Dare to Battle

One of my heroes is Rich Devos, co-founder of Amway. He is highly successful and motivational. Today I wanted to share a quote of his with you.

It is Not the Critic who Counts!

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

That is one of my favorite quotes and I have to think about it all the time. Most recently I was considering it as some people started attacking me about praising Texas for having the top 7 out of 10 cities in the country for job growth. They kept claiming that most of those were part-time or low wage jobs. That really wouldn’t surprise me with the implementation of Obamacare around the corner. My response to these folks is always the same: “So how many jobs of any wage have you created?”

They never have created any jobs. Now to be fair the only job I have created is my own. I’m a sole proprietorship and run an entertainment company and I’m proud to be an Amway distributor as well. I don’t believe the government should create jobs because the only jobs the government creates is by stealing money from other job creators.

Now I can’t just go off on liberals for complaining and not acting. Conservatives do the same thing. I think that is one reason that they blame President Obama for so much (I actually saw someone blame him for eminent domain) because once you’ve taken it to that level you can rest easy that you’re just a poor helpless victim that can’t do anything about it.

In reality you can do something about almost anything and you don’t need the government to do it for you.

Want more AIDS research? Make a lot of money or learn how to fund raise and create the research.

Want higher paying jobs? Create a company and pay people well.

Want to protect the environment? Create cleaner products that are also better and cheaper.

It is perfectly fine to criticize the government. I do it all the time. My point is that if you really want to change something then get in the fight. Dive into the arena. Get Messy. Get Sweaty. Get Bloody.

Whatever side you’re on go “Do Something!” That was the theme at Patriot Academy this year where a hundred plus young men and women came and learned leadership. Leadership isn’t about sitting in a class. It’s about taking action and then bringing others along for the journey.

So what will you do to change the world?

Photo by Skylar Seargeant