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March 2003
Conviction
It's not a felony to see life's opportunities as finite or to see the
glass as half empty. Contention isn't an ethos, it's a conscious choice,
just as resting on one's laurels won't place undue pressure on any part
of the body except the brain, especially as it ages.
Sing it with me…Regrets, I've had a few…
We are not born with character. It is not inherited. Character is a
byproduct of experience; the result of how we handle the controversies
of life's tempests and the harmony of life's successes as well as everything
in between.
Character cannot be counterfeited. False character will always be exposed.
Conversely, true character will inevitably be rewarded. And, in many
an instance of incredible achievement throughout history, strength of
character has been more of a factor than intelligence. Strong character
is a cousin to integrity, honor and pride. It's the father of innovation,
invention and risk. If strong character had a voice, its favorite credo
would be "nothing ventured, nothing gained."
Strong character is spitting into the wind and being smart enough to
instantly duck. It's throwing a haymaker to the jaw of conventional
thinking. It's taking the oak-like strength of naysayers and cracking
it over a knee like a twig. It's being secure in the knowledge that
failure doesn't dismantle character, but builds it.
There are many people who, when it comes to ambition, are a mile wide
and an inch deep. Then there are those who can sense triumph somewhere
in the center of their earth and plow endlessly until they find it.
We celebrate such 25 men this month.
They are not men devoid of flaws. Neither are you or I. But they are the
architects of their own destiny from blueprint to achievement. They all
possess a trait or two we all can relate to. And they all have character.
Perhaps Theodore Roosevelt said it best:
"In the battle of life, it is not the critic who counts; nor the
one who points out how the strong person stumbled, or where the doer
of a deed could have done better.
The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose
face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who
errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without
error and shortcoming; who does actually strive to do deeds; who knows
the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends oneself in a worthy
cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement;
and who at worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even
though checkered by failure, than to rank with those timid spirits who
neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight
that knows neither victory nor defeat."
Enjoy the Issue,
Richard Botto,
Editor in Chief / CEO of RAZOR Magazine - The Definitive Men's Lifestyle Magazine
www.razormagazine.com
