Discovering Greatness

By: D. Wendo Azsed

October 18, 2016

Dorcas Wendo Aszed, photo courtesy of the Segal Family Foundation

“Who am I? Why am I here trying out this pitching competition that I have never done before and by looking at the most amazing people giving their pitch, I will never win”.

Those were my thoughts on that day.

Then I heard, “And the winner is Wendo Dorcas”. That evening I took the trophy to my room, sat on my hotel bed and cried until my ribs hurt, I cried for the woman who did not have confidence in herself, who considered herself inferior, who was fearlessly afraid, who was so proud of herself, for doing something she had never done before. She had pitched and won. Yes! The villager as I commonly, proudly, refer to myself, had won $10,000 USD plus a trophy.

The journey to this trophy started when I met Ayla of Resonate at a storytelling workshop sponsored by Segal Family Foundation for its partners, we were asked to choose one story of self and write it down, then for three minutes share it with the person sitting next to you.

What Ayla did not see, or maybe she did, was some of us crying as we read back our stories to ourselves and when we told it to others. People cried for different reasons but I cried at the realization that my journey was a story, that I was so much braver than I thought, that I was playing my part to change the world through life lessons and that it was okay to be proud of this journey.

This experience changed my life on how I viewed myself, I was still afraid to stand out even though my story showed I was born to fly, I was still unsure of my destination, but Resonate made me aware that I was stronger than I gave myself credit for.

Storytelling for Leadership training with resonate is not just learning how to project your story to others but to discover your inner strength and a confidence booster. It makes you look at yourself as if you are staring at a mirror and seeing yourself for the first time. You begin to love yourself and feel good about the bad experiences in your life, because at that moment when you finally tell your story with tears in your eyes, you see yourself clearly, you love yourself and you know, you have so much more to give to the world.

Everyone has a story to tell. Some happy, some sad. But when I learned to tell my story, I realized that my fear of speaking up, my lack of confidence was only in my head. Fear of greatness is real but after the storytelling training, there is only greatness.