Final Speech at Toastmasters –
Millionaire Chess: Done But Not Gone
Good evening Chair, Fellow Toastmasters and most welcomed guests.
On October 23, 2014, ten days after the Millionaire Chess Open finished, reality hadn’t sunk in me yet. I was still in awe at what happened and how things happened. After about a month, I can’t say that I’m over the excitement and the surprises. And every time I recall each event, I am still blown away by how many people saw our dream and supported us to achieve it.
408. This is the number of days that has made Millionaire Chesscome true!! The journey that began on Aug. 26 last year when Maurice Ashley and I decided to change the history of chess, to give a “Face Lift” on how chess is perceived. As a world well known chess commentator and being the first black Grand Master, Maurice doesn’t need much of an introduction. As for me, while I am not good at playing chess, I am an Entrepreneur. In fact, it is our differences that led us to be partners in MC, because these differences complement each other in this journey we took together.
When we first started planning for this event, we had an image of what the tournament and the venue would look like. Little did we realize how challenging it would be! I can say it was beyond our imagination, or my imagination. We had never painted a picture of how big this would be after just the first tournament. All that we saw then was the opportunity to give our best in order to add a milestone to chess history, but it was all our supporters that made the event this huge.
Many people thought we were dreaming. We came across many hurdles that we did not anticipate. In the end, we tackled all of them one by one.
But with the acceptance, the adulation and the joys we saw on the face of the participants, and certainly on the face of the winners, we realize that we need to keep the momentum going. And if there is anything that has resonated stronger to us after all this is that this isn’t something we can accomplish on our own anymore. I thought we could get through a few tournaments before the vision caught on in its full glory, but we so underestimated the power of the world that loves chess. We got a ton of feedback: from a Grandmaster and a child chess prodigy, from those who knew nothing of the chess tournament world and now are huge fans. All this has made a very strong impact in us. Through all the comments, one common thread stands out: that after one MC, the world has seen what we been trying to do and many would give their complete support. It’s humbling to see how true that has been.
I cannot find the words to express how proud I am of our team, our volunteers and all the players for making this event possible. I know this is a very old metaphor that I am going to use here, but after carrying this baby for 408 days, it’s thrilling to give birth to it today! The joy I have is the same as when all my 3 children were born. However, my duty doesn’t end here. This is just the beginning of a long road to nurture and grow Chess.
Those that are close to me know that I thrive on personal perfection. I set my own bar in everything that I do, business or personal. They know that I believe that there is always a lot that can be done in order to make something better. For this endeavor, I gave myself an overall rating of 6 on a 1 to 10 scale, but after seeing, hearing and reading all of the comments, I know our participants rated us from a 9 to 12 range. This alone has made me recall the challenges we encountered as we worked towards the event, but all this has been replaced with a deep sense of satisfaction and personal joy. And those feelings have served as the impetus for moving forward….
I will forever be very grateful to Maurice for sharing with me the whole concept of open chess tournaments. It gave me the opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of the chess world, and to challenge myself to help bring this ancient game to the modern world on a whole different level.
This journey would not have been successful without the help of many: our families, our friends and the volunteers for their invaluable contribution; to the chess players who believed in us and who share the same vision that we have. And honestly, we are also grateful to those who questioned if we could do this. Without the negative, one can never have the positive. The negative feedbacks we got gave us the opportunity to meet those who came to our defense. Indeed, to have been able to make Millionaire Chess happen is the most evident proof of our determination to succeed despite the doubters. And it is our gift to our supporters since day one and to those who joined us later. And to have been able to make the Millionaire Chess Open the success that it was is the greatest reward indeed.
Right now, my focus is on building a new team to work towards MC2. I have started on my pencil pushing to make MC2 better, using the lessons learned in MC1 as my reference. And, come to think of it, if I hadn’t been as hands-on as I was in MC1, I wouldn’t have learned this much.
I made the promise to guarantee the million dollars personally as proof of how serious I believed in what we were doing. With the turnout, I have already proven wrong those who thought that I made that promise only as a way to make a quick buck. Maurice and I had to work with a skeletal crew because we aimed at putting all our financial resources into the tournament, not into our pockets. Indeed, it was worth losing the opportunity to work with a bigger crew, losing the opportunity to be with family and friends longer that we would have liked, losing the time to spend for our personal selves in order to achieve our vision. We never wavered on that promise. We also needed to work on the ground level for MC1 because we had to know EVERYTHING that was required to make it the success that it was. Shaking hands on the sidelines was never going to make us better at building our vision. But it was all quite worth it in the end.
Maurice and I now realize that we cannot execute the true greatness of our vision by ourselves. We now have the knowledge of how to work with partners who will help take this event to a whole new level. This was something I admit I objected to before, but now I totally understand after having talked to each and every one of those who expressed interest in joining forces with us. We are ready to partner strategically with those who can help us elevate chess even higher and even faster.
We couldn’t have done it WITHOUT all of those who stood by us.