Following is the text of my speech.
My Journey to Mastery
Mr. Chair, fellow toastmasters and welcome guests.
My name is Steve. This is my first speech in the club. I feel so excited, since it means I will start a new journey, a journey of challenging myself and improving myself.
I would like to talk about myself, about my career, and why I am standing here.
I came from China. I was born in a province called Inner Mongolia. It is in the north part of China. I stayed there until I was 18 years old, then I went to Beijing for college, after graduation, I worked in Beijing until I moved to Canada later. My first job was working for China Aerospace Corporation as an engineer, now I am still really proud of having this experience in my life. And also I met my wife during that time.
Seven years ago my wife and I immigrated to Canada. Last year we got our first kid, my son Andy was born, now he is 14 months old, he give us so much fun, I love him so much.
About my career, I am a software developer; currently I develop applications for mobile phones. I’ve been a programmer for almost 20 years. When I look back, I will say for my first 10 years, I was an average developer; since my second 10 years, I started to know about the software craftsmanship movement. That really changed my self. It is about how to become a professional developer; it is about raising the bar of your job: not only write working code, but also write well-crafted code. It has principles, strategies and disciplines. Programming is like martial art, you need constantly to improve your skills; you need to keep practicing your skills. I really love this idea and I started to follow that philosophy, I learned a lot, gradually I can feel I get changed, change from an average developer to a professional developer, but I know there is a still a long way to go to become a master. I set my career goal to be a master; my career path will continue focus on technology.
I came from China. I was born in a province called Inner Mongolia. It is in the north part of China. I stayed there until I was 18 years old, then I went to Beijing for college, after graduation, I worked in Beijing until I moved to Canada later. My first job was working for China Aerospace Corporation as an engineer, now I am still really proud of having this experience in my life. And also I met my wife during that time.
Seven years ago my wife and I immigrated to Canada. Last year we got our first kid, my son Andy was born, now he is 14 months old, he give us so much fun, I love him so much.
About my career, I am a software developer; currently I develop applications for mobile phones. I’ve been a programmer for almost 20 years. When I look back, I will say for my first 10 years, I was an average developer; since my second 10 years, I started to know about the software craftsmanship movement. That really changed my self. It is about how to become a professional developer; it is about raising the bar of your job: not only write working code, but also write well-crafted code. It has principles, strategies and disciplines. Programming is like martial art, you need constantly to improve your skills; you need to keep practicing your skills. I really love this idea and I started to follow that philosophy, I learned a lot, gradually I can feel I get changed, change from an average developer to a professional developer, but I know there is a still a long way to go to become a master. I set my career goal to be a master; my career path will continue focus on technology.
But my mindset was changed due to my failure in my former company. About 3 years ago, I realized that the company has lots of issues: too many defects, projects always delayed, people always have to work over time. I got tired of working like that way, so I decided to stand out and push some changes: I talked to my manager, lobbied my colleagues, trying to bring the concept of craftsmanship and new methodology to the company. To my surprise, none of my suggestions was accepted; I did not get many positive feedbacks. I was frustrated because I thought those good ideas inspired me and should inspire others as well. But reality is totally different. I got stuck because I don't know what I need to do next. I realized that my vision was different with them, so I left the company 2 years ago.
Since then I tried to figure out why it is so hard to make people change. I started to understand that only have the good information is not enough; more important is delivering the message. You need to find a strategy, in some cases you need to be a good translator, transform the message to your audience in their languages. Based on my failure, I realize the importance of inspiring people, so I adjust my career goal: along my journey to become a master, I also want to be a coach, I want to tell other people their are better ways to develop software, I want to inspire more and more developers to follow the software craftsmanship. I believe this will be more valuable and more meaningful.
Based on the new goal, I realize I do have blind spots: my communication skill needs to be improved. I need to know how to inspire people, motivate people, and influence people. This is the reason why I am standing here.
Now I start my journey to become a toastmaster, I believe this journey is part of my long journey – the journey to become a master and a coach, I hope the toastmaster club will help me moving toward my final goal.
