Courage

"... is not a quality you have or don't have; nobody is born courageous, nobody has courage all the time, and nobody who has no yet been courageous lacks the possibility of choosing it in the future. Courage is a decision you make to act in a way that works through your own fear for the greater good as opposed to pure self interest. Courage means putting at risk your immediate self-interest for what you believe is right. The stakes don't have to be life and death, and the situation doesn't have to be dramatic. ... Courage is our tool in vanquishing fear, but it's not always an easy tool to use, and truth be told, it's rarely glamorous. It's a daily decision to wake up and try to do the right thing, no matter how big the reward or how great the fear."

- Derrick Bell, Ethical Ambition