The Power of Words

Manama

Mohammed Qahtani, a security engineer from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, won the title of 2015 World Champion of Public Speaking in International speech competition of Toastmasters International held at Las Vegas. 

He won the championship for his humorous speech titled “The Power of Words”. 

Qahtani, along with nine other final contestants, reached the championship level after several elimination rounds that began six months ago with 30,000 participants from more than 100 countries. 

This is the first time in the history of Toastmasters International that the first place is bagged by a Saudi national and a speaker representing Saudi Arabia. Toastmasters Clubs in Bahrain held a grand reception at the Bahrain International airport.

 “I feel blessed. It’s a dream I never thought would happen in real life,’ Qahtani told DT News. I am thankful to all the Toastmasters in Saudi Arabia who encouraged me and the Clubs in Bahrain who hosted me many a time,” he added. 

Talking about his winning speech, it was a personal tale about events in his life. According to the speech, “if words had been said differently, they would have elicited a radically different response.” 

“Your mouth can spit venom, or it can mend a broken soul,” said Qahtani, who grew up being teased for having a severe stuttering speech impediment.

He said, as a child he was a mute and uttered his first word at age 6. “Words are power,” he said in his speech. “Words can be your power. You can change a life, inspire a nation, make this world a beautiful place.”

Qahtani joined Toastmasters six years ago. He competed in many speech contests and honed his timing in standup comedy before reaching his goal of earning the title of World Champion of Public Speaking, which he hopes will be a springboard into a career in professional speaking. 

In his acceptance speech, he encouraged the audience to “face your fears.” He said, “I used to be the laughing stock at school, but look at me now.  If this can happen to me, imagine what could happen to you.”

This was the first time in the history of the contest that all three top winners came from countries outside North America. The second place was won by Aditya Maheswaran from Mumbai, India, for his speech titled “Scratch”. Manoj Vasudevan from Singapore won the third place for the speech titled “We Can Fix It.”

 In addition to his being the first Arab, first Muslim and first Saudi to win this title in the 84 year history of Toastmaster’s World Championship, this was also his first time competing at the International level. 

Qahtani attributed his success to his family, District 79 Toastmasters, his mentors and everyone around him who supported him, while sending a message to fellow countrymen.

 He said, “If with all these difficulties I can succeed, you all can do wonders!”