Meet Theodore Roosevelt: The Man in the Arena

The body, built

Doctors told the asthmatic boy to choose a quiet life. His father built a gym instead: 'You must make your body.' He did — then made everything else: rancher after losing his wife and mother on the same Valentine's Day, colonel up San Juan Hill, youngest president in history.

The arena

As president he busted trusts, built the canal, won a Nobel for peacemaking, and protected 230 million acres of wild America. Shot in the chest mid-campaign in 1912, he finished the 84-minute speech first. His Sorbonne lines about the man in the arena — marred by dust and sweat and blood — were autobiography.

Why they belong at your table

Seat him when you are spectating your own life. He will not let you keep your seat in the stands.