For many many years Rudyard Kiplings IF has been my credo. My guiding philosphy of life itself. In the good times and in the bad. In victory and in defeat. When surrounded by a glorious of teams or the most viscious of colleagues. Its on my desk. At work. At home. Everywhere ! It must form a part of my musings too ! Every word of this work carries weight and when read with care can be life changing. In school we had an English lesson on Chris Evert and there it talked about a particular line from this poem inscribed in the Wimbledon players area. My interest started in IF started then..
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you ;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim ;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
Or watch the things you gave your life to be broken,
And stoop & build ‘em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of you winnings
And lose, and start again at your beginning:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will which says to them: “ Hold on “;
If you can walk with the crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk with the kings – nor lose the common touch:
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill each unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run –
Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – You’ll be a Man my son !