Wednesday, September 1, 2010

What true leaders are made of...

I just started my another school essays, and the first one chose to work on is Leadership essay. This is when I read this worth sharing story:

“At the age of seven, a young boy and his family were forced out of their home. The boy had to work to support his family. At the age of nine, his mother passed away. When he grew up, the young man was keen to go to law school, but had no education.

At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk. At 23, he ran for state legislature and lost. The same year, he went into business. It failed, leaving him with a debt that took him 17 years to repay. At 27, he had a nervous breakdown.

Two years later, he tried for the post of speaker in his state legislature. He lost. At 31, he was defeated in his attempt to become an elector. By 35, he had been defeated twice while running for Congress. Finally, he did manage to secure a brief term in Congress, but at 39 he lost his re-election bid.

At 41, his four-year-old son died. At 42, he was rejected as a prospective land officer. At 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. Two years later, he lost the vice presidential nomination. At 49, he ran for Senate and lost again.

At 51, he was elected the President of the United States of America.

The man in question: Abraham Lincoln.”
                                                            — Author Unknown

This is what true leaders are made of - persistence and determination!!!
A

3 comments:

  1. I found your blog while I was checking out some of the blogs in the BTG blog network. Your blog is great - I was especially impressed and inspired by the story of Lincoln. I thought I know a fair amount about US history, but there were parts of Lincoln's story that I didn't know until reading your post. Also your various lists of resources for MBA aspirants are awesome.

    David Park
    CEO, Beat The GMAT

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awesome story man! Great lines for that much needed inspiration for us b-school apping mortals!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That IS a great story! Thanks for sharing.

    And while you may not be Abraham Lincoln, I'm sure you've got some impressive stories to share too. It's good to keep that "story" attitude in mind when composing any essays you may encounter on leadership.

    Accepted.com's Leadership in Admissions special report could lend further insight into how you can best portray yourself in your b-school essays. Plus it's free -- http://www.accepted.com/mba/leadership.aspx

    Good luck writing, and let us know if you need anything!

    Sarah P.
    www.accepted.com

    ReplyDelete

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