A Little Extra – My Project 3 Speech

From beginning itself I had a topic in my mind for project 3. As one of the objectives also talks about persuading, this topic looked good to me. Around 4 months back I had written a blog post on the same topic. Below is my entire speech.

Sir Walter Raleigh was a famed English writer, poet, soldier, courtier, and explorer. This story talks about his early childhood when he was attending a prestigious boarding school. He was an excellent student and wanted to be number one in his class. However, one lad always finished ahead of him, so he determined to discover the secret. Each night when he prepared for bed, he looked across the grounds that separated his room from that of his competitor and noticed that his candle was still burning. One night he noticed that the other boy studied only about fifteen minutes longer than he did. After that, Sir Walter Raleigh studied an extra twenty minutes every night. At the end of the year he was the number one student. He got the number one position because he was ready to put “A Little Extra” and that’s my topic of the day, “A Little Extra”.

I’ve often wondered how many students miss out on a college scholarship because they did not study an additional twenty minutes each day.  Research shows that over 98 percent of all scholarships are either academic or hardship, so some deserving students miss out not because of lack of ability, but because of lack of effort. Many times people grow frustrated because promotions or raises don’t come as fast as they think they should, so they jump ship when just around the corner the promotion awaits.

I often say, follow the mantra of “a little extra” and you will get magical outcomes. Keep every promise, and then “a little extra”; give your clients or customers everything they expect, and then “a little extra”; give whatever you do an honest effort, and then “a little extra”.

The old adage, “The difference between mediocrity and greatness is a little extra effort” applies everywhere. Try to see the food stalls in our food lane. Take a few minutes of walk, talk to few of your friends and you’ll realize the stalls who are taking care of “a little extra quality”, “a little extra hygiene”, “a little extra taste” are doing much better business than others.

You may ask how we can use the same in our daily life, the answer would be “Eliminate one half hour of television watching each day and you’ll gain 182.5 hours each year to use elsewhere (equivalent to four and a half weeks of work)”

Make just one extra contact each day …a sales call … a customer … a brief discussion with a col- league … an encouraging talk with a member of your team. With contact comes opportunity. At the end of the year you’ll have opened more than 200 additional doors of possibility.

The concept of “A Little Extra” applies almost everywhere, even in personal life. Few days back I met one of my old friends. He was looking little sad. I asked, “What happened?” He replied, “I was trying to woo a girl from last couple of weeks but ultimately I failed”. I got little more curious. I asked for details. He said, last week it was her birthday. I gave her a pack of Cadbury dairy milk but there was another guy who gave a pack of Cadbury fruits and nuts. He later got a dinner date with her.

So, it’s applicable everywhere  🙂

There is a management theory called 212 degree approach. It says, at 211 degrees, water is hot. At 212 degrees, it boils. And with boiling water comes steam. And with steam, you can power a train.

Applying just one extra degree of temperature to water means the difference between something that is simply very hot and something that generates enough force to power a large machine.

And, one extra degree of effort in our life and the business separates. Good from great.

In 100 meter race, the margin for victory between an OLYMPIC GOLD Medal and No Medal is less than a second. At Indy 500 Car Racing, the average margin for victory for the past 10 years has been 1.54 seconds. An average winner took home $ 1, 278, 813 and the second prize was $ 621, 321, a difference of $ 657, 492.

It’s our life. We are responsible for our results. It’s time to turn up the heat. To get what we have never had we MUST do what we have never done. A little extra belief to fuel our enthusiasm, A little extra focus to cut through the fog like a beacon in the night,  and A LITTLE Extra kindness to help ourselves and also to help others.

Thanks You !!!