I attended the Mindshare 2007 class graduation in Tysons tonight.  Phil Merrick, who graduated in the first class way back in 1997 when his company webMethods was just getting started, spoke to the group.  He ended his talk with one of my favorite quotes — one that every entrepreneur should know.

“It is not the critic that counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or the doer of deeds could have 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 and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming but he who does actually strive to do the deed who knows the great devotion 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 while daring greatly, knows that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls, who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

 There’s another, more succinct version as well:

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

A central theme to Phil’s talk was advising the room of entrepreneurs to make decisions.  He pointed out that most decisions are binary (yes/no) giving you 50/50 odds of making the right one, and even beyond that many decisions don’t matter either way, giving you even better odds.  Ultimately, though, it’s the ability to make decisions at all that’s important.  Perhaps he should have referenced another Teddy Roosevelt quote:

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”