But what a man needs more than power in his car is power in himself. Vision in his mind, so that he knows where he is going. Warmth in his heart. And power in the will — the courage and strength to do what is difficult, in order to achieve something that is really good, beautiful and permanent.
This you need to be a man, or to be a woman.
In athletics, when a boy breaks a record, his performance is 5 percent inspiration and 95 percent perspiration. There is no such thing as luck. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Bill Carr won the quarter mile in the Olympics, running with a double hernia. He was wearing a double truss. Later, when he was teaching a group of students, a high school runner asked him: "Mr. Carr, what is the secret of running the quarter?" Bill was puzzled. He did not think that there was any secret to running the quarter. The high school boy said: "Well…. pacing! How do you pace the quarter?"
Bill reacted to this at once. He said: "Ah! Pacing! Yes!…..When you dig your starting holes, dig them like a sprinter, as if you were running the hundred. And when the starting gun goes off, get out there! The start is everything! And in the first hundred yards, give it all you have! Don’t hold anything back! Maximum effort! So that you are leading the pack on the first turn."
The high school boy, listening breathlessly, said: "Yes!…..And then?" Bill said: "Then……then you gradually increase the pace."
That is the way Bill ran. That is why he was a champion.
The crew man, pulling an oar in a shell, collapses when they have shot past the finish line. I used to think that this must be an act. "Why", I wondered, "did they not collapse before the finish line? Why is it always after?" I felt that the crew men should really have gone out for dramatics.
But then I saw a rowing team at close range, and to my amazement the boys at the end of the race were really out cold, completely unconscious. They were throwing buckets of water on them, to bring them around. It is because they set their mind to finishing this distance. In the final stretch, where the pace grew faster and faster, they were demanding of the body more than the body could really give. It was the soul driving the body. The power was not in the muscles. It was in the will.
At the end, when they knew they had finished, the will let up, and the body collapsed.
So it is with any really worthwhile effort.
The nun does not stay in the convent, on any given day, because she enjoys it. She is there because she knows this is where God wants her to be, and she is determined to remain, even if her tears are falling into the dishwater.
The scientist continues his research, even when he is frustrated, again and again. When Thomas Edison was looking for the filament of an electric light bulb, his wife said to him: "We have lost all our savings…..We have mortgaged the house……We have mortgaged the lab……and now you are getting sick! And for what? For nothing!"
Edison turned to her, his eyes bright with fever, and said: "Nothing?….. Nothing?!!…..I know five thousand things that won’t work!"
For Edison, that was the way to success. He would not have to test those five thousand things again……He finally found the filament. And he lit the world.
No one can live on emotion. You cannot survive with the heart alone. It has to be heart and head, and – above all – the will! That is the difference between a boy and a man, between a child and a woman.
If, when marriage is hard, the wife sobs, or sulks; if she says: "I will pack up my dolls and dishes and go home to mother" – she is failing as a woman. She needs the power to go on doing what, at that moment, is painful for her, in order to achieve something that is beautiful, good, and permanent, the treasure in the field, the pearl of great price. She is the heart of her family, the source of life and love, a blessing to all those whom God sends to her. The pain is worth it.
If a man leaves his wife and children because some other girl is sweeter to him, at the moment – he is really less than a man. He is something that has crawled out from under a rock.
The object of a boy’s school is to make a man out of a boy…. What is the virtue of a man? …..It is courage!
And yet, if you notice, there is no course called "Courage" in any boys’ school. No subject called "Courage". No mark for "Courage".
The priests who teach in a boys’ school, the Brothers, and every faculty member who is worth his salt, know what they are doing. They teach courage by the whole life of the school. And they teach courage especially in athletics.
The boy is taught to compete, sometimes against impossible odds. He is taught to keep on trying, with all his heart, no matter how far behind he is in the game. Never give up! He is taught to give all that he has, always, and sometimes to give a little more than he really has. To win without bragging, and to lose with a smile.
"If I should win
Let it be by the code….
With my head and my honor held high!
But if I should lose
Let me stand by the road….
And cheer as the winner goes by!"
The best model for all of this, of course, is Christ on the cross, in agony, remaining there, obedient unto death, even to the death on the cross. He was all heart, all love, all will power.
The Scribes and Pharisees taunted him, saying: "If you are the Son of God, come down!" But he would not come down.
When his work was done, completely, he said: "It is finished". And then he bowed his head and died.
This is a man.
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