A Path to the White House
Failed in business in 1831
Defeated for Legislature in 1832
Second failure in business in 1833
Suffered nervous breakdown in 1836
Defeated for Speaker in 1838
Defeated for Elector in 1840
Defeated for Congress in 1843
Defeated for Congress in 1848
Defeated for Senate in 1855
Defeated for Vice President in 1856
Defeated for Senate in 1858
Elected President in 1860
As you probably guessed, that was Abraham Lincoln’s path to the presidency. Lincoln was likely one of the greatest presidents of all time. Considering what he had done during his presidency (preserving the nation through the civil war and ending slavery), who would have thought that his path to the presidency was full of what many could describe as failure.
Abraham Lincoln’s presidency was not an easy walk in the park, to say the least. He led the country through the worst internal crisis in American history, the Civil War. That was the only time in history that the country was torn apart and we were forced to fight and kill one of our own countrymen to resolve conflicts. It was a sad time, indeed. But as we have seen time and again, there is always the right person at hand in the midst of difficult situation. Through his close supervision, selection of top generals such as Ulysses S. Grant, and uniting leaders into cooperation, victory was accomplished. It brought about the end of slavery and the nation was preserved. Under the hands of a lesser man, the outcome of the Civil War could have turned out differently, and life in the United States could be totally different today.
Looking back at all of his unsuccessful attempts, they seem to serve as a way to prepare his character and mental capacity for difficult situations ahead. In the same way that muscle gets stronger the harder we work it, our character gets stronger the more we face and overcome trials and tribulations. Trials and tribulations are in our life for a purpose. They are there to build our character. They will continue to be there until we learn the necessary traits needed to overcome the challenge. When we finally develop the character traits to overcome them, those same trials and tribulations would seem to go away on their own. We would then be ready for even greater challenges. In Lincoln’s case, it was the challenge of historic proportion. To conclude, the next time we face a difficult situation in our life, one question we could ask ourselves would be “What can I learn from this today?”
Five-Dollar Bill featuring Abraham Lincoln, from Wikipedia. Lincoln was one of the most important figures in our nation’s history and our life. We carry him with us on a $5 bill in our pocket.
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