The strong, rigorous, forceful, stalwart men who have pushed civilisation upward are the products of self-help. They have not been pushed or boosted; but they have fought every inch of the way up to their own commanding and secure levels. They are giants because they have been great conquerors of difficulties, supreme masters of difficult situations. They have acquired the strength of the obstacles which they have overcome.
Where there is responsibility there is growth. People who are never thrust into responsible positions ever develop their real strength. This is one reason why it is so rare to find very strong men and women among those who have spent their lives in subordinate positions, in the service of others. They go through life comparatively as weaklings because their powers have never been tested or developed by having responsibility thrust upon them. Their thinking has been done for them. They have simply carried out somebody else’s programme. They have never learnt to stand alone, to think for themselves, and to act independently.
The stamina or power which makes one equal to great crisis in life is only developed by years of practical training under great responsibility. Within every modest clerk, maid, peon, servant or the person who makes a living by sweeping city streets lies enough power latent in them which can get released if the opportunity and necessary emergency happens to call out this dynamic force in all of them. But how can clerks who remain behind counters, measuring cloth, selling shoes or hosiery, year in and year out, ever know what latent power for organisation, what executive ability or initiative they possess?
Some of the more ambitious and courageous get out and start for themselves but it does not follow that they are always abler than those who remain behind. Sometimes the greatest ability is accompanied by great modesty and even timidity. Then again, some of them are often deterred from taking the risk of launching out for themselves because of possible disaster for those depending upon them for their daily bread. But when you thrust great responsibility upon a man, drive him to desperation, and the demand will bring out what that is already in him. It will call out his initiative, his ingenuity, his resourcefulness, his self-reliance, his power to adjust means to ends. If there are elements of leadership in him responsibility will call them out.
We cannot grow with the largest possible expansion of our powers nor realize this ambition in the fullest and complete sense, while merely trying to carry out somebody else’s programme and letting him furnish the ideas. There must be a sense of complete independence, not partial but complete, in order to reach the highest growth. We do not attain our full stature of manhood or womanhood in captivity or in slavery, but in freedom, in absolute liberty. The eagle must be let out of the cage, no matter how large or how comfortable, before it can exhibit all the powers of an eagle. Responsibility and an absolute need to shoulder that responsibility is what will shatter the fetters that confine and set the eagle in you to soar higher and higher!
