hello everyone I’m back in a gym
although a second-year english track
student from Salzburg Bali
come to Stone Mountain now you might
question why on earth would I start one
of the most important speeches of my
life with a sentence like that of all
the quotes catchphrases hooks that I
could use why would I choose that one
there are millions of University
students around the world 13,000 of
which they’re studying in science
Bhupathi clearly I’m not the only one
with that title in college admission
process is made out of different steps
according to different institutions yet
I believe it’s not just about your SAT
scores or your GPA but more about your
personality because I wouldn’t be
acquiring that title of a sales bow
student if it wasn’t for my personality
you see this is a report that was
written about me after my interview for
South Pole in May 2015
one of the hardest 20 minutes of my
academic life talking about Middle East
and politic Middle Eastern conflicts
commenting on articles that I’ve never
read before it was rather challenging
for me I’m not gonna lie and towards the
end of my interview one of my
interviewers asked me if I could tell
them a book that I recently read she’d
probably understood that I was not
capable of answering any more questions
related to politics but I also realized
that it might need be a interview trick
she wanted me to make something up
something that I didn’t actually read
and I was confident enough I’m sorry not
to fall into this trap because I thought
I already lost everything that I had so
I said to her which was the truth the
last book that I read was trip Mount
Allah Madonna yeah
the exact same reaction that I got from
her she had no clue what I was talking
about it was a Turkish novel and I
didn’t even translate the title of the
novel but then this made me realize that
the tables were actually turning around
for me so I was like I gained my
confidence back and I was like oh you
don’t know I was a very famous one in
Turkey okay let me tell you about
something that you might know as if I
knew what I was talking about and I told
him about the other novel that I
recently read which was Veronica decides
to die has nothing to do with politics
it’s a psychological novel it’s about a
girl who fails to commit suicide and is
taken to a mental hospital where she
learns the value of life and love I mean
where’s the politics of this there is
wait because in that hospital
Veronica also learns how to listen to
people and I personally believe that a
politician should be a good listener
above anything else so that’s what I
told them with the exact same confidence
that I have in front of you right now
but I went out of the interview and I
went to my parents I said there is no
way that I’m getting in they hated me I
could see it on their faces turns out I
can’t read faces and see also admissions
at a very good poker face because I did
get in but not because they loved my
problematic about Veronica or how I
presented or what I said no they loved
how I said it how I presented my
arguments so when I saw this report last
year March it brought the inevitable
question into mind why do we give more
importance to our grades to our titles
than our personality
it was my personality that helped me in
that interview so why are we afraid of
showing who we are do we always have to
be trapped somewhere to reach out for
our personality can’t we use it always
and to question these a bit more and to
find answers to these questions let’s
take the simplest yet most effective
example possible introducing ourselves
what do you think matters when you
introduce yourself to someone your name
your title your university your high
school or simply your qualities and what
makes you you your creativity your your
character according to see on suppose
students it’s name that matters only
name as I answered this question how do
you how do you introduce yourself to
someone you’ve just met they same name
only sufficient and when you think about
it duh name what am I gonna tell them my
star sign okay but they answered very
different two different things to the
second question that I have because they
told me they don’t actually remember the
name of the people that they met huh
okay so the idea is here that seals both
students including me choose to
introduce themselves with their names
and their names only but don’t actually
remember the names that they were
introduced by okay and to give you one
another scale in this question of name
here’s what I found from my own country
these are the most common five male and
female names recorded in Turkey
according to Turkish Statistical
Institute and General Directorate of
civil registration and Nationality and
the first two well and the first two of
each are given up to two million people
okay so I’m asking you once again what
is going to set us apart from all those
people who share the same name with us
when that is how we try to introduce
ourselves and my answer to that question
would be personality as I’m standing
here in front of you right now
I’m sure and I’m steady and I know that
personality matters over the years
politicians debaters scholars have shown
us the importance of personality
de-facto for those who can remember not
that long ago in 1829 Don Quinn Andrew
Jackson ran for the u.s. presidential
elections with the
open of Don Quincy Adams his opponent
who can write or Andrew Jackson who can
fight and this shows the significance of
one’s personality over the substance of
their work it is what leads to populism
whether you’re supported or not and
cults of personality and politics the
phenomenon of charismatic leaders much
can be said about the wide area of
charismatic leaders that the world has
seen as they have enjoyed varying levels
of success on the job with different
qualities and politics but one thing
that they have in common is that people
vote for them people elect them because
they like the way they speak the way
they just are because I’m not you’re on
that report you so see on spell
basically like nothing about my academic
abilities it was just how I spoke but
also when we think about politicians
scholars historians that the world has
seen there’s not that many that we can
remember think about it people who you
consider that have changed the world how
many you can count for me it’s not that
many handful maybe more than handful for
example Bill Gates the founder of
Microsoft is known for his dedication
and hard work whereas Steve Jobs the
co-founder of Apple is known for his wit
creative thinking and eccentric
personality both can be considered as
equally successful in their fields but
it is jobs that comes to mind as an
innovator we do have stronger emotional
ties when we use Apple products don’t we
than any other phones computers and this
ties into the image of jobs and what he
has created his personality as we saw it
he made it cool to be a college dropout
or being fired from your very own
company I don’t think that’s an easy
feat to accomplish but normatively
speaking the last two examples that I’ve
given under Jackson and
jobs can be considered as as I would
like to call them positive personalities
they put a smile on our faces when we
think about these people we feel happy
but a personality does not necessarily
have to be good or positive for you to
notice it right right because just after
I asked that question we thought about a
specific person who you don’t want to
actually admit that has a strong
personality you might not like the way
they lead their lives the way they
approach things but just after I asked
that question even though was a
rhetorical one you thought about him or
her which proves that they made you
remember them and those are the
personalities that can turn heads around
when they enter a room a very recent
example can be given as Donald Trump
it is widely said and known by his
supporters that they find him honest and
frank and they look beyond the elements
in his policies that they disagree with
some may be emailed to this charm and
some might support it but it is
pointless to deny that there is a charm
which awarded him the presents
presidency he made everyone remember him
and those are the personalities that are
strong enough to be politicians debaters
scholars strong enough to make them them
and take them who they are stat where
they are standing right now and it’s
definitely strong enough to make us who
we are but another thing that all these
examples that have given so far have in
common is the fact that they had their
time and chance unfortunately not all of
us of the luck to be in the public eye
and attract masses with our personality
some of us try never get the chance some
of us do get the chance some of us just
don’t care for some it doesn’t matter to
be remembered by masses it’s just that
one person that matters whether it be an
important individual or someone
you love think about how happy when you
feel when someone goes to you and says
oh yeah I remember you
you’re the clumsy one aren’t you so how
do we reach to this point how do we make
someone remember us but more importantly
how do we make ourselves believe that
personality matters of course it’s not
something that can happen in a day in a
blink of an eye it’s a process it has to
be taken step by step but the first
thing that we can do our first it can be
changing the way we introduce ourselves
next chance we have lunch break
tonight’s party or any part of our lives
when we introduce ourselves to someone
let’s not be like Hello I’m so-and-so
from so-and-so University studying
so-and-so ha or I’m so-and-so from
so-and-so company doing so-and-so your
business card is for that every
necessary information is written down
there but what we’re trying to do is to
make that person who’ve you’ve given the
card to smile grin or even wrong when
they find that card in the hidden places
of their wallet five months after you’ve
given it to them my grandfather a
parliament member told me that he shakes
up to 2,000 hands in a propaganda day
and 250 to 300 in a regular day and when
I asked him how many of these people we
can actually remembers he told me 25
maybe 30 and when I asked him again why
so little he told me I quote child I
meet numerous people on there the same
title and they’re the same company doing
the same job under the same name even
and the ones that I do remember at the
ones that they can make a funny comment
about politics or introduce themselves
creatively or tell me genuinely in
bluntly how they actually don’t agree
with my politics so going back to what I
said
let’s try to use the next chance we have
instead of presenting ourselves with a
generic title let present let’s present
what matters to us what makes us us
because even though if they might hate
it which is quite possible I’m telling
you and there done that
they’ll for sure remember it I know what
you’re thinking right now I think I
think I know we were thinking right now
because about 15 minutes ago I
introduced myself to you with the words
hello I’m back in each Imola a second
year English Jack student from science
Bhupati confessed immortal and no I am
not contradicting myself because that
was just to show you that when we all go
out of this room that name that title is
not going to be anything but a small
detail in a person’s personality the
world might be a stage as they say and
we are all merely the speakers but
unfortunately we don’t always have 15
minutes so we have to make the most of
our limited time so allow me once again
hello I’m but you know what forget it thank you thank you thank you