| The day before John Kennedy’s inauguration, President Eisenhower told him that he would find no easy problems ever came to the President of the United States. He said if the problems were easy to solve, somebody else would have solved them. Kennedy said he found that hard to believe, but came to realize it was true.
Abraham Lincoln had learned that lesson one hundred years earlier. Lincoln was no ordinary person. He had moved himself from a very ordinary station in life to a position where big decisions are made. President Lincoln also learned that a position of responsibility not only brought with it big decisions, it also attracted numerous critics who would attack at every opportunity. Those opportunities arose whenever he made a decision with which his critics did not agree. It is recorded that a close friend of President Lincoln’s once asked him if all of these attacks bothered him. Lincoln’s answer was a classic, one you should keep in mind the next time you make a tough decision and you are openly criticized. If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any further business. I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten thousand angels swearing I was right would make no difference. What a great attitude. It is also great advice to follow the next time you make a tough decision and are attacked by your critics.
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From Bob Proctor
Hi, I'm Jon... author, entrepreneur and speaker.