Skill Counts for Little, Courage Tells All

If you lack this one thing, then none of your guns, ammunition, plans, or training can help you. If you fail at this one thing, then the battle is already lost. This indispensable thing is courage.

Fear can cause all of our good planning and all the musings of what we thought we might’ve done or should’ve done, to go out the window. People who thought they would charge a threat, or flank and counterattack, instead freeze, unable to process or to will their bodies to respond. Still, others may run or hide from a threat in an effort to save themselves while being completely unable to think about the safety of others that are also in harms way.

There are heroes out there of course. But their stories move us because they are so rare. The story of heroes move us because they all contain this one common denominator – our heroes acted courageously.

In Stephen Pressfield’s book ‘Gates of Fire’, the Spartan King Leonidas tells us that in battle “practice of arms counts little, courage tells all.”

What this means is that we can have amazing tactics, speed and accuracy and shooting perfect weapon manipulation skills unparalleled physical ability and endurance, and still FAIL MISERABLY if we lack courage. It all comes down to courage when the lines clash.

When the screaming starts and blood flows freely in the night, it is courage that will see the dawn. Courage tells all.

The renaissance man Niccolo Machiavelli disdained mercenaries. “Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither, firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious, and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies, they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men and distraction is deferred only so long as the attack is.”

I believe the reason Machiavelli had such disdain for these hired guns had little to do with their skills and aptitude, and everything to do with their lack of conviction to their cause.

People will fight for money, but they will not die for it. Mercenaries, lacking the courage given by a higher cause, will of course flee when they suspect they might not come out of an encounter alive. I do not blame them. I wouldn’t die for something I do not believe in either and my life is too valuable to be bought with poverty-laden riches.

Skill is of course critical, as is having the right tools, a plan, being fit, etc., but all of this pales in comparison to having courage. If you do not have courage, your training may fail you. Your tools at hand might as well be 1 million miles away, and all your plans will lie unfulfilled as horror makes you freeze in place or run.

If we cannot be courageous, fear will consume us.

Now here comes the difficulty: how can we grow in courage? Guns, I can buy them. Training, I can find it. Plans, we can all make them. But how in the world (and this is the million dollar question) can we become people of courage?

To me, courage is simply your character under fire. It is the ultimate litmus test of your real underlying virtue. In other words, if you would like to be courageous, become a person of greater character. Love others extravagantly, so that you will fight courageously, for “perfect love casts out all fear” -John 4:18

Additionally, get in touch with your inner adrenaline junkie. Make a habit of charging the things in life that scare you. This will do wonders to help you overcome fear, because now fear loses its potency as it is diluted by a lifestyle of courage.

Finally, we can develop good courage by intense training which induces similar stress found in violent encounters. Things such as force-on-force, and scenario based training can do wonders to prepare a person to be courageous.

As always, Warrior Poets, train hard and train smart.