When I joined Toastmasters in 1986, the motivation was to find a place for practicing English. I soon realized that Toastmasters was more than that. It is a place where members learn public speaking and leadership skills through proactive participation in the communication and leadership programs. Hundreds of thousands of people have already benefited greatly from the Toastmasters programs.

I have been a rather laid back Toastmaster who advanced at a snail’s pace. I earned my CTM (equivalent to CC) in 1995, ATMB (equivalent to ACB) in 2004, and ACS in 2009. The slow pace continued until December 2016 at which time I was encouraged by Trini Ding, DTM, then District Program Quality Director 2016-2017, to take part in the HPL Project group. With superior guidance from the HPL Guidance Committee, my HPL Project, which was to recruit more than 30 Toastmasters to climb Hehuan Mountains, was completed successfully in May 2018. The biggest learning from my HPL project was that “Leadership is not about giving

orders to people to follow but motivating them to develop their potentials.” I was thus motivated to become more aggressive in fulfilling all duties and was honored to receive the DTM recognition from Toastmasters International in January 2018.

I have probably broken the record in Taiwan Toastmasters history in terms of spending the longest time for achieving the DTM award, which is only a negative example and is nothing to brag about. In the wake of the upcoming Pathways program launch this May, I shall commit myself to accomplishing all requirements for a second DTM at a much faster speed. In the mean time, I will also devote myself in motivating fellow Toastmasters for developing their potentials.