The Power of Persistence

Author and historian Michael Burlinghame PhD, author of the definitive biography Abraham Lincoln: A Life, commented:

“To come from a background where he really suffered from emotional malnutrition (his baby brother dies, his mother dies when he’s nine, his father is unsympathetic and beats him, his older sister dies, his sweetheart dies, he has a terrible marriage, two of his children die, he suffers career failures, and has a difficult midlife crisis), and yet he overcomes all that to become not only famous but profoundly psychologically whole and mature, balanced and a model of moral clarity with unimpeachable integrity.

“I think that there’s hope for all of us.”

—from an interview in Abraham Lincoln Online.

The man who became the 16^th president of the United States was nothing if not resilient, as the record of the setbacks he overcame on his path to the presidency
shows:

1832                Lost job
1832                Defeated for state legislature
1833                Failed in business

1834                Elected for state legislature
1835                Death of sweetheart
1836                Nervous breakdown
1838                Defeated for post of Speaker
1843                Defeated for nomination to Congress
1846                Elected to Congress
1848                Lost nomination
1849                Rejected for post of land officer
1854                Defeated for US Senate
1856                Lost nomination for Vice President
1858                Again defeated for US Senate
1860                Elected President of the United States