One of my favorite quotes is from President Teddy Roosevelt’s Citizen in a Republic speech that he delivered to the Sorbonne in Paris, France. The speech focuses on his view that a republic depended on the quality of its people for its future and success. In this speech he says:
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.
To me there are so many points to take away from this, but I want to focus in on one aspect: failing is part of succeeding. Continue reading
Worth the While 