In Dec last year, I took the first step towards professional speaking by enrolling in the workshop/bootcamp for Get Paid To Speak (GPTS) by the world famous #Eric Feng at Experts in Asia. It is a three days programme to position, prepare and market ourselves towards professional speaking.
My Script
I enclose below my speech developed during the workshop:
From Battlefield to Boardroom: Harnessing Resilience to Lead in Turbulent Times
“How many of you have cheated death once? Please Raise your hand”
Raise the Stakes
“Thanks, pls keep your hands raised. How many of you have cheated death twice, pls raise your hand.”
Personal Hook
“Congrats! We’ve been lucky to have cheated death not once, but twice.”
Story 1 – Cambridge, England
“My first time was on a football field in Cambridge in 1988, when I was a final year student at Oxford. I went to Cambridge to play football for the Oxford Malaysian and Singaporean Association. I was then a young officer full of ambition. Our goalkeeper was injured so I was playing goalkeeper. There was a time when a striker broke through the defence. I went for the ball, and he went for my head. The impact fractured my skull. In an instant, the roar of the crowd turned into a ringing silence, and I was rushed to the hospital. I was in coma for 36 hours, but survived, but the road to recovery was a brutal lesson in vulnerability.”
Story 2 – Kanchanaburi, Thailand
“The second time came in the mountains of Kanchanaburi, Thailand, in 1994. During a training exercise with the Thai Special Forces and Ranger Bn. Our Landover overturned, I lost my Operations Sergeant, Ah Han, and nearly lost half of my left arm, to the Thai doctors. We were thrown into the bush, rescued by a farmer, and taken to Kanchanaburi Hospital. I spent three months recovering and relearning how to walk, lift my arm, how to simply operate as a Cdo officer. That experience taught me that resilience isn’t just about surviving—it’s about turning survival into purposeful action.”
Transition – From Survival to Leadership
“So, when I returned to the Singapore Armed Forces, I carried those hard‑won lessons into command. I eventually led 22,500 officers and soldiers as Comd 6 Div through some of the toughest years in the SAF. Later, I stepped into the private sector, at the PT sector, taking the helm of the largest taxi fleet in Perth, Western Australia, as CEO Swan Taxis. The market was volatile, competition fierce, margins razor‑thin. I applied the same battlefield principles—rapid decision‑making, crystal‑clear communication, relentless focus on the mission—to turn a fragmented fleet into a market leader that serviced 90 % of the region’s rides.”
Why It Matters to You
“What do all these have to do with you here? Everything. In today’s turbulent business landscape, leaders face constant shocks—supply‑chain disruptions, digital upheaval, talent shortages. The difference between a team that crumbles and one that thrives is how they internalise resilience.”
Three Practical Habits
- Own the Moment – “When a crisis hits, pause. Take a breath. Assess the facts. Then act decisively. That 1-min pause is the battlefield equivalence of a commander’s ‘take a breath before you fire.’”
- Tell the Story – “People remember narratives, not spreadsheets. When I briefed my troops, I didn’t drown them in data; I painted a vivid picture of the mission’s purpose. Do the same with your stakeholders—wrap your strategy in a story that sparks imagination.”
- Build a Culture of Recovery – “After any setback, debrief. Extract the lesson. Move forward. A ‘post‑mortem’ isn’t a blame game; it’s a rehearsal for the next battle.”
Mindfulness – The Force Multiplier
“In my consultancy at MindVibes, I’ve seen leaders who practise a one‑minute breath check before every major decision cut stress‑induced errors by half. That simple habit sharpens focus, steadies nerves, and reinforces the resilience you already possess.”
AI – Amplifying Resilience
“For our KiteSense coaching, we are giving one-on-one AI experience to the disadvantaged children. There’re close attention, patience, support and motivation by the AI tutors. For organisations, they would benefit from the AI because they could become more competitive with the AI.”
Closing – The Takeaway
“Resilience is a habit, not a headline. If you leave here today, remember three words: Own, Tell, Recover. As a Chinese saying goes, ‘If you survive a great tragedy, a good life follows.’
Thank You
“Thank you very much”
Key Takeaways
- The GPTS Bootcamp is a good workshop to launch your professional speaking career. Unfortunately this is the last workshop run by Eric Feng himself. But there will be more such workshops run by other staff.
- The bootcamp is only a start of a long series of work towards professional speaking. I’ll be working hard to follow up on his arena to materialise this plan.
Comments
4 responses
Thank you Mr Yeo for your candid sharing on life’s lessons and tribulations.
吃得苦中苦方为人上人.
Things happen in life beyond our mundane knowledge, thoughts and control. Perhaps you could enlighten how we, when down in the pits, can garner the will, courage and energies to rise again – at our pace, progress and our own defined path and measure of success.
Your experiences and triumphs would definitely inspire me, and perhaps many others.
Thank you.
Tks Jackson for your positive and encouraging comments. When “down in the pits,” like what Winston Churchill says, “Never, never, never give up.” This is very important, then think of a different way to regain the initiative. An example in point was when I had injured my left arm in Thailand, to continue to do enough pull ups, I changed from the overhand to the underhand method to order to have sufficient grip. Thus, I continue to excel in IPPT and get the gold that was required in the Cdos. Just my thought. See Peng
大难不死必有后福
It’s so true that people remember narratives , not spreadsheets, and that’s why storytelling is a skill worth mastering.
Agreed with your positive comments, Dean.