Dare to Speak, Chirag Sheth
Being a really good student, my dad wanted me to be an engineer. But my passion always lied in writing and public speaking. My Mom and Dad have excellent communication skills, so speaking came very naturally to me.
I still remember the first time I spoke in public, there were around 800 people, and I was taken aback. I stuttered a lot, but it did not damage my confidence.
The notion that an 18-year old couldn’t really write a book on “Motivation” made people more curious to read my book, “AToZ of Motivation” and it was a huge success. The Education Minister of Maharashtra Shri Vinod Tawde and even people from Forbes List recommended it.
Soon colleges started approaching me, the first one being IIT Bombay. That was the initial step to my journey of speaking. Initially, people were skeptical of calling me as they thought that I was too young to motivate people, and I had to prove them wrong.
Once at an event in one college, I had spoken for 2 minutes at the Personality Contest, and the judges disqualified me, saying that “speaking is not a talent”. Two years later, the same college invited me as the Guest of Honour to judge the personality contest.
I have delivered lectures on leadership and motivation in more than 60 colleges around the globe. And I feel really inspired that I had the opportunity to influence 25000+ at such a young age.
Currently, I am pursuing my Bachelors’ Degree in Finance and Professional Sales at the University of Toledo, USA, while working on my new venture, ‘Leading the World’, where I promote budding writers and authors.
With bringing my story on Storiyaan, I want to break the notion that a public speaker has to be in his 40s and should be retired after having a good corporate life. The young generation has a better take on leadership, youth empowerment and women empowerment and a lot of such topics. I greatly believe that age is just a number, and its always passion that creates impact and not age or experience.