DESCRIPTION: Business Person of the Year speech. FOR WHOM THE SPEECH IS SUITABLE FOR: CEO, Management, etc. It is truly a pleasure to be here tonight to present this respectable award to such an outstanding and noteworthy individual. This evening, we are here to honor someone who has accomplished so much over the past years. First and foremost, I appreciate all of you for attending this joyous event and for celebrating this award with us. Second, I would like to thank this remarkable person for the great job he/she is doing for the people of this country because his/her business has generated so many jobs as well as economic growth. Numerous people have benefited from his/her accomplishments. Without whom all of this success and the boom in this industry would not have been possible. We are here this evening not only to celebrate this person’s hard work, persistence, and achievements. But we are here to commemorate ideas and dreams. “Thought,” according to Claude M. Bristol author of Magic of Believing, “is the original source of all wealth, all success, material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement.” Thought is a catalyst for action. A constant thought about something brings about a desire and determination to transform imagination into reality. In other words, it is like the ignition that starts the engine. Once that spark is made and the engine begins to run, the car can travel extremely far until that engine is turned off. That spark that causes the engine to work is the connection between imagination and reality. Likewise, a thought that lingers in the mind conjures up dreams and images that dwell in the mind, which in turn stirs up a desire to act on that thought, whether it is positive or negative. Therefore, a series of positive thoughts can produce virtuous actions that result in great achievements. Sure, there will be times where failure can happen. But people should not give up trying on account of past failures or the possibility of failure. They should be persistent in regard to their aspirations, and eventually their efforts will turn into success. James Allen (1864-1912) English author of As a Man Thinketh said that “The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.” As I said earlier, an astounding dream produces a drive to bring that vision to reality and to fruition—in effect, to make it happen. All great achievement starts with a dream. That was the case with Martin Luther King, Jr. who helped to initiate the Civil Rights Movement. He believed that people deserved the liberty to exercise their human rights. He