What a pleasure to welcome 9 guests at our online and first meeting of 2023. We welcomed Bianca, Caroline, Frauke from Cologne, Suphwadee from Thailand, Alisa, Serena, Aldo from Chile, Zaki from Egypt and Jeri. What an international group – this is the Toastmaster spirit.
Jeff, our Toastmaster of the evening, started off with a quote by Woody Allen: “80% of success is just showing up.” Let’s go for the other 20%, he said. Poorana’s word of the day: to pull off – in the sense succeeding in achieving something difficult, ex. I’m sure you will pull off the competion, was well used in the course of the evening.
Sybille’s joke showed a special view on success:
A businessman was talking with his barber, when they both noticed a goofy-looking fellow bouncing down the sidewalk. The barber whispered, “That’s Tommy, one of the stupidest kids you’ll ever meet. Here, I’ll show you.”
“Hey Tommy! Come here!” yelled the barber. Tommy came bouncing over “Hi Mr. Williams!” The barber pulled out a rusty dime and a shiny quarter and told Tommy he could keep the one of his choice. Tommy looked long and hard at the dime and quarter and then quickly snapped the dime from the barber’s hand. The barber looked at the businessman and said, “See, I told you.”
After his haircut, the businessman caught up with Tommy and asked him why he chose the dime.
Tommy looked at him in the eye and said, “If I take the quarter, the game is over.”
Oliver gave us a thought referring to Booker T. Washington, an American Educator, who fought against slavery and racism.
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
― Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery: An Autobiography
Nadine led us through the table topics session with 5 questions on success:
1. What is your personal view on success? Caroline pointed out that success means something different to everybody. For her it is to live a good life and to be content.
2. What was your personal biggest success in 2022? Frauke mentioned that professionally the year was challenging but she found a hobby to distract her which is knitting and she likes it.
3. What success was really important to you in 2022? Alisa openly spoke about her shyness and how she could overcome this when she met new people in a pub crawl last year.
4. Share with us a success story of a friend or family member which inspired you. Serena described how a colleague has become a role model for her.
5. What would make 2023 a successful year for you? Aldo shared with us how much he wishes to delegate his work.
Quote on success by Oprah Winfrey: Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.We had two prepared speeches. Gabi did the second speech of her path presentation mastery. She informed about the gardening project she belongs to and how she regularily receives her own veggies without gardening herself. Her speech was evaluated by JP. He praised her confidence in speaking. He would have like to have a clearer structure and more background information on the project.
The second speech project was delivered by Poorana. In his speech titled “From No Job to Yes Job” he shared a personal story how a mentor has significantly contributed to his life and why everyone needs a mentor. His evaluator Sybille was fascinated by the professional use of rethorical devices (repetitions etc) and his use of vocal variety.
The General Evaluator Oliver informed about the area contest end of February and asked the members to let him know if they are interested.
The awards were given to: Caroline as best Table Topic speaker, JP as best Evaluator and Poorana as best speaker of the evening.
Hope you enjoyed the recap (thank you Sybille for this great recap!). Join us on the 24th of January for next (in-person) meeting.
Best Toastmaster wishes, Jeff
Mannheim Int. Toastmasters
Here a photo of the meeting:
