ACCEPTING DEFEAT

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In 1831, an American citizen went into business. In 1832 his business failed, so
he entered the field of politics, but was no more successful in that sphere. He
reverted to business in 1834, and was again a failure.
In 1841, he had a nervous breakdown. Once recovered, he again entered the politi
cal arena, in the hope that his party would nominate him as a candidate for Cong
ress. His hopes were dashed, however, when his name failed to appear in the list
of candidates. The first chance he had to run for the Senate was in 1855, but h
e was defeated in the election. In 1858, he once again stood in the congressiona
l elections, and once again lost.
The name of this repeatedly unsuccessful person was Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).
So great were his services to his country that he is now known as the architect
of modern America.
How did Abraham Lincoln manage to gain such a great reputation in American polit
ical and national history? How did he win his way to such a high position? Accor
ding to Dr. Norman Vincent Peel, the secret behind his success was that he knew h
ow to accept defeat.
The great secret of life is realism, and there is no form of realism greater tha
n accepting defeat. To do so is to acknowledge the fact that, far from being ahe
ad of others, one is behind them. In other words, it is to know where one stands
in life. Once defeat is accepted, one is immediately in a position to start lif
e s journey afresh, for such a journey can only commence from where one actually i
s; it cannot start from a point that one has not yet reached.
Another positive example of accepting defeat is the case of Japan. Japan, defeat
ed by America in World War II, was occupied by American military forces in April
1945. General Douglas Mac Arther was appointed Supreme Commander in Japan, wher
e he lived until 1951. A new constitution, drawn up with his approval, and ratif
ied by the Japanese Assembly on November 3, 1946, reduced the status of the Empe
ror of Japan to that of a mere symbolic head of state. Under article 9, the Japa
nese nation was also made to pledge that land, sea and air forces, as well as oth
er war potential, will never be maintained. (10/87).
This constitution apparently sounded the death-knell of Japan as nation, but Jap
anese leaders showed great foresight in accepting it. They saw that although it
closed all doors to Japan from the military and political point of view, the doo
r to industrial and scientific advance still stood wide open. Withdrawing from t
he field of military and political confrontation, the Japanese nation began to e
xploit the remaining opportunities in the fields of science and industry. Just 4
0 years later, historians, were compelled to write these words about Japan:
Defeated in World War II (1945), Japan emerged from the ruins of war as one of th
e major economic powers in the world (V/519).
The acceptance of the present opens up hitherto unsuspected paths to the future.
Those who reject the realities of the present will themselves debarred from acc
ess to the potentialities of the future.