Will you Contribute, or Critique?
It is Not the Critic who Counts
H. A. G. Longstaff
“He should have passed that ball, not kicked it”
“There’s no way he will play 1’s this year”
“That play was just crap”
THE WORLD IS AWASH WITH ADVICE. What could have been done. What should have happened. What would have been better.
This effect is compounded by the scourge of social media. In 15 minutes sitting on a couch one languid Sunday afternoon you can have shared 280 characters of your wisdom on such straight-forward topics as the merits of changing the Stage Three tax cuts, bringing peace to the Gaza and the wisdom of a two state solution, who should win the US election, and whether Australian submarines really need to be nuclear. You can even express opinions on really important questions like your mate’s outfit for a fancy dress party, or where to get the best pizza in Mosman.
When I read such observations I often reflect on the fabulous words of President Theodore Roosevelt:
“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.”
Theodore Roosevelt
26th President of the United States
Speech at the Sorbonne Paris, 23 April 1910
President Theodore Roosevelt
What President Roosevelt understood is that most things are more complex and nuanced than they seem. Most decisions balance a myriad of competing considerations, seen and unseen, that drive choice. Learning new skills and achieving progress is hard. He knew that the experience of actually doing things made you stronger, wiser and better.
As my time in the hallowed halls of Shore drawn to a close I have become more pensive and reflective.
I have come to appreciate that it is the journey as well as the destination that counts. The skills you pick up on the way, the relationships you form, the little nuggets of context that one day become useful.
Did you know, for example, that when Apple founder Steve Jobs dropped out of Stanford he spent a semester gate-crashing a university calligraphy class. Jobs said:
“If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.”
Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple
The point is that you need to participate, to be in the arena, to have a crack. Happily, Shore provides multiple avenues to try new things: debating, drama, music, sport, chess, woodwork. Some aren’t seen as cool. All are valuable.
Maybe I could have done more. What will you do? What will be your arena? My advice … be a contributor, not a critic.
