IF

Don't know why exactly, but as I was mulling over the next steps we need to take to get our business going, somehow remembered the eternally inspiring poem by Rudyard Kipling : "IF". Also got me thinking a bit about Faith. Sometimes we think of Faith as an absolute - in the sense of saying : "Do you have faith ?" or "Do you not have faith".... but come to think of it, its actually more like petrol in a car. We tank up - drive a while, but there comes a time when we need to tank up again. Poems for me have always been one such tank-up source - and perhaps it was time for me to tank up again today......

Another dear friend called in yesterday night, out of the blue, to just say : "When you think you have come to the end of the road - just hang in for another 6 months from there for my sake. I am sure this will work - I believe you will make it". Again, I dont know why he felt the need to suddenly call up and say that - but being a fan of Paulho Coelho, I do believe that these are sometimes messages from the Universe, to tank us up with Faith, just when it senses theres a need for some !

On that note, heres the wonderful poem - do read it and get inspired again :

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!