IF . . .

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming SS for their IT,

If you can trust SS when all men doubt them,

And make allowance for their dubious LTV;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting

For weekly updates and unfulfilled pipelines.

Or when SS are slated, don’t give way to slating,

And yet don’t “post” too good, nor talk too wise:



If you can lend—and not make loans your master;

If you can blink—and not miss on the SM;

If you can meet with bots and still type faster

And beat those bot impostors at their game;

If you can hear the truth the valuers have spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the loans you gave your wealth to, broken,

And wait with patience when the pipeline cools:



If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on a new untitled loan,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word on your forum;

If you can force your heart and nerve and wallet

To serve your turn long after funds are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Lend on!’



If you can fund with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or talk with Tim — nor lose the common touch,

If neither defaults nor early pay-backs hurt you,

If all loans count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill each loan that has no limit

With sixty thousand pounds of investment won,

Yours is the World of P2P and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Saving Stream Investor, my son!



(With apologies to Rudyard Kipling)