On April 23, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt delivered, quite possibly, his most memorable speech: “Citizenship in a Republic.” The most famous section later came to have its own title called “The Man in the Arena.” You can find that section at the end of this blog.
I recently got this piece framed for my son, Colin. He tried out for the school basketball team…and didn’t make it. Worse, a few kids even made fun of him for failing. When I asked if those kids had tried out, he replied with “no.”
Welcome to today’s society. We are so quick to point out others’ failure; especially while sitting firmly and safely on the sidelines. In our hashtag driven world, we must always be #Winning and #CrushingIt to garner attention, likes and accolades. There is very little encouragement for a hashtag like #ITried
“But, wait” I hear all of the alpha-male wannabes on their 6th beer, with nacho cheese dip dangling from their scraggly beard say, “isn’t sports all about winning?”
No. Not in the beginning, at least. Sports, like many things in life, is about learning and growing. Trying and failing. Improving ourselves and learning discipline plus the value of hard-work. But we’ve gotten so far from that philosophy that the only thing that matters is the “W.” Because of this attitude, we are creating a society of people afraid to try new things, because what happens if we don’t instantly “win?”
Despite all of the side-hustle non-sense you see on social medial, attempting something new isn’t about the end result. It isn’t about the “W.” It isn’t about monetizing your craft and becoming rich. It’s about the process. It’s about growth. Doing something new for the sake of trying something new is a perfectly acceptable outcome! Eff the hashtags!
Take a look at some martial art studios today. The focus is on the end-result, obtaining a black belt versus the learning and discipline that comes along with studying martial arts. We’ve demanded that our kids go through this rigorous process and end up with a black belt within 12 months, or else. Absurd!
Decades ago, it would take a lifetime to become a master, to earn a black belt…and yet today, we have dojos offering a 12-month black belt program for 10-year old’s. Welcome to McDojos!
We are too focused on the result. Not focused enough on the process, on learning and on growth.
Business is no different. Creating revenue, landing the customer and closing the sale is like baking a cake. There are key ingredients necessary in the process. You can’t demand a cake while at the same time saying you can’t include those ingredients. Ingredients like trial and error, failure and learning…all key ingredients to generating new revenue and growth.
Demanding revenue, demanding new growth…while saying you won’t accept any failures? You can’t ask for a cake that doesn’t have eggs, flour and sugar. You can’t demand growth without accepting trial and error. And yet, how many companies make these very demands and then wonder why no one is willing to innovate?
Is this to say that there should be no focus on the result? No focus on “winning?” Of course not! I know much of the above sounds like some anti-winning rhetoric, but what I’m trying to re-focus you on is purpose, priority and sequencing.
If your only purpose for trying something new is “winning…” you’re setting yourself up for failure. If the only priority is “winning” then you won’t trust the process and you’ll fail. And if you sequence “winning” before “learning” you’ll never cross the goal-line.
When our purpose for trying something new is for the sake of learning something new…we will always win. When our priority is to work on ourselves and improve ourselves…we will always win. And if we sequence learning before the expectation of winning, you may find yourself hoisting a trophy someday.
And so, like Roosevelt, I told my son to ignore those that didn’t even try. That those kids experienced true failure because they were too afraid to even try. I let him know that his making the team or not is secondary to the fearlessness he displayed by stepping onto the court and lacing up.
Quick side note, Colin was asked…and accepted a position to be a manger on the team. He’s embraced the role completely and wants to help his teammates however he can.
I’m pretty sure he was never really destined to become a pro basketball player but I also know that whatever his destiny is…his courage to try new things and his resilience to pick himself up after a fall will propel him past those unwilling to lace up and instead plant themselves on the sidelines.
And so, like Colin, I encourage you all to try something new…not to become the best at it, not to become rich off of it, not so you can hashtag #LikeABoss on your social media profile and not with the expectation to “win…” but simply to learn something new. To go through the process of trying and failing and picking yourself up again.
We could all learn a thing or two from a brave 13-year old.
The Man In the Arena
"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."
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