Abraham Lincoln is, in my and many other people's opinion, the greatest public figure in American history - a rare combination of an extremely effective politician and deeply compassionate and humanitarian man. But Lincoln suffered a multitude of failures and setbacks in his life which he did not let get in his way as he finally won the presidency and changed the course of history. If you have recently seen a revese in your life which has been hard to accept, look at Lincoln's life as an example of how temporary defeat hardly need mean ultimate failure.