Forward, Then!

“Lee to the rear!” shouted the men as their brave general led a passionate advance from the front towards the enemy. A soldier galloped ahead and caught up, grabbed his horse by the reins and steered him aside.

“Forward then!” Shouted Lee from the flank, his fervor instilling such vigour in the men that although the odds were stacked against them 2–1, they won a decisive victory that day, proving the maxim right that battles are won way before the first bullet is shot, it is determined by the iron in the men that fight the battle that day.

Who are these men who win our admiration? They tremble like the rest of us but grit their teeth and move onwards as if nothing fazes them. Men of heart, men of force, men of vigor, men of purpose; the world steps aside and makes way for such men.

“What obstacle can stay the mighty force of the sea-seeking river in its course?” asks Ella Wilcox. “Fortunate is he whose earnest purpose never swerves, whose slightest action or inaction serves the one great aim. Why, even Death stands still and waits an hour sometimes for such a will. All things give way before it, soon or late.”

Reverend Thomas Byles who embodies the saying that “Some men are born great, and some have greatness thrust upon them,” turned down all offers of a lifeboat during the sinking of the Titanic, and instead, offered a helping hand to those who needed saving. As the ship sank on the one half , he made his way toward the other, where hundreds of people were trapped. There he listened to their confessions and performed their last rites, even as the water around them rose to the waist.

“Dare and the world always yields;” said William Thackery, “though it beats you sometimes, dare again and it will succumb.”

Another said,

“Do what you are afraid to do, go where you are afraid to go. If you set out to achieve something, don’t come back until it’s done,” — W. Clement Stone.

During the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s, a teenage soldier named Joel Iglesias recounted a vivid memory of fighting alongside Che Guevara during a skirmish in the forest. They were locked in a fierce exchange of gunfire with Cuban forces, with Guevara positioned on the flank and Iglesias at the center.

Amid the chaos, Iglesias was shot and wounded. Reflecting on the moment, he shared: “Che ran out to me, defying the bullets, threw me over his shoulder, and got me out of there. The guards didn’t dare fire at him. Later, they told me he made such a great impression on them that when they saw him running toward the gunfire, tucking his pistol into his belt and ignoring the danger, they couldn’t bring themselves to shoot.”

Guevara’s actions embodied his guiding philosophy, inspired by Homer: “Let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter.”

In Africa, the Massai have worked out a way to obtain large game in the open Savannah. The flat grasslands forces the hunter to be faster than the prey, failing which, he must then outsmart him. It takes just 3 men to steal meat from a pack of 15 hungry lions. They say it’s in the approach, their brazen stroll, the broad shoulders, the determination to take what they want, which scatters thel ions. They walk up to the game and slice off big chunks of meat then walk away.

“Courage,” says Socrates, “is the most important of all virtues.”

“Far better it is,” cried Theodore Roosevelt, “to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

Of this man’s spirit it was said that death had to take him in his sleep, for if he was awake there would have been a fight.

Read more in my new book! The Trials And Triumphs of Hyperachievers