The courage that leads to achievement says, I haven t yet succeeded. But the repeated thought of success, even in the face of repeated failures, is an affirmation that must, eventually, produce the achievement one desires. The adolescent must be helped to see that anyone who never fails has failed already, in a sense. A career unblemished by failures is a story of minimal courage, perhaps even of cowardice. It is a story of one who, having never dared, has never developed as a human being.
Great success is the fruit of great daring.
No matter how many times a person fails, victory is assured him if, after every defeat, he gets up and tries again. Indeed, if his courage never flags, he can squeeze victory of a sort even from crushing defeat. The adolescent should be taught the importance of disciplining himself, and not merely receiving discipline outwardly. Servicefulness is a wonderful quality, and one too little appreciated in this age of aggressive self-affirmation. There is joy in the expansive consciousness of forgetting oneself in the thought of a larger good.