Is THIS you?
I’m about to leave for the airport to head to Las Vegas to speak at the MoneyShow, but I wanted to take a moment to follow up on yesterday’s email.
In 1910, Theodor Roosevelt, former President of the United States, gave an incredible speech in Paris, France.
I believe his speech characterizes us traders perfectly.
The speech is called “Man in the Arena”, and here it is:
“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.”
As traders, WE are the men and women in the arena
We fight.
We might fail.
We get criticized by others.
But we keep going.
Because we know WHY we are doing this.
Others don’t “get us”.
They believe, we are just doing it for the money.
They think that we are greedy.
They think that we just “want to get rich”.
They don’t know us.
They don’t know our bigger why.
Every trader who I met has a bigger why.
Money is just means to an end:
We want a better life for our families. For our children.
We want to support others. We want to make an impact: for the charities we care about, our churches, our communities…
We want to have an impact, no matter how big or how small, and leave the world a better place.
And we will keep fighting
We will keep striving.
Because that’s who we are.
We are the men and women in the arena.
We are traders!
-Markus
PS: If you’re ever feeling down, or like you can’t make it, just remember this speech, and remember WHY you are doing this!
You got this!