Amber Wang
Ladies and gentlemen, when talking about vulnerability, what ideas come to your mind: weakness, loser, shame or fear? I believe most people will associate the word “vulnerability” with negative meanings. We’re always shaped to be strong, especially in traditional Chinese culture. But in fact, the driving force to become truly strong lies in admitting and accepting your vulnerabilities. Are you surprised? Yet we too often lose sight of the fact that vulnerability is also the starting point of joy, belonging, creativity and love. Only when we are brave enough to face the challenges of our lives will we discover the infinite power of hope. Next, I would like to illustrate my points by telling a moved life story of Joshua Hsu.
Before Joshua was thirty-three, his life looked so perfect. He was energetic, talented in many fields, and had gotten countless first winner places since his childhood. He had graduated from National Taiwan University, College of Medicine and married his beautiful wife, Susan. Wow! It’s just like a fairy tale where the prince and the princess will be happy forever! However, in 2007, his idyllic world was dramatically turned upside down by a skiing accident which seriously damaged his spine. This rendered him physically disabled and paralyzed from his waist down. Owing to the spinal cord injury, he is even unable to control the passing of his urine and feces. The medical term for this condition is “incontinence.” It is like a walking time-bomb which bothers him so much. Besides, the nonstop nervous pain tortures him every second.
What would you do if you were him? Cry? Blame others or the circumstances for such a misfortune? Of course, he did that! But moreover, he chose another positive way to find inner peace and the strength to overcome his tragedy.
By taking off his mask, he had more opportunities to know love, compassion and blessing from others than before. From this accident, he learned to reflect on his life path, have more gratitude for his family, and strive for unity in it.
By feeling the depths of his lows, he fully appreciated the depths of his highs.
Though Joshua lost some abilities, he chose to never give up. He strengthened his upper body through weight-lifting. He trained very hard to drive by himself, be a psychiatrist and do something as possible as he can. Because of his life experience, he had more empathy to comfort and inspire his patients. Furthermore, he cooperated with the Industrial Technology Research Institute to invent devices that help the disabled to walk.
By totally accepting his vulnerability and negative emotions, he realized more about the true meaning of courage. He shared his experiences by writing a blog, being interviewed on TV and on radio programs to positively encourage more people. He enthusiastically served as the CEO of the Spinal Cord Injury Foundation to help people with the same injury go through the suffering and integrate into society more.
The accident hurt his central nervous system, but gave him chances to weave a web of more connection with this world.
Joshua’s story has greatly enlightened me; furthermore, he is a good example of being “whole-hearted” which is a term created by Brené Brown. She is a research professor of social work and a renowned speaker as well. Her 2010 talk on the power of vulnerability and 2012 talk on listening to shame are two of the most watched talks on TED.com. During her decades of research and interviews, she has found something confusing and meaningful.
When she asks people about love, belonging and connection, they often tell her about heartbreak, being excluded and disconnection instead. On the contrary, “whole-hearted” people are a special group that has a deep sense of self-worth and of course, feels very happy and satisfied. They all have something in common.
Courage – These folks have a strong sense of courage to admit they are not perfect and tell the story of who they are. They are just real and honest. No matter whether they’re scared, have made a mistake, or feel hurt, they just admit it.
Compassion – They have the compassion to be kind to themselves first. They are willing to let go of something bad but has happened and believe they are worthy of love and belonging.
Change & Connection –The hardest and most important part. Whole-hearted people learn from the greatest lessons of sorrow and vulnerability, then modify their values of life and share their experience with others.
So ladies and gentlemen, as a science teacher, here is an equation I would like to teach you when facing the challenges. P=M*V Taking motions and efforts to make changes is no doubt necessary. But the multiple effect of vulnerability is even more. The dark does not destroy the light, but defines it instead. Embracing vulnerability fully brings a purpose and meaning to life. Vulnerability isn’t a curse but a gift for us to have more capacity for empathy and awareness of being worthy.
Showing posts with label MS C10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MS C10. Show all posts
May 22, 2014
Jun 23, 2007
Never Stop Learning and Don't Fear of Learning
C10 Speech, By Ivan Chiang
Toast master, Ladies and gentlemen!
At my 50th years birthday I just passed last year, I was thinking about what is my comprehension of my life. I concluded it to a simple motto: That is: "Never stop learning and don't fear of learning." This motto can describe my passed 50 years of life and will be the guideline of my second half of life. I will share my experience with you.
I was not a smart student in my school days. I had no chance to enter top junior high school or senior high even through hard study. During the second year of senior high, I was pretty ill and miss the final exam, so that I am failed it and had to study one year again. In this second year, I studied very hard to keep my score at top of my class till I graduated. And then I passed the entrance examination for university and entered a famous national university.
To review my study procedure, it is not smooth, but since I never give up, I finally caught up with many smart and better classmates in the end.
In my job career it is the same, I was never a frontrunner at the beginning, but after ten or twenty years, I gradually started to move forward. I owe what I am today to one reason: "I never stop learning."
Another example for me is to learn go game. My father taught me go game at my high school days. After one or two years, my father could hardly win, so he did not like to play with me anymore. After I joined go club in university, I found that my go level was very low, something like nine Gi. When I worked in CPC, I joined CPC’s go club. CPC has a whole company's go contest. Kaohsiung refinery needs to select 5 contestants to participate in this contest. At first few years I could not get the top-five ticket. When I finally won the ticket, I participated in this contest from the lowest丁group. After that, every year I got the top 3 award and moved to an upper group from 丙、乙、甲till the highest Dan group.
I caught up all these players smarter and better experience than me just because they looked at go as a game but I studied it as a knowledge.
Ladies and gentlemen! Most of the adults stop learning just because they fear. They are afraid that people knows his ignorance. They only want to show what they know and never ask about what they didn't know. How frequently you say the three words: "I don't know"? Do you know a very interesting phenomenon that the more people knowledgeable, the more frequently they say this three words. What does it meaning? It means: knowledge comes from your admission of ignorance.
During every learning process people will face failure. Some adults come to my go school to learn go. But after several time lost to children, they gave up. Once I saw a colleague listening to a foreigner speaking. He nodded his head all the time. And after this foreigner left, I asked him what this foreigner said. He said: "I didn't understand a singer word."
Last month my family joined a skiing tour to Korea. We had a skiing course here. Half of the members dare not to learn. They even didn't want to try. Another half put on the ski, took some picture, tried some times. When they fell down, they gave up. Finally, only the one who fell down the most times can learn to ski.
Ladies and gentlemen! Learning is a whole life career, and absolutely not limited to in school. To keep learning make your career successful, make your life colorful, and make you always young. But understanding that is not enough, you must not fear of making mistake when you learn English, not fear of falling down when you learn skiing, and not fear of losing when you learning go. It's the only way you will be able to have a successful learning.
As my C10 speech, I present this motto to inspirit you and myself: "Never stop learning and don't fear of learning."
Toast master, Ladies and gentlemen!
At my 50th years birthday I just passed last year, I was thinking about what is my comprehension of my life. I concluded it to a simple motto: That is: "Never stop learning and don't fear of learning." This motto can describe my passed 50 years of life and will be the guideline of my second half of life. I will share my experience with you.
I was not a smart student in my school days. I had no chance to enter top junior high school or senior high even through hard study. During the second year of senior high, I was pretty ill and miss the final exam, so that I am failed it and had to study one year again. In this second year, I studied very hard to keep my score at top of my class till I graduated. And then I passed the entrance examination for university and entered a famous national university.
To review my study procedure, it is not smooth, but since I never give up, I finally caught up with many smart and better classmates in the end.
In my job career it is the same, I was never a frontrunner at the beginning, but after ten or twenty years, I gradually started to move forward. I owe what I am today to one reason: "I never stop learning."
Another example for me is to learn go game. My father taught me go game at my high school days. After one or two years, my father could hardly win, so he did not like to play with me anymore. After I joined go club in university, I found that my go level was very low, something like nine Gi. When I worked in CPC, I joined CPC’s go club. CPC has a whole company's go contest. Kaohsiung refinery needs to select 5 contestants to participate in this contest. At first few years I could not get the top-five ticket. When I finally won the ticket, I participated in this contest from the lowest丁group. After that, every year I got the top 3 award and moved to an upper group from 丙、乙、甲till the highest Dan group.
I caught up all these players smarter and better experience than me just because they looked at go as a game but I studied it as a knowledge.
Ladies and gentlemen! Most of the adults stop learning just because they fear. They are afraid that people knows his ignorance. They only want to show what they know and never ask about what they didn't know. How frequently you say the three words: "I don't know"? Do you know a very interesting phenomenon that the more people knowledgeable, the more frequently they say this three words. What does it meaning? It means: knowledge comes from your admission of ignorance.
During every learning process people will face failure. Some adults come to my go school to learn go. But after several time lost to children, they gave up. Once I saw a colleague listening to a foreigner speaking. He nodded his head all the time. And after this foreigner left, I asked him what this foreigner said. He said: "I didn't understand a singer word."
Last month my family joined a skiing tour to Korea. We had a skiing course here. Half of the members dare not to learn. They even didn't want to try. Another half put on the ski, took some picture, tried some times. When they fell down, they gave up. Finally, only the one who fell down the most times can learn to ski.
Ladies and gentlemen! Learning is a whole life career, and absolutely not limited to in school. To keep learning make your career successful, make your life colorful, and make you always young. But understanding that is not enough, you must not fear of making mistake when you learn English, not fear of falling down when you learn skiing, and not fear of losing when you learning go. It's the only way you will be able to have a successful learning.
As my C10 speech, I present this motto to inspirit you and myself: "Never stop learning and don't fear of learning."
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