From Amor Dhaouadi

Every success story starts with a thought or an idea. In order to achieve the hoped-for success, the idea needs to be followed by action, inspiration, enthusiasm, passion, sacrifice or devotion.

I recently read an inspiring speech that I recommend to anyone who has set themselves special life goals. This speech titled, “The Man in the Arena”, is over 100 years old and was given by Theodore Roosevelt in Paris. An excerpt from the speech says:

"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."

For those of you looking to create a better life for yourself, I advise you to read this text again and again, every day if you have to. You might find that there are numerous parallels between The Man in the Arena and anyone who paves their own path.

I am especially interested in this speech from the freelancer´s point of view. They have to fight their way through every day - dealing with difficult customers, challenging working conditions, an increasing number of competitors and new technologies. Despite all this, a freelancer´s biggest battle is against his inner critics, which prevents him from developing and testing new and better methods.

If you want to achieve something special, you have to work harder than anyone else in your field. Even if you don´t have a lot of talent, resources, or relationships, the most important part of finding the path to success is to go where others don´t dare to. You will certainly suffer through failures, but that is also a part of your journey to success. Setbacks help you to learn what does not work so you can refine your skills, expertise and working methods. However, it is important not to doubt yourself and to get up again and continue fighting.

I highly admire top athletes and would like to share an example from the field of sports for comparison. One of my favourite athletes is the gifted and brilliant Cristiano Ronaldo. If he had not spent thousands of hours in the gym, practiced his free kicks over and over again or tried out thousands of dribbling techniques, he would not have become the football player of the year.

Only through perseverance, hard work and failure can you achieve top results. You simply have to build up the courage to go your own way against all odds.