This is the Era of =the man who dares=.
His opportunity has blossomed out of conditions unparalleled in the
history of nations.
Too many have been plodding along in a furrow afraid to come out of the
rut. They have lived, it is true, but they have not touched success. All
animals live, but man has higher motives than mere existence.
Enterprise, business, commerce, capital, government demand a man who
dares. Many leaders have fallen beneath the spell of malignant
influence, and have dragged down into the pit with them, respect, honor,
confidence, and honesty.
An army of men who dare is needed to drag up out of the pit and into our
every day lives, the respect, honor, confidence, and honesty, groveling
in the mud at the bottom, and the nationality, color, or race makes no
difference, they are needed among all classes.
The eyes of the world are turned toward the inscription, “I will,” on
the banner of the man who dares, as he hurdles across all obstacles and
brings back to its pedestal, virtue, that has been dragged away into
disreputable haunts.
His is the initiative; to him belong the rewards of efficiency.
The man who dares to venture out into new and undeveloped fields fills
the pages of history; his name is blazoned in heavy head-lines on the
front page of every newspaper and magazine. He does not have to seek
after fame, he is sought.
The man who dares is no rash, reckless fool who rushes in where angels
fear to tread.
“I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.”
He lets “I dare” follow upon “I will,” and plunges into the tide of the
affairs of men, and at its flood, is led on to victory.
He is brave and courageous with regard to men, but is a coward with
regard to God, wherefore he fears to worship the Golden Calf; to swear,
to steal, or cheat, or swindle; to degrade his neighbor’s wife; to covet
his neighbor’s property.
Why do you fail to reach success? Why do you lag behind in a world so
stuffed with opportunities and possibilities?
Watch the man who dares.
He has no hand held out behind for bribes, nor before for alms. He
reaches out and takes, and those from whom he takes are loud in their
praise of him, because he represents a force they would fain exercise
but dare not.
The power that impels him is dynamic. It grows out of an inertia charged
with the vibration of living eternal forces—a training that fits him to
propel himself into chaos and evolve order and profit—out of an
education that shows him =how=—out of a system that changes to suit
altered conditions—out of the same mighty impulses that have fashioned
the conquerors of armies, or nations, leaders of men, the world’s
financiers, the masters of commerce, the uplifters, governors and kings
of men.
_LIFE AND ALL IT IMPLIES, ALL ITS INCIDENTS, HAPPINESS, RENOWN,
COMPENSATIONS, ARE IN THE TRAIN OF THE MAN WHO DARES. HE MAY EVEN SCALE
THE WALLS OF PARADISE TO GAIN A CROWN OF ETERNAL GLORY._
=Life and all it implies are in the train of the man who dares.= Stirred
by his energy, every one of the billions of living principles of life
that form his body, is an individual acting in unison to maintain his
physical balance, and to free his brain from the clouds and vapors of an
infected atmosphere. He is made immune to the attacks of pestilences,
and follows the universal law of ceaseless activity that keeps the
earth, the sun and the millions of suns and planets in the firmament in
their proper places. Death, disease, infection, poverty, disgrace are
nothing to the man who dares, he rises above and beyond their reach. He
builds his castle with hope and cements its walls with imperishable
faith in his own powers, and anchors it with good works. He says: “I
will not die until I have won,” and he dares to cast his hopes into one
throw of the dice—and wins, and in the winning lives. What is life to a
clod? To a blind mole? To a man who never lifts his eyes to the gleaming
stars, or raises them beyond the brittle straws that clog his feet? To
the man who dares, life is a tumult of happiness, of radiant love, of a
joyous household, a fortress of friends. His hair turns gray, his limbs
grow weak, and his eyes are dim, but around his bedside hover the deeds
he has done, his nostrils snuff in the incense of his successes, and he
dies content that he will still live in the posterity that he has dared
raise up to follow in his footsteps.
=Life and all incidents are in the train of the man who dares.=
In the great center of life, with its circumference everywhere and
nowhere, the incidents of life are few and mere matters of routine. But
they must be gained, and can not be gained except by the man who dares.
Beginning with nothing but his muscles, courage, and high hopes, the boy
who dares forces his way through rain and storm, sunshine and shadow;
quaffs to the dregs the cup of disappointment and refills it with
determination. From the lowest rung of the social or business ladder, he
mounts upward rung by rung, gaining here and there a fresh supply of
energy, until bursting forth from a chrysalis of helplessness into an
initiative, he assumes first place and dares still more to reach after
the mastery. He dares the professions and becomes a statesman or a
scientist influenced by a desire to benefit his fellowmen. In the
mercantile, manufacturing, and commercial world, his name is a synonym
of honesty and probity, fair dealing, justice and impartiality. The
hands and mouths of his less daring fellowmen never depart empty. The
train of evils that follow humanity, he knows are mere incidents in life
and he does what he can and may to alleviate them, and in their
alleviation he finds comfort and joy. “Do unto others as ye would that
others do unto you,” is the absorbing incident of life, the
concentration, amalgamation of all other incidents. “This do and thou
shalt live.”
=Happiness is in the train of the man who dares.= “As arrows are in the
hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man who
hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall
speak with the enemies in the gate.” The man who dares fill this quiver
with arrows needs no other happiness. All other kinds, varieties, and
species of happiness follow in its train. Most of our happiness is
“so-called,” that is we think it is happiness, but it becomes bitter
after a while and then sours. True happiness never ferments, never
corrupts. The man who dares would not dare take a course in the school
of dissipation, he is too much of a man and has the courage of his
convictions. There are certain things every man must do to be happy, and
the man who dares does them. He must dare to do right, to keep away from
bad company, to avoid the ungodly, and the devil and all his works are
rendered innocuous by his daring to discountenance them.
=Renown is in the train of the man who dares.= To be in every man’s
mouth, as Caesar, Napoleon, Washington, is what many claim to be renown.
But the word means far more. It means honor, glory, and peace, and these
go “to every man that worketh good.” Every act of the man who dares is
an achievement of greater or less degree, and although he may not have
an exalted reputation to the great outer world, he is enshrined in the
hearts of his friends and acquaintances. The man who dares shines bright
in the firmament of teachers who have made good by exalting others. He
leads where others may follow and succeed, and as a guide, teacher and
example, his renown is not limited to an immediate circle of people
astonished at his daring, but accumulates force as time passes, and soon
becomes a rule of conduct, a precedent to be followed as rigidly as a
mathematical proposition in Euclid. Most men are content with what they
have and never go beyond their own possessions and desires. They have
grown rich, and then it is “Let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow
we die.” This is the fool’s theory, but it is not that of the man who
dares, because he wanders off into new fields of operation, attempts new
cultures, adds something to the phases of life, and as such, becomes
renowned, whether he has a high sounding epitaph on his tombstone or
not. People do not go to cemeteries to seek for souvenirs of the man who
dares, his life and deeds are impressed upon the plastic material of
every brain within reach of his influence. There he is enshrined; there
he possesses the renown he dared seek, and, as in his other deeds of
daring, he succeeds.
=Compensations are in the train of the man who dares.= Compensation is a
higher, nobler word than wealth, riches, money, or jewels. Money is a
good thing to possess, and wealth is not to be despised, but the love of
money is the root of all evil. Have you never noticed that the harder a
man strives to get money the farther he gets away from it? This is in
pursuance of a law of nature, that in striving too hard to acquire
anything, we omit some essential that if remembered would bring it to
us. There are certain things that if we dare do them, other things will
unexpectedly come to us in the way of compensation.
Money, wealth, riches, etc., are a recompense, a remuneration, of
course, but of themselves they are mere wages for labor performed. But
when we speak of “compensation,” we allude to something of greater value
than mere dollars and cents which procure bread and meat, clothes, a
roof for our heads, and certain pleasures. But a hog has all of these in
his own way and to his own satisfaction; but the man who dares does not
belong to that branch of the animal kingdom. He is a man and claims a
man’s compensation, or so acts that the desired compensation will be
forthcoming. Think of the words of Othello and ponder a little over
their meaning:
“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse, steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.”