Lance Miguel's Challenge Speech

     Lance delivered this speech masterfully last April 2, 2016 at SLCS.

   To our guest of honor, to our Principal Teacher Ritchie, to our school officials, distinguished guests, dedicated teachers, beloved parents and fellow graduates, a pleasant afternoon to all!

   We are all gathered here today to recognize the efforts, sacrifices, and all the hard work we made this school year. The wonderful and challenging times we spent here in SLCS will always be cherished even when we are already outside the walls of this great institution.

   There have been several speeches delivered during graduation by the class valedictorians and the salutatorians. Mostly they talk about being successful in life and the bright future of each student. It is a challenge for me to share something more meaningful and inspiring that will be useful to us all.

   We all want to win, right? We all want to have perfect scores in our exams. Make the right answers on Quiz Bee questions. On anything that we do, we always want to come on top. We don’t want to lose. Losing is equated to being a failure, who wants to be called a failure or a loser. Nobody. But here lies the problem, we don’t always have the right answers, we are not always the brightest, the strongest on a particular subject or area… losing, making mistakes, or failing is surely inevitable.

   Are we going to play it safe? Or are we not going to try at all? Don’t make challenging goals for ourselves. Lower our expectations so we will not get hurt should we not receive the recognition we think we duly deserve. My answer to this is definitely NO. We should put higher expectations of ourselves and be not afraid to make mistakes. A lot of famous people did not get to where they are without failures and mistakes.

   There are 3 things we can learn from famous people who encountered failures and made mistakes before becoming successful on their field:

1.   There will be times when you fail.

Sometimes physical handicap or lack of abilities cause us to fail. Sometimes it is lack of preparation or maybe even overconfidence. Regardless of the reason, we all at times fail and encounter disappointment and setbacks in life.

2.   Mistakes must Not be avoided.

A lot of people avoid making mistakes since they feel it is a sign of failure or weakness.

But mistakes can become learning experience. Fear of making mistakes has kept many people from rising to the top. If Michael Jordan who is considered one of the best basketball player of all time, stopped pursuing his love of basketball when he did not see his name on the list, if he did not try to improve his performance while he is not yet meeting the height requirement, then we would have not known of his genius and eventual greatness in the game of basketball.

3.   Embrace change.

Only thru change can there be true growth. But why do people resist change? Change is uncomfortable, consumes a lot of energy, and people fear negative impact of doing those changes. Winners and successful people did not become who they are when they are finally recognized. They became what they are when they acknowledged their mistakes and weaknesses and embraced the need to change. To improve once performance and change their attitude that is when people started to grow. We grow only when we change.

So again what do we need to learn from our mistakes and overcome failures:

1. There will be times when you fail. 

2. Mistakes must not be avoided. 

3. Embrace Change

   Thanks to all my teachers and classmates for helping me in correcting the mistakes I committed and being part of my journey. Without you guys, I wouldn’t be here this evening speaking to everyone. To my friends, my batchmates, and classmates, thank you for everything. Congratulations to all of usl!

   Next school year will bring us to another stage in our lives, I challenge you all to always keep dreaming big and don’t fear committing mistakes. Take the learnings graciously given us here at SLCS, I am confident that someday we’ll be the leaders in our society and good Christian people of the future.

   Firstly I would like to thank God, for all the talents and blessings he bestowed on me, for all what I have comes from Him. I return all the glory to God for my achievements. I also would like to thank my parents, Mommy and Daddy for being my biggest supporters and inspiration in my life. My Ate Che and Kuya Tristan who came before me here at SLCS and helped paved the way for me to adapt and meet school requirements with their help and advices. To my Tita Phoebe who always push and encourage me to be my best at school.

Thank you and once again, good afternoon!

Read More

The Great Leadership Challenge

The bee at work at a sunflower
in Burnham Park in Baguio City

by Jim Rohn

( I have been through highs and lows in my career. One thing constant though is my belief that I am a leader and a good one at that. I have led from as many as thirty-three engineers at one point and three nationalities at another. I am at a point in my career that I am not exercising much leading as I don't have subordinates reporting under me. Still, the leadership growth is a never ending process ...the only time I will stop being a student is when I have come to the end of my journey on this earth. Let's keep growing! ) 

If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills, and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. What’s important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective. Here are some specifics:

Learn to be strong but not impolite. It is an extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It’s not even a good substitute.

Next, learn to be kind but not weak. We must not mistake weakness for kindness. Kindness isn’t weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell someone the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.

  

Next, learn to be bold but not a bully. It takes boldness to win the day. To build your influence, you’ve got to walk in front of your group. You’ve got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first problem, discover the first sign of trouble. Like the farmer, if you want any rewards at harvest time, you have got to be bold and face the weeds and the rain and the bugs straight on. You’ve got to seize the moment.

Here’s the next step. You’ve got to learn to be humble but not timid. You can’t get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity for humility. But humility is a virtue; timidity is a disease. It’s an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem.

In addition to reading and listening, you also need a chance to do some talking and sharing. I have some people in my life who help me with important life questions, who assist me in refining my own philosophy, weighing my values and pondering questions about success and lifestyle.

Humility is almost a God-like word. A sense of awe. A sense of wonder. An awareness of the human soul and spirit. An understanding that there is something unique about the human drama versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we’re part of the stars.

Here’s a good tip: Learn to be proud but not arrogant. It takes pride to build your ambitions. It takes pride in your community. It takes pride in a cause, in accomplishment. But the key to becoming a good leader is to be proud without being arrogant.

Do you know the worst kind of arrogance? Arrogance from ignorance. It’s intolerable. If someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that’s just too much to take.

The next step is learning to develop humor without folly. In leadership, we learn that it’s okay to be witty but not silly; fun but not foolish.

Next, deal in realities. Deal in truth. Save yourself the agony of delusion. Just accept life as it is. Life is unique. The whole drama of life is unique. It’s fascinating.

Life is unique. Leadership is unique. The skills that work well for one leader may not work at all for another. However, the fundamental skills of leadership can be adopted to work well for just about everyone: at work, in the community, and at home.

To Your Success! See you at the finish line my friend =)

Read More