We were talking about Suicide, which in a way, is giving up (or I guess, It's the ultimate way to give up, right?).  Here's a little info about a man who was a failure, maybe the world's greatest failure, and how he handled it.  

This man was born poor, in a shack.  

At age 7, his family was kicked out of their shack, and he was forced to go to work.  At 7.

When he was 9, his mother died.

He found a job as a store clerk, but was fired at age 20.

He wanted to go to law school, but hadn't ever finished regular school, and had absolutely no education.

At 23, he went into debt, and borrowed heavily to become a partner in a small business.  

3 years later, the business partner died, leaving him all the bills.

In 1831, the business failed.

In 1832, he was defeated as he tried to run for legislature.

He had been dating a woman for 4 years that he asked to marry at age 28, and she flat out refused.

In 1833, he had another business fail, again.

His girlfriend died in 1835.

He suffered a 'nervous breakdown' in 1836.

He was defeated as he ran for speaker  in 1838.  

He ran as an elector in 1840, and was defeated.

He was then the postmaster of his town, and had the #1 worst efficiency record in the united states.  

His son died at age 4.

He ran for congress in 1848, and was defeated.

He ran for senate in 1855, and was again defeated.

He ran for vice-president in 1856, and was defeated.

He again ran for senate in 1858, and was defeated.

Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States of America, November 6th, 1860.

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Lincoln later went on to declare the final thursday of each November "Thanksgiving Day", to give thanks to god for all that he blesses us with.  

UNBELIEVABLE.  

WOW, unbelievable story.

On a side note, there's a thread with your name written all over it.   Take a look.

^ Lincoln's quotes are entirely screwed up, there's many many quotes attributed to him that he never said, and many of his other quotes are mis-quoted all the time, yeah.  

It shows how hardheaded some people are. And how stupid...having such a life and then giving thanks to God .......bitch please!

I think it's further proof of what a loser he was.

crazy story but i dont get it, the president was elected after he was shut down like 20 other times in all other smaller elections, plus he was uneducated....

Self-educated.

Plus he wrote one of the greatest speeches of all time, the Gettysburg address.

Yeah, I just listed the failures in his life.  He overcame great great obstacles and kept trying, eventually he did win the things he lost, etc.  Unfortunately, he was a bit superstitious, and he had a feeling that if somebody wanted to kill him, they would find a way to do it... as a result, he didn't really have many bodyguards or security around him most of the time.  @ Ford's theatre, his guard had even left his post by the door, and was sitting in the bottom of the theatre watching the show.