In boldness there is greatness

So last Friday my company had the quarterly sales meeting. This is generally a progressively boring meeting with 400 slides on PowerPoint which normally results in me losing interest and creating awful funny sketches of the bosses.

So in this particular meeting we had to split into groups and one person from the group had to deliver the presentation to the rest of the sales and marketing teams, approx 40 people.

Now guess who got selected to do it in my team?? Well only me of course! So I create this presentation in 5min flat and have to present it to my bosses bosses boss....... Cool.

With the venue being an old court room we decided to play on the theme. With this in mind I strolled up to centre stage with my suit jacket resting on my shoulders and colleagues accompanying me ready to take my coat and give me a glass of water. Needless to say this created a lot of laughter.

Good start right?? It was a good start but for some reason as I started delivering it I got really bloody nervous to the point where I couldn't focus on a face nor stop from shaking uncontrollably. Anyway mid presentation I decided to let the audience know exactly how I felt "I'm so Fucking nervous!" chances of winning massively reduced instantly. So being someone who considers himself quite a good public speaker it's fair to say that I did a shit job and embarrassed the hell out of myself.

Immediately after the meeting we had company drinks (best part). Unfortunately however I felt so foolish from the presentation that I kept pondering on it and letting it clutter my mind.

The obvious thing to remember here is I didn't shy away from doing the presentation. And this courage is rare in most people you meet (looking at me bigging myself up) however when you get courage you automatically get units of confidence which help to straighten out some nerves (most of the time ;-) ). I now consider this experience a minor failure and incremental building block to my success as a public speaker. It's a skill few possess and those that do make a killing from it!!

The lesson here people is that to be embarrassed may have protected my pride (weak mindset) but ultimately would have left me more under developed. Whereas acknowledging that embarrassment is nothing, I forced myself into the position and became better as a person and business man for it!! What a small and forgettable price to pay for such a priceless reward!