The time of beginning is one of the most precious times of all. It can be very exciting and full of wonderful growth. The first thing to do is to make up your mind that you are going to go the distance.

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But commitment needs something else in order to be perpetuated. It needs discipline. This is the perserverance to keep on when things are tough. Advrsity is life's way of testing and perfecting a person. Without that, we would never develop character.

It got me thinking about both my beginnings with Linux and Linux Journal's history in the Linux community. For me, with years of UNIX experience, changing my life to Linux was fairly easy. It was like picking the best UNIX-like option at the time. But, it did require cooperation for Linux and those who chose Linux to move forward. In group meetings, on Usenet, in mailing lists, and of course in the magazine itself, we each contributed what we knew to the common knowledge base to help those who knew less.

Internally, we have had our own supply of beginners. With few exceptions, people came to work with us with no knowledge of Linux. As we use Linux internally, that means that everyone was put in a position to commit to Linux in order to participate on our team. Some made that commitment, some did not but, today, there are more people on the "Linux team" because of our commitment to help the beginners and their commitment to continue with Linux.

Now, about that quote. It is from page 271 of the book 365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao.