I am fortunate to be located in a Toastmasters district in Central California. We have the highly competitive clubs of Las Vegas to keep us on our toes for tall tales and international speech contests. Just four hours to the south is the headquarters of Toastmasters International. And midway between here and there is Lancaster, California, home to one of the most unique Toastmasters in the world.
Dana LaMon is the only world champion public speaker who is also an accredited speaker. She is also blind since the age of four. She has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Yale and a law degree from the University of Southern California. He recently retired as an administrative law judge.
Dana has spoken to audiences around the world and one of her most popular topics is excellence. “The Book of Excellence” is the source for many of those speeches. The 104 Principles were written over a brief period by Dana as she contemplated her life and career as the previous century drew to a close. He began sharing the principles with friends and colleagues who asked for copies. Thus the book was born.
It is a pocket book or the size of a handbag. Perfect for pulling out and opening when you’re in line or sitting in a waiting room. Each page features a quoteable principle along with a bit of commentary.
Principle #2.
Excellence demands that you do your best, not be the best.”
Dana tells us that even if we are involved in a competition, we should focus on giving our best performance. For those who are impatient, there is principle #6:
On the path of a planned project, excellence is
progress towards completion.”
Principle #22 is mentioned in a previous article titled “How I was given a vision of excellence by Dana LaMon, speaker and author.” I was able to hear her speak at a recent Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) because she lives so close to our district. He gave us this principle:
Where there is no meaning in what you do, there will likely be mediocrity in your performance.”
Your unique purpose will always be on your mind, giving you enthusiasm and energy for the task, if it makes sense.
These are just two of the 104 principles. Why 104? She would have said “two a week,” but Dana tells us in the introduction that that’s where she ran out of ideas. I highly doubt that he will ever run out of ideas in the area of ​​excellence. It makes a convenient sized book, so I’m glad he stopped writing.