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If At First You Don't Succeed...

I want to share with you a story of failure.

There was a guy who was a pretty normal guy. One day, like what happens to many people, he lost his job.  Naturally it only made sense to run for state legislature. That didn't exactly work out. So he figured if he couldn't do that then he'd start his own business...that didn't quite work out either. After failing in business he got the idea that now he had enough experience to run for state legislature again. This time he succeeded! Things sure were looking up now, but life threw another punch and the year after his success his "sweet heart" died. This would cause him to experience a nervous breakdown. Starting to feel sorry for this guy yet?

A few years after his nervous breakdown he ran for Congress and again was defeated. Here most people would call it quits, but not this dude. Naturally he tried to run again. This time he experienced his second success in 14 years and was elected to Congress. Two years later, he lost his spot in Congress. To add to his list of failures, our poor friend was rejected for a position as a land officer and then for a seat in the US Senate.

After this string of losses it's very clear what he had to do isn't it? I mean any person in their right mind would  obviously run for Vice President! But wouldn't you know it, he lost that too so he logically ran for US Senate two years later. You'll be surprised to know that he didn't get that spot either.

All of these losses have to prompt some to ask, how many times can a person really fail before he/she either experiences success or just quits? In this person's case 12 times(not counting other little personal failures and what not). The question that should be asked though, is how many times does a person really need to succeed? The answer is once. It's not the quantity of success, its the quality of the success experienced and no one understood this better than one of the greatest president's in American history, Abraham Lincoln. In 1860 he was elected President after a long string of failures. It was these failures that would help him develop one of the greatest qualities any person can have, persistence. It is because of his losses that he would experience his greatest victory ever...winning The Civil War.

Learn from Old Abe, if at first you don't succeed; try, try again.

Live It Up
-ZZ-

Abraham Lincoln's Resume
Lost job in 1832.
Defeated for state legislature in 1832.
Failed in business in 1833.
Elected to state legislature in 1834.
Sweetheart died in 1835.
Had nervous breakdown in 1836.
Defeated for Speaker in 1838.
Defeated for nomination for Congress in 1843.
Elected to Congress in 1846.
Lost renomination in 1848.
Rejected for land officer in 1849.
Defeated for U.S. Senate in 1854.
Defeated for nomination for Vice President in 1856.
Again defeated for U.S. Senate in 1858.
Elected President in 1860

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