Man in the Arena

I have one framed picture on the wall of my office - it is the "Man in the Arena" speech by Theodore Roosevelt - it is my guiding light so to speak when it comes to my professional life. Everytime I face adversity on a project I look up and read it and let the words penetrate my mental consciousness. And in almost every case, it has provided the perspective I have needed to move move forward with confidence and purpose.

Theodore Roosevelt - Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."