The True Test

"When he was sever-years old, his family was forced out of their home and off their farm. Like other boys his age, he was expected to work to help support the family.

When he was nine, his mother died. At the age off 22, the company he worked for went bankrupt and he lost his job.

At 23, he ran for state legislature in a field of 13 candidates. He came in eighth.

At 24, he borrowed money to start a business with a friend. By the end of the year, the business failed. The local sheriff seized his possessions to pay off his debt. His partner soon died, penniless, and he assumed his partner's share of debt as well. He spent the next several years of his life paying it off.

At 25, he ran for state legislature again. This time he won.

At 26, he was engaged to be married. But his fiancee died before the wedding. The next year  he plunged into a depression and suffered a nervous breakdown.

At 29, he sought to become the speaker of the state legislature. He was defeated.

At 34, he campaigned for a U.S. congressional seat, representing his district. He lost.

At 35, he ran for Congress again. This time he won. He went to Washington and did a good job.

At 39, when his term ended, he was out of a job again. There was a one-term limit rule in his party.

At 40, he tried to get a job as commissioner of the General Land Office. He was rejected.

At 45, he was one of the contenders for the vice-presidential nomination at his party's national convention. He lost.

At 49, he ran for the same U.S. Senate seat a second time. And for the second time, he lost.

Two years later, at the age of 51, after a lifetime of failure, disappointment and loss (and still relatively unknown outside of his home state of Illinois), Abraham Lincoln was elected the sixteenth president of the United States."

 I discovered this story in Lead with a Story by Paul Smith. It is an incredible book. Over a 100 stories are shared in the book to help business men and women alike learn to craft business narratives that captivate, convince, and inspire action. This particular story about Abraham Lincoln jumped out at me in an inspirative fashion. Here's why.

For me personally, it has been a troubling few months. I am working as an intern and at a local grocery store to pay the bills while also studying for the GRE. Hopefully after this next week, I will receive a good score and start business school in the spring. Some may say I was on a wrong track after leaving law school. In fact, I personally thought the same thing at first. I found myself scrubbing dishes on Friday and Saturday nights to get cash to buy food. 

If it wasn't for my gracious parents, I would have been in an even worse situation. But I am resilient. As told in the story of Lincoln, our entire lives we will battle obstacles. So even if I do not pass the GRE, I will get right back up and try again.

I know my goals, which remind me of something the prolific speaker, Sir Winston Churchill, once said, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." So, because I cannot control outside forces that deliver obstacles, but only my attitude towards how these obstacles will affect me, my true test is the courage to continue. And this test seems much more cardinal than any standardized test.