This is the prepared speech draft of Chen Dong who was the winner of 2006 "CCTV Cup" English Speaking Contest.
I suppose this guy is worthy of the title of Audience Choice Award Winner and Winner of this contest for his sense of humor,the logical clearness of his arguments,plus good manners.
Yes,he has his charm and style,he is a man with real class,and I benefit a great deal after watching this vedio.
Nowadays,people all over the world,at least in this house,
seem to be emphasizing the importance of being different from others.
They say that difference from others makes you stand out,wins you an edge,brings you more chances and so on.
I believe this is totally true.
But we might have overlooked another kind of being different,this is,
to be different from yourself.
I suppose to be different from inside is even more important than to be different from the outside.
It is because trying to differnt from yourslef directly results in essential improvement inside you whereas the efforts to be distinct from others might stay in the superfical level.
I would like to give a story to illustrate.
I guess lots of you are using Nokia mobile phones,a famous brand from Finnland.
But I dare say not many of you know how these phones came into being.
Actually,when I was visitng Helsinki University in Finnland,
a Finnish friend told me that Nokia was once a company engaged in making boots.
And one day,when the hightest leaders were discussing how to strengthen their company,
one of them said "Let's make something different!"And then,they began to make phones.
Today,Nokia is well known throughout the world for its phones but not for its boots.
I think without making such a difference from itself,Nokia would never be so successful.
To sum up, I would say that to be different from yourself is more important than to be different from others.
As long as we concentrate on improving ourselves and transcend ourselves,
we would not be the same and cannot be the same as others.
Excellence will make you stand out saliently.