, someone is asking the same thing. What does the greatest speech ever have to do with me? Put on your seat belts, hang on and lets take this ride together.

What is the Greatest audience ever?

I am sure that the smart ones reading have already figured out what the greatest speech ever is. I feel that before I reveal what is already known…I need to ask another related question. What do you think is the greatest audience ever? It goes without saying that the greatest speech ever is also influenced by the greatest audience ever. By the way…did you know that we all have our audiences out there? In fact the successful people on their cutting edge of creating legacies have sat out to define their audiences.

Instances of Great Speeches

• When Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr delivered the all time famous speech ‘I have a dream’, the audience he was addressing were already prepared. The audiences around the world at that moment in time were ready for that kind of a speech.
• When a great leader stood up one day in the past century to a much pensive and anticipating audience and said those famous words: “Never Ever Give up”, that audience needed to hear those words and nothing else.
• When some American Astronauts perished in their space craft that went up in flames few seconds after take off, the speech given by President Ronald Reagan is what people needed to hear at that time. It was needless to say, an awesome speech.

What is the Audience Looking for?

For every major event that has taken place through history, the masses have always looked at their leaders to INSPIRE them using WORDS. Words of reassurance. Words of hope. Words of wisdom. Words of motivation like what Alexander the Great used to inspire his armies after they were visibly spent and discouraged.

Yet, Ladies and Gentlemen, the greatest speech ever is not found in the museums of history. The same applies to the greatest audience ever. The greatest speech ever is not what is delivered by the greatest leaders of all time. The greatest speech ever that can literally change the entire world is not given where thousands of people are attending. Neither is it backed by full multimedia, animation and the whole range of technology. The greatest speech ever is not necessarily prepared by a speech writer and delivered on International Television.

No, the greatest speech ever is when a believing heart, whether in suffering and in disillusionment, prosperity and abundance, wakes up and addresses SELF. The greatest speech ever is delivered by the orator who is in fact the audience. The speech itself is defiant. I dare say that the greatest speech ever is spontaneous. It comes from the depths of a soul that refuses to accept the normal and ordinary feedback that life hands us. A soul rises up and declares to itself: I am greater than this, I am much better than this. A soul rises up like my friend Tattoo and declares all the positives about itself in direct defiance to the current pressing circumstances. When you stand to deliver that Speech and it is full of I, me, mine, ours…they could say that you are full of yourself…yet they are not there to hear it. You are the audience anyway.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a call to defiance. This is a call to all and sundry to start giving out the greatest speech ever. Open your mouth. You might not feel like it…but you do not need feelings to start. Open your mouth, and even when hot tears are streaming through your cheecks, declare with an un-shakeable belief all the positives you can muster about your life.

In the end, “I can”, is much better than IQ. You will be most motivated by the greatest speech that you will deliver than the greatest speech that you will hear. My question today is this: What are you saying about yourself? What are you saying about how you will turn out? What are you listening to? Most importantly….when is the last time you delivered the greatest speech ever?

DID YOU KNOW?

That Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr in his address “I Have A Dream”…delivered the greatest speech ever?

Have a speechy day…wont you?