Back in 1910, on 23 April a few months after the end of his term as 26th US president, Theodore Roosevelt was speaking in Paris. His words are as applicable to the military as they are to politics and, dare I say it, they’re also highly relevant to leadership in the business world and to selling today….

‘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.’

Entrepreneurs, senior management and sales leaders would do well to bear these words in mind, for not only are they inspirational, they also hold a lot of truth.

Courtesy of CIM. Source : Modern Selling

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