Not The Critic Who Counts

A few days I go I posted an email from Mark Hammett explaining the background to the infamous Ham-It-Up video of his crew on a Capri 25 making a few mistakes and learning from them. Comments here and elsewhere to his email have been largely favorable; folk seem to appreciate his integrity and courage in making this training video and letting the world see it, however embarrassing it might be and however mean-spirited some of the criticism was.

I especially liked seeing this quote on the SailNet Forum...

"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 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 and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt - 1910