The only man who never makes any mistakes is the man who never does anything.

- Theodore Roosevelt
26th US President

Teddy Roosevelt, as he was popularly known, was an inspirational figure. As he alludes to in the quote above, making mistakes is an integral part of doing something and striving for success. Unless one overcomes the fear of failing or making a mistake, it is unlikely that one will take all the steps required to achieve the desired outcome. Even as a person makes a mistake, there will be critics around — it is important to ignore the critics who are there to point fingers from a distance. He gives this message eloquently as part of his “Citizenship in a Republic” speech delivered in 1910, a passage referred to as the Man in the Arena (reproduced below).

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.