Failed in business at age 21.
Was defeated in a legislative race at age 22.
Failed again in business at age 24.
Overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 26.
Had a nervous breakdown at age 27.
Lost a congressional race at age 34.
Lost a congressional race at age 36.
Lost a senatorial race at age 45.
Failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47.
Lost a senatorial race at age 49.
Was elected president of the United States at age 52.


The man’s name was Abraham Lincoln.  Could he have become president if he had seen these events of his life as failures?  It’s not likely.  There’s a famous story about Thomas Edison.  After he’d tried 9,999 times to perfect the light bulb and hadn’t succeeded, someone asked him, “Are you going to have ten thousand failures?”  He answered, “I didn’t fail.  I just discovered another way not to invent the electric light bulb.”  He had discovered how another set of actions had produced a different result.

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