(source: Nassef Mohsen Ali)
Following the end of Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency, he embarked on an international tour to Africa and Europe. Perhaps it was to escape the failings of his successor or maybe he needed to keep himself occupied with adventure. When he wasn’t hunting game, Roosevelt delivered rousing speeches in front of large crowds. While in France, Roosevelt gave one of his most famous speeches, “Citizenship in a Republic.” His speech included a passage that has wildly eclipsed the speech it originates from in popularity and is widely known as “The Man in the Arena.” The central theme of that passage is it’s better to experience defeat in pursuing a great endeavor than never to experience victory or defeat.
“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.”
– Teddy Roosevelt
Understanding the Man in the Arena is important because you must be willing to be in the arena as a prerequisite to being a leader. Opportunities to spot and enact change drive impact. And that’s what leaders are—change-makers. They are never satisfied with the status quo and rarely toil over the discomfort that change ushers in. Leaders actively pursue change to obtain better results and propel everyone around them, whether immediate or societal, forward. A huge part of that process involves embracing failure.
It’s no wonder athletes, entrepreneurs, and every other tech bro seem to gravitate toward Roosevelt’s motivational words. This quote is engrained in pop culture because it’s universally applicable to anyone with a bias to action (doers). Roosevelt elevates the status of those willing to put their hats in the ring while admonishing those ‘cold and timid souls’ who can only passively observe or criticize from afar.
After breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record, LeBron James shared that he writes ‘The Man in the Arena’ on his basketball shoes before every game and how, in the moment of eclipsing the record, he felt like he was on top of the arena. I would argue that James’ fondness of the quote goes a step further than his love of history and can perhaps be partly due to his NBA Finals record. James has amassed four NBA championships despite ten trips to the NBA Finals.
On the flip side, we have detractors like Skip Bayless would be remiss not to mention this fact when making comparisons to Michael Jordan, who went 6-0 in the NBA Finals. These critics (think of Bayless and his ilk) have built their careers off of sensationalism, pushing narratives in the media that promote clicks rather than focusing on journalistic integrity. Sure, they can talk all day behind a desk about who’s clutch and what it means to have a killer instinct, but what great endeavor have they pursued?
The Man in the Arena excerpt provides consolation to those brave enough to enter the arena. Because even if you fail, at least you ‘dared greatly.’ And though James has come short time and again, the 39-year-old superstar continues to dare greatly by striving for more rings as he enters his 22nd NBA season.
Furthermore, let’s dissect what it means to be in the arena by looking at one of the greatest innovators of our time.
Steve Jobs is one of the best examples of what it truly means to be in the arena. He not only co-founded one of the largest tech companies in the world and spearheaded the launch of revolutionary products that pushed the industry forward, such as the iPhone—but he also failed.
In 1985—after a clash with the CEO and Board of Directors—Apple, the company Jobs co-founded, forced him out. You could imagine the blowback, the shock, the creeping self-doubt that Jobs or any leader would experience in the immediate aftermath of such a bizarre turn of events. Instead of commiserating his public humiliation, Jobs decided to pick himself back up, dust himself off, and re-enter the arena.
Jobs shined as a leader because he was a visionary. He used his masterful persuasive abilities to take you on a rollercoaster journey where if you believed that something was impossible, you would come to believe it was just around the corner by the time Jobs stopped talking. On his way to creating another computer company called NeXT, Jobs would have been remiss had he not recruited some of Apple’s top engineers. What was Jobs’ pitch to lure some of Apple’s top talent? Higher education.
NeXT initially specialized in creating high-end workstations, primarily for college campuses and research facilities. While the company successfully developed critically acclaimed computers, sales were another story, in this niche market that Jobs had carved out. In 1993, NeXT pivoted to solely focusing on software development and that’s where the company truly succeeded.
Within a decade of being ousted from Apple, Jobs found himself back home, when Apple acquired NeXT for $429 million in 1996. NeXT’s software advancements laid the foundation for modernizing Apple’s aging Mac operating system. Furthermore, Apple enlisted Jobs as their interim CEO (iCEO, not a joke) before officially making him their CEO in 2000. The comeback story doesn’t end there.
Jobs has always been regarded as a visionary, but it wasn’t until his second stint with Apple that he was afforded the opportunity to cement his legacy. In 1997, Apple was near the verge of bankruptcy. Its market capitalization (share price x number of outstanding shares) was around $2 billion. It needed a shake-up, and it needed one fast. With Jobs at the helm and newer software, Apple had a fighting chance to reposition itself to consumers.
From 1998 to 2010, Apple revamped its Mac computer line-up and launched the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, to name a few. In fact, by the time Jobs stepped down as CEO in 2011, Apple’s market cap was roughly $350 billion.
Jobs was able to lead Apple back to the mountaintop because he dared to think differently and step into the arena. Despite his failures or the challenges ahead, he made sure to always surround himself with the right people. Jobs maximized the talent around him by challenging and pushing his team to the brink in the pursuit of innovation.
To echo Roosevelt’s sentiments, we can criticize the instances where Jobs fell short or we can enter the arena ourselves.
Leaders should never remain on the sidelines, drifting through life without purpose. It’s not enough to talk about what we hope to accomplish or spend most of our time in the planning stages—merely waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Even with success, there will always be failure, but until you commit to action, you’re just an observer or a ‘cold and timid soul,’ as Roosevelt pointedly puts it.