If...

Rudyard Kipling 

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 impostors 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 breathe 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! 

-- Rudyard Kipling 

Rudyard Kipling was aged 30 when he wrote his famous poem in 1895. About 80 years later, I can remember my Grandfather reciting Kipling's poem to me when I was a young teen. Granddad was passing some wisdom along to me: just 15 little traits to master on the path to manhood, that's all...

Of course, the traits are not so easily mastered. The lesson I took away is that life is a struggle to fulfill lofty ambitions.

In response, I sketched a kid standing in front of a 40-foot high sculpture of the letters I and F, with the caption: "Now, that's a Mighty Big IF."

"That's a mighty big IF." was my Grandfather's second favorite comeback. The only thing I recall hearing him say more often: "Measure Twice, Cut Once."

Now that I am getting a little older myself and my own kids are in their teens, I understand that my Granddad was not just passing along some words of wisdom. He knew his struggle would not last forever. He was passing along his own hopes and dreams to future generations.

Rudyard Kipling

Kipling was relatively young when he wrote If... Look how wistful and wizened he appears in this image from later in his life.

The world seems so limitless when we are kids....

"If" as a word cloud http://www.wordle.net/create.
Interestingly, common words are automatically excluded.
No ands, buts, or ... ifs.