what truly made Lincoln a great man...

With today being Abraham Lincoln’s birthday there are lots of people who are expounding on his great accomplishments. But the thing that stands out the most to me are not all of the wonderful things he did do, but rather I want to celebrate all of his failures. Here is a list of “highlights” that lead up to his presidency:


Age 7 – his family was forced out of their home and he had to go to work to support them

Age 9 – his mother died

Age 22 – he failed in business

Age 23 – he ran for the Illinois House of Representatives and lost

Age 23 – he lost his job. Later that same year he decided he wanted to go to law school, but his application was rejected

Age 24 – Lincoln borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business, but by the end of the year he was bankrupt.

Age 25 – h ran for state legislature again and lost

Age 26 – he was engaged to be married, but his fiancé died and it broke his heart. He spent 6 months of that year confined to bed from a total nervous breakdown.

Age 29 – he sought to become Speaker of the state legislature and was defeated

Age 31 – he sought to become elector and was defeated

Age 33 – he ran for Congress and lost

Age 36 – he ran for Congress again; this time he won.

Age 38 – Lincoln ran for reelection to Congress and lost.

Age 39 – he sought the job of land officer but was rejected

Age 44 – he ran for Senate of the United States and lost

Age 46 – he sought the vice presidential nomination at his party’s national convention. He got fewer than one hundred votes and lost

Age 48 – he ran for the United States Senate again, and lost again


And then in 1856 at the age of 50 Abraham Lincoln ran for President of the United States and became our 16th president.

Reaching for success is never an easy thing and every person has faced failure at one time or another in their life. But think of all the setbacks that President Lincoln faced and yet never gave up on himself. How many of us would have simply stopped trying after only a few of the things that happen to him? To me, this is why Abraham Lincoln was such an incredible figure.


Happy Birthday Mr. President.


[Information taken from the book “The Rhythm of Life; Living Every Day with Passion and Purpose” by Matthew Kelly - I cannot recommend this book highly enough!]