It was his powerful and super eloquent Gettysburg address that I first encountered. It still remains fascinating that Lincoln’s simple and clear two minutes speech of 271 words could achieve so much and then become the most quoted speech in history of the United States, over Edward Everett’s 2 hours speech, with 13,000 words.
The exploit of that speech lured me into googling and digging into Lincoln’s biography via the internet, in those days when all I knew about the internet was to simply type in notable names and then scoff up resulting stories and biographies like hot Indomie. One can hardly read through the life of the tallest president America ever had and not become emotionally attached to the story of a great storyteller.
The success or failure of every man lies in their story. So let’s look into the stuffs that characterized the success of Abraham Lincoln and then learn from his depth of emotional intelligence.
Lesson #1 Reading prepares one for success.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Abraham Lincoln’s life to me was his unrelenting and strategic ability to position himself where success can be attained. In the real sense of it, nothing happens by chance. Nothing! Those who succeed always have a good record of things they do consistently that put them in a successful position. For Lincoln, one of such things was reading. As an avid reader, he will walk several miles to borrow a book. He read a lot of literature. Most especially works of Shakespeare and the family bible. At the point when he decided to become a lawyer, Lincoln thought himself law by reading Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, hence becoming a lawyer. He was admitted to bar in 1837.
To stay and remain sharp, Lincoln knew that studying and learning outside politics was vital for preparing him for the leadership challenges ahead. “I will prepare and some day my chance will come.” was
one of his adages. It was documented that Lincoln carried letters and
notes in his tall stovepipe hat so he could constantly scribble his
thoughts and store them there. Apparently so he can always have his
thoughts back when he needs to revisit and regurgitate over them.Lesson #2 Self Control
You’d agree that those who are brilliant at playing on words are also a genius at using it to the detriment of others. At a political gathering in 1840, Lincoln was provoked to the point that he mocked his opponent Jess Thomas, to the soothing of the crowd. At that event, it was recorded that Thomas was in tears and people kept referring to the occurrence as “the skinning of Thomas.”
Later on, one of Lincoln’s friends reported that he felt so bad about his own conduct “…the recollection of his own conduct that evening filled [Lincoln] with the deepest chagrin. He felt he had gone too far and to rid his good nature of a load, hunted up Thomas and made ample apology,” according to an excerpt in Benjamin Thomas, Lincoln’s Humor : An Analysis.
There was this other story according to a 2005 Time magazine article The Master of the Game about a congressman who had received Lincoln’s authorization for something to be carried out by war department. When war secretary Stanton, refused to honour the order, the disappointed petitioner returned to Lincoln, telling him that Stanton had not only contaminated the order but had called the president a damn fool for issuing it. “Did Stanton say I was a fool?” Lincoln asked. “He did sir, and repeated it” At which point, the president remarked “If Stanton said I was a damn fool, then I must be one, for he’s nearly always right and generally says what he means. I will step over and see him.
There were other times when we’d become angry and write a hot note, but will think over it again and ensure that such notes were never signed nor sent. Many of them were later discovered in the president desk.
Lesson #3 The power of surrounding yourself with intelligent people
One of the smartest ways to evaluate a person still remains looking into the caliber of people they refer to as friends. To ascertain if a leader will succeed, look into his cabinet. But an uncommon angle to Lincoln’s personality was that he doesn’t neglect rivals and oppositions as long as they are intelligent and fearless.
In 1862, Lincoln appointed Edwin Stanton into his cabinet as secretary of war knowing fully well that Stanton wasn’t just resolute but also very secretive compared to Lincoln who was considered excessively kind and so open to a fault (as evidence in one of his famous quote, “On the whole, my impression is that mercy bears richer fruits than any other attribute.”). Yet their conflicting characters balanced out lending credence to another of his sayings “Hold your friends close and your enemies closer” At points where Lincoln was too kind and all forgiving, most especially with soldiers that went against the rules and discipline of the military. Edwin Stanton was there to relentlessly punish cowardice. Yes pardons were still issued, but not at the rate it’d have been if it were to be Lincoln alone.
It might be hard, but when you surround yourself with people who can argue and intelligently disagree with you on issues, it helps to question some of our long gathered assumptions.
Lesson #4 Learning how to relax:
Yeah it’s so good to be hard working and emphatically there’s no quick fix to success. But on the other hand, if care is not taken, relaxation might just gradually be going into extinction in your vocabulary. Especially in an era like ours where there’s so much to be done. And moreover technology has made it possible to work round the clock whether in office, or out of office, in traffic and in some cases even in your sleep.
With a long list of daily to-dos with screaming deadlines and several blog links on twitter begging to be read and shared. You realize that in the mix of the drive to achieve our utmost goals, we forget the other small but beautiful things of life like reflecting and also relaxing with friends and family, thereby replenishing energy for the hustles that lies ahead. What a real loss!
Lincoln went to the theatre about a hundred times while he was in Washington. And as a matter of fact he was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre, Washington, D.C. becoming the first US president to be assassinated. He had a tremendous sense of humor. And as a brilliant storyteller and jokester he’d entertain people long into the night with his stories. There are a couple tales about Lincoln playing with his children on the White House lawn and other times chasing the children through the White House. This exceptional ability to recharge your batteries in the midst of stress and great workload is extremely crucial for success, health and leadership.
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