The Man in the Arena

US Postage Stamp, 1948 issue, commemorating 50th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders.

The real enemy to your goal to serve, to build, to lead is the trap of becoming a spectator in the arena of your own influence… “Most people live in the twilight where they know neither success nor defeat.” -T.R.

You must answer the call that brought you out of obscurity into the test- the struggle for prominence and greatness- that carves the results you refuse to relinquish.

The best way to stay in the arena is to Dare Greatly.

Teddy Roosevelt’s The Man in the Arena (excerpt)

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.