In 1831, an American citizen went into business. In
1832 his business failed, so he entered the field of
politics, but was no more successful in that sphere.
He reverted to business in 1834, and was again a
failure.
In 1841, he had a nervous breakdown. Once
recovered, he again entered the political arena, in
the hope that his party would nominate him as a
candidate for Congress. His hopes were dashed,
however, when his name failed to appear in the list
of candidates. The first chance he had to run for the
Senate was in 1855, but he was defeated in the
election. In 1858, he once again stood in the
congressional elections, and once again lost.
The name of this repeatedly unsuccessful person
was Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). So great were his
services to his country that he is now known as the
architect of modern America.
How did Abraham Lincoln manage to gain such a
great reputation in American political and national
history? How did he win his way to such a high
position? According to Dr Norman Vincent Peel, the
secret behind his success was that “he knew how to
accept defeat.”
The great secret of life is realism, and there is no
form of realism greater than accepting defeat. To do
so is to acknowledge the fact that, far from being
ahead of others, one is behind them. In other words,
it is to know where one stands in life. Once defeat is
accepted, one is immediately in a position to start
life’s journey afresh, for such a journey can only
commence from where one actually is; it cannot
start from a point that one has not yet reached.
Ref - The Moral Vision
- by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
