High School Hall Of Fame Speeches
Turn Your Weakness Into Your Strength  by Chad Gookin
I recently found myself in a friendly debate about whether it’s better to focus on your strengths or your weaknesses. My “opposition” made the claim that people should embrace their strengths, and not dwell on their shortcomings. His argument was that many people get so consumed with never being “good enough” and fail to recognize and embrace their strengths. While I understand that his comment comes from a good place, and there is some validity to it, I had to respectfully disagree.
You see, I have always been a believer that to truly grow as a person, you have to work diligently to overcome and conquer perceived weaknesses. Notice I used the word “perceived.” In my experience, a perceived weakness often ends up becoming a strength once a person can simply overcome his or her own fear.
My opinion on this topic has been shaped by my life. I was born with a cleft lip and palate. For those who are unfamiliar with this condition, it’s when a baby is born with an undeveloped upper lip or palate (the roof of your mouth). In my case, I was missing my upper lip and had a hole in the roof of my mouth. Even after countless surgeries by some outstanding doctors, the ability to speak (something most people take for granted) was painstakingly difficult for me, and caused all sorts of insecurity issues.
My parents never allowed me to feel sorry for myself. They never let me accept that I “couldn’t” do something. They never let me think that being a cleft-born baby was in any way, shape or form, a defect. Sure, it presented a new set of challenges. But when life presents you challenges, it’s all the more gratifying when you can overcome them.
Since speaking was such a challenge for me, you can imagine the fear I had about speaking in public–which can be insanely scary, even for people who can articulate and pronounce words with ease and grace. Rather than simply acknowledge that speaking was a weakness, and to simply focus on what I happened to already be good at…I challenged myself. As a high school student, I threw myself into some of the scariest scenarios such as the school play and the speech/forensics team. When it was all said and done, after embracing the challenge and overcoming my fear, I advanced to the national competition. In my eyes, I had officially conquered my biggest perceived weakness.
So, yes, when it comes to this topic of whether to focus on your strengths or your weaknesses, I am biased. In no way am I telling people that they should never be content with who they are. In fact, it’s the opposite. Conquering these perceived weaknesses is a feeling like no other. When you are comfortable in your own skin and unleash your untapped potential, you can turn these “can’ts” into “cans.”
I’m not naive enough to say that with enough practice and determination, a person can accomplish anything or become anyone. There are obviously other factors that come into play. No matter how hard I were to practice and work, I know I will not suddenly become a Hall-of-Fame caliber baseball player. What I am trying to say is continually challenge yourself. Don’t just do what comes naturally to you. Learn new things. While you might struggle at first, with time, you might just end up with a brand new strength.
About the Author
About the author: Outside of work, Chad Gookin continually looks to learn and conquer new challenges. At work, he is the content strategist at Metro Studios where he assists clients on the best strategies to drive new, relevant traffic to their website and keeps them up-to-speed on the latest trends in the industry. Some of the clients he has worked with including Infinity Contact (a premier provider of B2B outsourced sales services), and Bench Solution (a unique folding garage workbench that offers a great way to add space and functionality to your garage).
Topeka High School Hall of Fame Acceptance Speech Part 1
