INSPIRATION IS THE SPRINGBOARD FOR CREATIVITY
If —
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 impostors 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 broken , And stoop and build ’ em up with wornout tools ; If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss , And lose , and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss ;
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 talk with crowds and keep your virtue , Or walk with 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 the 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 !
Rudyard Kipling - 1865 - 1936
Photo : Ed Rosack
PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE 17