You will be a man, my son

Many questions for your career, your future

here is a text by Rudyard Kipling

If you can see the work of your life destroyed

And without saying a single word start rebuilding yourself,

Or lose the winning of a hundred games in one fell swoop

Without a gesture and without a sigh;

If you can be a lover without being madly in love,

If you can be strong without ceasing to be tender,

And, feeling you hated, without hating in your turn,

Yet fight and defend yourself;

If you can bear to hear your words

Travested by beggars to excite fools,

And to hear their crazy mouths lying on you

Without lying to yourself a word;

If you can stay worthy by being popular,

If you can remain a people by advising kings,

And if you can love all your friends as a brother,

Without any of them being all for you;

If you know how to meditate, observe and know,

Without ever becoming skeptical or destructive,

Dream, but without letting your dream be your master,

Thinking without being just a thinker;

If you can be tough without ever being mad

If you can be brave and never reckless,

If you know how to be good, if you know how to be wise,

Without being moral or pedantic;

If you can meet Triumph after Defeat

And receive these two liars from the same front,

If you can keep your courage and your head

When everyone else loses them,

So the Kings, the Gods, the Luck and the Victory

Will forever be your submissive slaves,

And, what is better than Kings and Glory

You will be a man, my son.