Hope for the less brilliant
Lincoln has become known as a great leader with a healthy dose of perseverance. While discussing the challenges of succeeding in a graduate management program as working adults, I discuss with my students a quote from the father of neurology Santiago Ramón y Cajal: (1996, 309):
Persistence is the virtue of the less brilliant.
Cajal (1996) believed that through perseverance, the "less brilliant" can transcend their potential and surpass those naturally inclined to greatness but lack the discipline and perseverance to go beyond mediocrity. But those who have perseverance and brilliance can skyrocket beyond all of us. I think Lincoln was one of those. Unlike many who have a natural ability and the work ethic to excel, he had something that few leaders seem to possess: humility. However, this combination of positive characteristics was balanced against a tendency to hire inadequate and incompetent generals who struggled against an inferior enemy with few resources. Lincoln's choice of generals in the first three years of the Civil War seemed to turn what was expected to be a short series of skirmishes into a protracted and tragic war.
