The Men of Iron Minute
by Chad Zueck | Director of Content Creation
If You Can
Rudyard Kipling was an excellent writer who grew up in India and later hit fame in England. He wrote amazing stories like “The Jungle Book” and other exciting tales of bravery and friendship. Perhaps the most impactful thing he wrote was a poem to his young son, Jack. Jack was the apple of his dad’s eye. Rudyard Kipling’s connection with his son, Jack, resonated with love and pride. Jack’s enlistment during World War I stirred a turbulent blend of fatherly pride and uneasiness. When Jack vanished during a battle, Kipling’s world shattered irreparably—his unyielding quest to find Jack mirrored a father’s undying devotion. The heart of a father can be felt by the influential words of Rudyard to Jack.
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 worn-out 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!
The weight of a good father’s love and influence could sink an aircraft carrier.
Be a mentor.
Find a mentor.
Be a better man.
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