THE VICTORY OF THE MAN WHO DARES
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.
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: