This post is a bit different. It’s inspired by a quote I came across this week. It’s not often that I read something that resonates so deeply with me. So when I read this, I knew I had to share this with you.
The quote is from a speech with the title “Citizenship in a Republic” given by Theodore Roosevelt , former President of the United States, at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910.
The quote is quite a mouthful, so if I were you, I’d find a quiet place, relax, read it a few times and reminisce on how you relate to it.
“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 them 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, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in 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 fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt
My takeaways
- If you challenge the status quo - you will always have critics. If no one criticizes you, you’re probably just doing what everyone else is doing
- It’s never easy doing anything meaningful
- Failing multiple times is part of the process
- Even if you never succeed, at least you know you tried
- Some people spend their entire lives, never winning or losing, going through the motions and living a mediocre life - which in my opinion is a failure