“[intense_highlight color=”#FFD966″]It is not the critic who counts[/intense_highlight]; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. [intense_highlight color=”#FFD966″]The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena[/intense_highlight], 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, [intense_highlight color=”#FFD966″] 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[/intense_highlight].” — Theodore Roosevelt

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This quote from Teddy Roosevelt has haunted me since I first heard it recited by Jake Harriman, a former US Marine and Stanford MBA, at a fundraising event assembled by a family friend Nesha Crossman for Nuru International, a non-profit he founded focused on creating an “open-source, holistic, sustainable, and scalable development model” for fighting extreme poverty.

I think this idea applies to multiple domains of life. For example, while seasons of life definitely ebb and flow, one of my passions is to never prioritize entrepreneurship and professional pursuit at the expense of my precious family. Therefore, I desire to be a “man in the arena” as a husband and father.

One of my life desires is to always grow in how I connect with and serve others.

I desire to be a man of grit, commitment, integrity, honor, joy, authenticity, accountability, laughter, humility, constant growth and wonderfully exhausted hard work to better my family, people I encounter, the world and myself.

I have failed many times. However, I desire to be a man that tries and fails well.

This is my first official blog post at my website. it felt fitting to reference this as as a battle-cry to which I will always aspire…