There is nothing else which calls so much out of a young person as grave responsibility. Somehow other things do not reach the reserves of human power as responsibility does. The pampered idle young man of wealth never discovers anything like his greatest possibilities, his real strength, unless an unexpected emergency makes a demand on him. He never really knows his power until he has shouldered responsibility of some sort. Then if there is really anything in him he straightens up to his tasks. His natural pride in winning, his ambition to excel, the thought of humiliation and disgrace if he should fail or give up, are all incentives, spurs to his will, urging him and helping him to put over the thing he has undertaken. To work hard without taking responsibility will never bring out the best in a man. There are tens of thousands of employees who are filling very ordinary positions today who would develop very great ability if they had responsibility thrust upon them. If some of these were to go into business for themselves, for instance, where their faculties would be put to the test of deciding things, of doing things independently, they would show astounding business capacity.
The way to bring out the reserve in a man is to pile responsibility upon him. The evasion of responsibility is one of the greatest foes of success. because without trying our strength there is no possibility of growth. Responsibility is the greatest human developer, the greatest human educator. The greater the responsibility, if the man is equal to it, the greater man will be brought out. Why not resolve, (my responsibility avoiding friends), that you never shrink from anything, no matter how distasteful it may be, which will help you to become a larger, stronger man or woman in every way, anything which will give you better training, enlarged experience? There is nothing like responsibility for developing power, multiplying ability. It calls out qualities which nothing else will reach.
– Orison Swett Marden, The Chicago Daily News, Chicago, IL., September 13, 1918
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