“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 (1858 – 1919) Twenty-sixth President of the United States

The fear of failure, of being cheated, being laughed at etc has, I believe, kept many wise and great people from achieving their goals in life. If those souls would actually know, how little failure can hurt them and, how meaningless it is what other people think of you, and how beautiful it is to make some progress, no matter how small, towards one’s goals, they would never be afraid again. The operative word here is “one’s goals.” The real goal is the version you really want! Why after all, perform some tasks, which you don’t like only to get you something you really don’t want?

HELMUT G FLASCH