In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually
live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be
vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are
ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the
reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is
widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and
detraction. When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole
world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few.
If his work be merely mediocre, he will be left severely alone. If
he achieve a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a-wagging.
Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who
produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or
play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander
you, unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long, long
after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are
disappointed or envious continue to cry out that it cannot be done.
Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our
own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed
him its greatest genius. Multitudes flocked to worship at the shrine
of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and
displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little
world continued to protest that Fulton could not build a steamboat,
while the big world flocked to the river to see his boat steam by.
The leader is assailed because he is the leader, and the effort to
equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal
or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy but
only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to
supplant. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world
and as old as the human passions - envy, fear, greed, ambition, and
the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader
truly leads, he remains - the leader. Master-poet, master-painter,
master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his
laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself
known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves
to live…lives.
Briggs and Stratton 305 Super Champ…because it works.
