Last week the YMCA Business Centre graduated 22 new Entrepreneurs from the YEP program. Since I facilitate (teach) these students for 12 weeks for 3 hours a week, I got to represent all the facilitators at the graduation. Here is my speech to the students.
Hello Everyone,
Some of you know me and some of you don’t. I would like to introduce myself.
I am the Generic Facilitator, I represent all the facilitators that have taught you during your six months at the YMCA. As you can see, we are all very good looking. We all look and act years younger than our ages. We all extremely intelligent, articulate, and have sparkling wit, and clear demonstrate the character trait of modesty.
We are all entrepreneurs. We all have multiple business interests. I make my living through the written word by getting customers to buy things because of the sentences I create. But I also own a Curves franchise, a website for job hunters, and have a few other interests. The only that makes me different than the other facilitators is the details of my business.
I am humbled by being asked to speak today, i must thank Rashpal [YMCA Business Centre Director] for the opportunity of speaking at a YMCA event.
The YMCA is truly a Canadian organization.
Where else, but at the Young Men’s Christian Association would an Orthodox Jew be teaching women, Catholics, Muslims, Hindu’s, native born Canadians, new Canadians, and soon to be Canadians. If I missed out any other ethnic group, its not a slight, I am just just focused on time.
In the Jewish tradition, we are taught that we have an obligation to honour our teachers when we are honoured.
I have two teachers its appropriate for me to honour today.
The first is Dale Carnegie, the author of “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. a book first published in the 1930′s. It was the first book on success that I ever read. Dale Carnegie started his teaching career at a YMCA Business School, much like the YMCA Business Centre in Markham.
The YMCA is known for its athletics, but in reality, its classes are its origins and its greatest influence.
About the second teacher. Several years ago I attended an event similiar to this one. An event hosted by the Markham Board of Trade and the YMCA.
A fellow who I didn’t know gave an inspiring and awesome speech. It was a speech directed to the graduating class of YEP.
The speech was so inspiring, I immediately volunteered to teach my Success Through Balance course at the YMCA for no charge. I have now been teaching for three yearThe fistrs and expect to teach for another 25 years.
The person who gave that inspirational speech was Stephen Wong who is here today. Please give Stephen a round of applause for his many years of contribution to the YMCA.
Back to my story.
I was asked to send a course outline and after some discussion, I committed to the 12 weeks for 2 1/2 hours every Monday afternoon.
Now I want to teach the YEP students a few things based on this story. This is for the ears of the YEP students only and its a secret, so don’t tell anybody else.
The secret is that the course didn’t exist when I volunteered to teach it. It was just an idea in my mind.
Here are the lessons that can be learned:
- The first lesson is about goals. By committing to the course, I was committing to the goal of creating a course. The YMCA was counting on me, and therefore I couldn’t let them down.
- The second lesson is about knowing your customer. I had a customer and I knew everything about that customer, so I could not fail. The customer was not the YMCA, they are my distribution team, the customer was the YEP student.
The course has been a success. The have received thanks from the students, I am here speaking, and I have won a prestigious award for my efforts.
This story is a litmus test for entrepreneurs. If you are shocked by my committing to deliver something that I didn’t have – then you are not an entrenchment. If you saw what I saw – opportunity – and you believe that you can deliver – like I believe I can deliver, then you have the makings of an entrepreneur.
The last lesson is obvious. Successful entrepreneurs must believe in themselves and in their product.
What I did is done everyday.
One of the most famous examples is Bill Gates. He negotiated to an operating system to BM without having one.
Once he negotiated the contract, he went out and bought MS-DOS. I did it, Bill Gates did it, you can do it.
Why Do We Facilitate?
I spend an afternoon each week. I schedule hugh paying clients around my teaching. All the other facilitators do the same.
I know many facilitators are on call to fill in at the last moment. Many give financial support for the business centre.
One big re4ason is we get to speak to 20 or so people who think we know what we are talking about. If you have teen-age kids, its amazimg change from life at home.
On a more serious note, my YMCA facilitating experiences has led me to participate in some very wonderful opportunities.
I have helped select a YMCA Peace Medal winner. I have helped select YMCA Volunteer Of The Year recipients, I have helped fund businesses through the YBF, and I have met the exceptional people who are the students of the YMCA.
The students of the YEP are varied. Some are high school dropouts, some are highly educated. Some come from wealthy families, others from poverty. Some grew up in Canada and some did not.
They all have a single thing in common. They all have a goal to start a business.
The business ideas involve every imaginable business concept. Some are small, some are grandiose. They are all exceptional.
A famous teaching in Judaism (and I am sure elsewhere) is that we learn much from our teachers, but we learn more from our students.
The students force us to reconsider everything. They may not have much business knowledge at the beginning, but they do not lack intelligence, and they do not lack life experiences.
The students absorb in a very short time an amazing amount of material. The grow as individuals and as business people.
Everyone of these graduates will now be able to see themselves as running their own personal corporation.
In closing, I am obligating each member of the graduating class with four obligations.
The first obligation – you owe an obligation to each of the facilitators. We don’t want or expect anything back directly to us. We do expect you to “Play it forward.” You must now start teaching something somewhere.
The second obligation – you owe an obligation to the YMCA. The YMCA has helped you and has supported you. You must now give back to the YMCA by volunteering your time.
The third obligation – you owe an obligation to the Province of Ontario. The province has made this program possible. You must now become successful in your business. Your business will increase the wealth of the province and you must provide employment and opportunities to others.
The last obligation – you owe an obligation to yourself. You have worked hard and you have struggled. Graduation is a milestone, not an end. Your obligation to yourself is for you to create a successful business.
I wish you all well and may everyone of your dreams come true.
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