Our Power is In Our Mouth
Steve Jobs once said that the most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. Joseph Nye
introduced the concept of soft power, where negotiation and words can replace what once
used to do with guns and swords. There are many other people who talk about how words can
change the world. But i dont learned that from those people.
I learned that lesson from my Mom.
Since I can remember, it's only me and my mom in our little house. It's hard to raise a child,
more so if you're a single mother, and thus things are not always easy on our plate. When I
was a child, I often broke school rules to get more attention. Everyone knows and labeled me
as ‘difficult child’. So when an accident of breaking the class windows happened, their
fingers and mouth eagerly hushed at me, throwing the blame for something I never did in the
first place. I remember telling everyone that I'm innocent and no one believes me except my
Mom. She comes to the School, throws out every alibi and arguments, debates the whole
School board to make sure they know i’m innocent. We won, the School revoked the
punishment.
“People like us, our power is in our mouth, laced to our words.” My Mom said to me after
that. Those words, attached to my mind forever. It's what runs in my mind when I start my
speech at competitions, how a few words and intonation can get me more money for college.
It pops out in my mind, when I networking with as many of the people that I could. Those
networks are the reasons why my life turned out much better with the business I founded with
them. It's what I believe when I stand brave in front of thousands important strangers today.
“Everyone, the inequality and misogynism against women is what is holding us back-”
Words have made me this far.