A true #FAIL -> #WIN story for the ages

See if you can recognize the person in this story.

As a young man, he went to war a captain and returned a private (in case you’re wondering, that is going backwards :-)). Afterwards, he was a failure as a businessman. As a lawyer, he was too impractical and temperamental to be a success. He turned to politics and was defeated in his first try for the legislature, again defeated in his first attempt to be nominated for congress, defeated in his application to be commissioner of the General Land Office, defeated in the senatorial election of 1854, defeated in his efforts for the vice-presidency in 1856, and defeated in the senatorial election of 1858. At about that time, he wrote in a letter to a friend, "I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth."

Any guesses?

It’s Abraham Lincoln.

(Taken from http://kevinowens4.posterous.com/president-lincoln-was-a-loser)