ENGLISH SPEECH | MOHAMMED QAHTANI: The Power Of Words (English Subtitles)

Summary

In his captivating speech, Mohammed Qahtani emphasizes the profound impact and power words can have on individuals and society. Through personal anecdotes and relatable stories, he discusses how words can inspire, uplift, and also harm, urging people to choose their words wisely to create positive change. Qahtani shares intimate moments that transformed lives, illustrating the potential and responsibility that come with the words we choose to speak.

Highlights

• Mohammed Qahtani captivates the audience with personal anecdotes to highlight the power of words. 🌟
• He shares a story about his son to illustrate how words can positively or negatively influence behavior. 👨‍👦
• Qahtani emphasizes the role of communication in spreading awareness about crucial issues like global warming. 🌍
• He recounts a tragic story of his friend Nasser to show how a lack of affirming words led to despair. 💔
• The speech concludes with inspiration, encouraging everyone to overcome challenges by believing in their capacity to achieve the impossible. 🚀

Key Takeaways

• Words have immense power - they can build or destroy lives. 💪
• Choose your words carefully to inspire and uplift others. 🌟
• Communication is not just about what you say, but how you say it. 🗣️
• Role models have a significant influence and responsibility when speaking. 🙌
• Personal stories and examples can effectively convey powerful messages. 📚

Overview

Mohammed Qahtani’s speech, 'The Power of Words,' is a compelling exploration of how words can shape reality and influence lives. He engages the audience with a captivating narrative, illustrating through vivid storytelling how the right choice of words can dramatically change outcomes, inspire people, or lead to unintended consequences.

Through various personal anecdotes, Qahtani demonstrates the immense responsibility that comes with speaking, emphasizing how important it is to express oneself in ways that uplift and encourage others. He recites experiences from his personal life — involving his child and a friend — to show both the creative and destructive potential that our words hold.

Qahtani’s speech is a call to action for everyone to harness the power of words to make positive impacts. Whether dealing with children, addressing global issues like climate change, or supporting loved ones, he inspires the audience to be mindful of their words, suggesting that this awareness can lead to transformative changes and successes.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 03:00: Introduction - The Power of Words The chapter 'Introduction - The Power of Words' begins with a provoking statement questioning the conventional belief that smoking kills. It opens a conversation on the influence and impact of words in shaping perception and beliefs.
• 03:00 - 07:10: The Impact of Words - Personal Stories and Examples The chapter titled 'The Impact of Words - Personal Stories and Examples' explores the profound effect language and narratives have on personal perceptions and societal issues. It contrasts common perceptions, such as the health hazards of smoking and diabetes, with lesser-known facts, challenging prevalent narratives. The transcript highlights shocking statistics, such as the higher mortality rate from diabetes compared to smoking and contradicts popular beliefs about the primary causes of lung cancer. The narrative implies that societal campaigns against smoking may have underlying motives related to agricultural restrictions, rather than purely health concerns. The chapter encourages readers to reconsider how information is presented and the potential influences of language on understanding and decision-making.
• 07:10 - 09:00: Conclusion - Inspirational Message The chapter, titled 'Conclusion - Inspirational Message,' captures a Toastmasters speaker addressing the audience with a blend of humor and a cautionary tale about persuasion. The speaker admits to fabricating arguments to demonstrate influence, revealing that out of his group of friends, five were persuaded, and two even began smoking as a result. This conveys a powerful message about the impact and responsibility that comes with persuasive communication.

ENGLISH SPEECH | MOHAMMED QAHTANI: The Power Of Words (English Subtitles) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 What? Or you all think smoking kills? Let me tell you something.
• 00:30 - 01:00 Do you know that the amount of people dying from diabetes are 3 times as many people dying from smoking? Yet, if I put a snicker bar, nobody would say anything. Do you know that the leading cause of lung cancer is not actually a cigarette, it’s your DNA? You could smoke for years and nothing would ever happen to you. This whole war against smoking is just to restrict the farming of tobacco.
• 01:00 - 01:30 Mr. Contest Chair, fellow Toastmasters and guests, I use these arguments — even though I just made them up — with a group of my friends and the results: five of them believed what I said, two of them started smoking.
• 01:30 - 02:00 Words, when said and articulated in the right way, can change someone’s mind. They can alter someone’s belief. You have the power to bring someone from the slums of life and make a successful person out of them, or destroy someone’s happiness using only your words. Does that seem a bit too good to be true? A simple choice of ‘word’ can make a difference between someone accepting or denying your
• 02:00 - 02:30 message. You can have a very beautiful thing to say, but say it in the wrong words and [sssshhh] it’s gone. I have a son who is four, and he had this bad habit of writing on the walls with crayons. And one evening I walked into his room and he’s going at it, just writing and drawing and so on. And I said, “Hey, hey, hey!
• 02:30 - 03:00 Are you stupid? Don’t you ever do that again?” And guess what happened. He did it again. Nobody likes to be threatened. Nobody likes to be intimidated. His pride will not allow it. He did it again just to spite me. A week later, I walked into his room and again, he’s going at it and this time, he was even looking at me, just.
• 03:00 - 03:30 I came down, I said “Sweetie, come here. Don’t do that, you’re a big boy now.” And he never did it again, because his pride wants him to be ‘the big boy’. Have you ever wondered why nobody cares about ‘global warming’?
• 03:30 - 04:00 Even though it’s a very serious issue, it could kill all of us, because when you go home and you flip on the TV and you see a scientist trying to talk about global warming, it goes something like this. [Imitating] “Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see from the graphs, that the statistics here – for 2014, it shows the water level is rising.
• 04:00 - 04:30 This table shows that the mono-dioxide level and the third ozone layer, is at an alarming position.” The message never get across, but most importantly, if you are a person who is a role model – if
• 04:30 - 05:00 you’re a person who has been admired, anything you say could be believed, anything you utter could be taken as truth. My friend Nasser, he loved his father, idealized his father, he would do anything to make him happy, but his father was the kind of person who was not easy to impress and year after year Nasser tried and his father’s like ‘no’. First year in college, Nasser have got straight A’s and he thought to himself this is it,
• 05:00 - 05:30 this is what will finally make my dad proud. He picked up the phone, he called his dad, “Dad, I got straight A’s. Are you proud? Please tell me you are proud father.” “Yeah, listen son, I’ll have to call you back, I’m busy.”
• 05:30 - 06:00 ‘I’m busy’, was the single sentence that broke the Camel’s back. And he started drinking, doing drugs, hanging out with the wrong crowd. Nasser why? Why are you throwing your life away?
• 06:00 - 06:30 If the one person in the world that I care about the most doesn’t care then, then why should I. And one evening I got the phone call, Nasser is in the emergency room, drug overdose. I rushed to that hospital. I saw him on that bed and I saw that machine go beep, beeep, beeeeeeeep.
• 06:30 - 07:00 And I saw doctors try to bring him back to life. Clear, [ssphhh] clear [sssphhh], clear [sssphhh] — it’s clear that a single word could have saved his life. Words have power, words are power, words could be your power. You can change a life, inspire your nation and make up this world a beautiful place.
• 07:00 - 07:30 Isn’t that what we all want it? Isn’t that why we are all in this hall? Your mouth can spit venom or it can mend a broken soul. Ladies and gentlemen, let that be our goal. Contest Chair. All right, then shortly, we’ll hear from our winner at this year.
• 07:30 - 08:00 Please welcome to the stage All right, let’s hear from the first place winner Mohammed. I did not know, it’s this big. Ladies and gentlemen, when we did the semifinals and I won — they asked me to say it something.
• 08:00 - 08:30 And I said, honestly, I didn’t prepare anything because I did not expect to win. And I’m coming here today and again, I did not expect to win. But I want you to think about what are your challenges and what are the things that you think is impossible, because this was impossible.
• 08:30 - 09:00 Not just for me, but for almost everybody who knows me. And yet here it is, I don’t want to say it again, but if I can do this, think about that thing that you thought you could never do. Or you just gave up on because, maybe it’s way up ahead and I cannot do it. And when you do, I want you to remember that Mohammed Qahtani got this.
• 09:00 - 09:30 I sure — and also you can do the same. Thank you.