“The thing for you to do is to fight it out.”
Difficulty is answered with continued effort rather than self-pity, while the surrounding advice remains focused on practical persistence rather than bravado.
Source details
Character Building, “The Cultivation of Stable Habits,” Project Gutenberg #60484. After describing two Tuskegee graduates who finished what they undertook, Washington tells students to “fight it out” and stick to their course despite discouragement and material difficulty.