More than words
Speaking to Dananjaya Hettiarachchi is like watching him on stage, inclusive of the laughter and amusing tales. When we meet he’s unwinding at the end of a long day packed with meetings, nibbling sushi at an exclusive member’s lounge in the heart of Colombo.
This is not the life he would have envisioned for himself as a teenager yet he embraces it, for lack of a better phrase-like a boss. That is exactly what makes a successful speaker, he shares. “90% of it is about having confidence. If you believe in yourself, so will your audience.”
Dananjaya is riding the crest of a wave that saw him being crowned the World Champion of Public Speaking at the 2014 Toastmasters International Convention in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. His speech, “I See Something” has been viewed over a 100,000 times on the web. It’s a speech he recycled from 2012’s TEDx Youth in Colombo. At the time a 20 minute long affair, Dananjaya had to whittle it down to 7 minutes and 20 seconds-“it took me a year to do that,” he says. In it he speaks about his own transformation from an aimless young man encountering a few people who saw “something” in him, changing the course of his life. Dananjaya’s speech totalled to just about 750 words, taking up five minutes in total (the rest, laughter) yet it struck a resonant chord with the 3-4000 strong audience at the convention.
His journey upto this point has been unconventional. Dananjaya was born in Nuwara Eliya, and later his parents moved to Colombo so he could attend St. Thomas College in Mount Lavinia. His academic performance was underwhelming, he had “no interest” in debating, theatre or speech and no clear goal in life until the age of 16, when he was arrested for assault in another school. Brawn was something Dananjaya wasn’t short of; he had started cadetting at this point and “looked like a number one thug,” he laughs. Having his mother visit him in prison was a moment of revelation, he says. “It hit me that my life was going nowhere,” he remembers. “I knew I had to do something.”
At this stage he also met Anton Samarasinghe, a man “with an indomitable spirit-when you looked at him you knew nothing was impossible for this man”.
Samarasinghe ignited a flame within young Dananjaya’s heart-“he changed my life.” Then, his mother enrolled him in a dancing class and he immediately fell in love-so he became a professional dancer.
It was later that his father took him to a Toastmasters meeting. He remembers it well; a building in Nawam Mawatha and a plywood door through which he could hear voices. Himself in rubber slippers, jeans and a Bart Simpson t-shirt. “If you had told me that walking through those doors would change my life I would have laughed,” he says. “But that’s exactly what happened.” He remembers listening to Rajiv Goonetilleke speak at that time and says if there was a better speaker that would certainly be Goonetilleke. Dananjaya also met Arunasalam Balraj, President of Toastmasters Colombo (appointed second Vice President of Toastmasters International in August 2014). “Bala was like a second father to me,” he says. “I don’t think anyone apart from my parents has invested more in my success.”
Since that moment his Toastmasters journey has been a series of triumphs and the occasional disappointment. In 2006 he qualified for the All Island Best Speaker contest, made a “thundering speech” called ‘Appeal to the Nation’ and expected to be placed first. He didn’t even make it to the Top 4. “I learnt one thing that day-in life if you’re not first you’re last,” he says unforgivingly. Discouraged, Dananjaya went back to professional dancing. Sometime later his club President urged him to enter the World Taped Speech Contest 2006 and he won. Travelling to the US, he met scores of people and was overwhelmed by the acclaim with which public speakers were respected. “I came back and realized that my outlook on life had changed,” he says. “I now knew why I needed to study.” While completing his tertiary education he was hired as HR personnel in a leading company in Colombo, later headhunted by an IT firm in the US. He now runs a consultancy firm, training corporate groups and individuals in leadership, communication and public speaking.
Once Toastmasters Colombo had achieved District status Dananjaya and his colleagues were competing in the World Championships for Public Speaking. He is the first Asian to have won the series, a drawn out, challenging process that sees 33000 people vie for the title from 120 countries. “It’s a ticket to a new beginning,” he says. “Now I have to unlearn and then relearn how to be successful.” He hopes to touch one million lives with his words, beginning with his assignment speaking in 20 countries as World Champion.
His success on stage, now his second home, is a combination of many things. “I used to like rap as a kid-that neutralized my accent,” he laughs. “Dancing gave me body language. My curiosity for the language helps me structure my words better. Cadetting gave me the confidence to turn up and do it.” He remembers being petrified in 2011, when he had to speak in Vegas to a group of native English speakers. A friend and mentor helped him get over that by inviting him to practice at his own club, and he realized that the fear was within, and dealt with it. “Now it’s not something I ever think too much about,” he notes.
“As soon as I get on stage years of training kick in.” At the end of the day, it’s not what you say that makes or breaks a speech, he shares. “It’s how you say it. What makes a good speech is the person who’s making it.”