CIP 036.
Own the Need, Achieve the Dream: Abraham Lincoln Assumes Command of the Problem at Hand, and Pilots His Path to the Top
Ranked among the greatest of American Presidents, Abraham Lincoln was surprisingly ambitious. He desperately wanted to be remembered for doing something great. But it wasn’t until he linked his great aspiration with his passionate, unconquerable hatred for slavery that Lincoln began to see his star rise. Listen in and learn how Lincoln, a poor, backwoods country lawyer with less than a year of formal education, rose to become the Great Emancipator, and the 16th President of the United States.
Episode Overview: Abraham Lincoln was born to poor Kentucky farmers in 1809. Raised in a one-room, dirt-floor log cabin on the American frontier, Lincoln’s early life was filled with long hours of manual labor, and many years of trial and tribulation, setback and struggle. But Abraham Lincoln, fiercely ambitious, was determined to rise up from his humble origins, and make his mark on the world. “The way for a man to rise,” he said, “is to improve himself in every way he can.” And, so, Lincoln worked hard, educated himself, and found ways to grow and improve. Eventually, he carved out a career for himself as a successful prairie lawyer. And, yet, he still wanted to do more. In this episode of Classic Influence, we’ll travel back to America’s pre-Civil War era and learn how Abraham Lincoln, ultimately, after a lifetime of heartbreaking setbacks and defeats, achieved the ultimate election victory by steadfastly turning his unquenchable ambition toward serving the people and winning their esteem. Drawing on Winston Churchill’s address at Harvard University in 1943, this episode also reveals one of the main, most widespread reasons why people fail to achieve their greatest, most ambitious dreams.