Part B: How I've dealt with my challenges
One thing that had challenged me since as long as I remember is public speaking specially on a stage. It’s ironic because I’ve danced on stage for as long as I remember too and that’s not scary. My fear of public speaking is kind of like Sheldon’s from Big Bang Theory. I’m afraid of speaking in front of a crowd large enough to trample me. Jokes aside, when I was 19 years old standing in front of a boardroom full of people about to explain why they should give me and my team money and support to run our startup, I was terrified. The 10, 20, 30 Rule applied to our presentations ensured there was nothing I could read off of it and for the first few seconds I could find no words. As the earnest faces of expectant investors who had selected us from all the other applicants waited for words to come out of my mouth all I could taste was fear. However, I knew such opportunities are not meant to wasted, so I took a deep breath, and blurted out the best I could to introduce our idea. As the presentation went on my confidence grew and my team started to pitch in. We were able to answer all their questions and in the 5 teams that were finally selected, we were the only engineering students that too in our second year! This incident helped me overcome my fear. I realized that in the end it’s just people I would talk to anyway just more. And it taught me, that when I'm scared I should face it head on. The only way to leave fear behind, is through it. And cliches are cliches for a reason.
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