Man in the Arena

"Man in the Arena" is a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt in Paris, 1910. 

"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."

Here is the full speech: Link

I spend a lot of time commenting on other companies and critiquing them. It is important to remember the importance of being in the arena. 

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Thanks to Mike Arrington's talk at Startup School '08 and Yossi Vardi -- the Israeli VC for highlighting this passage. 

Dr Vardi btw is an extremely successful VC - He cofounded Alon (Israel's largest energy company) and Tekem (Israel's largest software company for a while). He also backed Mirabilis (The company behind ICQ). His VC is called Pitango - One of Israel's largest VC firms.