"If U can keep your head when all about U

Are losing theirs and blaming it on U,

If U can trust yourself when all men doubt U,

But make allowance to their doubt too;

if U can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

and yet don't look too good, nor talk to wise;

If U can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If U can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If U can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those impostors just the same;

If U can bear to hear the truth U've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things U gave your life for, broken,

And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools:

If U can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and star again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If U can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when theres nothing in U

Except the will which says to them:"Hold on!"

If U 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 U,

If all count with U but none too much;

If U 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, U'll be a Man (or a Woman in her 30 and something years old, maybe!), my son!"

Rudyard Kipling