Administrative Update: There will no publication on Monday, May 26, 2025, for observance of Memorial Day. God Bless our military personnel who served and are serving our country.
Is it the man that makes the times or the times that make the man?
Doris Kearns Goodwin explores this question in her book Leadership in Turbulent Times.
She unpacks how four U.S. presidents (Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson) grew as leaders.
She provides insights into where their ambitions came from, the struggles they overcame, and the legacy they left.
I shared some of Lincoln’s leadership qualities in a past post.
I’ll focus on the two Roosevelts (Teddy and FDR) and share how they transformed personal adversity into national leadership.
Adversity Must Be Overcome
Both Roosevelts came from privileged upbringings.
But money couldn’t shield either man from tragedy.
Teddy
As a 27-year-old working for the New York State Legislature, Teddy Roosevelt received a telegram informing him that his wife, Alice, had just given birth to their daughter.
His glee quickly turned into shock as he received another telegram stating that Alice was gravely ill.
He raced home in the middle of the night only to find out that not only was his wife struggling for her life, but his mother, who he was very close to, had succumbed to typhoid fever.
Here’s Goodwin:
“There is a curse on this house,” {Teddy’s} brother, Elliott, told him upon his arrival. “Mother is dying, and Alice is dying too.”
By midnight, both women were in a semiconscious state. His 49-year-old mother, Mittie, still a youthful-looking, beautiful woman, had been suffering from what was considered to be a severe cold, but which turned out to be a lethal case of typhoid fever.
Theodore was at his mother’s bedside at 3 a.m. when she died.
Less than 12 hours later, as he enfolded his young wife in his arms, Alice died from what was later diagnosed as acute kidney disease.
It was February 14, 1884, when both his mother and wife passed away.
The only words he wrote in his diary that day were:
The light has gone out of my life.
FDR
Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio in August 1921 at the age of 39.
After a day of sailing and swimming in cold water, he developed a fever, muscle weakness, and paralysis, which gradually worsened.
Within days, he lost the use of his legs. Doctors later confirmed it was infantile paralysis, what we now call polio.
The disease left him permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
It took FDR four years of hard, sustained work to move around again.
Initially, FDR experienced shock, frustration, and depression.
He had been a vigorous, athletic man but suddenly, he couldn’t stand or walk.
The loss of independence was crushing, but after the initial despair, FDR’s mindset began to shift.
Instead of giving in to self-pity, he grew more reflective and resilient.
Goodwin writes:
Franklin Roosevelt’s ordeal provides the most clear-cut paradigm of how a devastating crucible experience can, against all expectation and logic, lead to significant growth, intensified ambition, and enlarged gifts for leadership.
Teddy and FDR’s emotional and physical trials made them resilient and strengthened their character, which helped shape them into national leaders.
Pursue Mastery
You must do the thing you cannot do. – Eleanor Roosevelt
Teddy was a man of action.
He encouraged others to dig deep within themselves and bring out the best.
He would say there are two types of successful people:
The first success belongs to the man “who has in him the natural power to do what no one else can do, and what no amount of training, no perseverance or willpower will enable an ordinary man to do.”
I think of Lebron James.
This man is 6’9” and weighs 250 pounds, with a vertical jump of over 40 inches.
I can train for years, but I’ll never shoot or dunk like Lebron.
The second and more common type of success is not dependent on such unique inborn attributes but on a man’s ability to develop ordinary qualities to an extraordinary degree through ambition and the application of hard, sustained work. Unlike genius, which can inspire but not educate, self-made success is democratic, “open to the average man of sound body and fair mind, who has no remarkable mental or physical attributes,” but who enlarges each of those attributes to the maximum degree.
I resonate with this second form of success.
I was a broke kid from El Salvador with no air conditioning or running water – very grateful for both.
I am now a partner at one of the top-ranked financial planning firms.
I didn’t achieve this because of my natural abilities.
I put in the hours to get better at my craft (effort compounds over time).
I learn from my failures and mistakes (I still make many).
I focus on what matters (my God, my family, and my craft).
Teddy believed in his bones that every man, woman, and child could pursue the second form of success and would achieve more than they could ever realize.
This belief in self-improvement was contagious. This is one reason why he was adored by many and why he earned more votes than any third-party candidate in U.S. history.
As he quoted saying:
There is nothing brilliant or outstanding about my record except perhaps for one thing: when I make up my mind to do a thing, I act.
Stay Humble
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. – Teddy Roosevelt
Early in his career when Teddy believed he was in line for the position of Assistant Secretary of State, he was given a minor role as a member of the Civil Service Commission.
He accepted the role and did the best he could for six years.
When he was offered the Assistant Secretary of the Navy position, a post his friends deemed below what he deserved, he accepted and put his whole energy into the task.
When he was offered the vice presidency, a job many considered a political graveyard, he accepted and did what he could with what he had where he was.
Goodwin said:
Roosevelt would view each position as a test of character, effort, endurance, and will.
Although he was a man of energy and conviction, Teddy's acceptance of these roles showed that he was humble. He would take every opportunity to learn how to improve himself and his surroundings.
FDR’s humility took a different shape – one more visible and forged by physical limitation.
Goodwin states:
As {FDR’s friend} watched {FDR} being carried up a fire escape to enter a third-floor hall, “a perilous, uncomfortable ordeal.” Moreover, he accepted his “humiliating entrance” with grace and dignity.
He was “good-natured” with everyone, “conserving his strength” by never complaining about small things or wasting time over trifles.
“If you can’t use your legs and they bring you milk when you wanted orange juice, you learn to say, “That’s all right, and drink it.”
FDR turned his limitations into optimism.
An optimism that helped him win four presidential elections.
Both Roosevelts showed that humility is a form of wisdom.
Final Thoughts
Teddy broke up big business, conserved over 230 million acres of public land, and built the Panama Canal.
FDR created the safety net of Social Security, established the backing of the FDIC, and stood up against the evil Axis powers in World War II.
Both men revealed their true powers of resilience, courage, and resoluteness throughout their lives, which helped the nation rise to new levels of prosperity.
In the end, Goodwin reveals that there is no one trajectory to greatness.
Greatness lives inside all of us.
Don’t expect to find better people until you are committed to becoming a better person. Change the world within you, and that will change the world around you.
– Erwin Raphael McManus
If you haven’t read Leadership in Turbulent Times yet, it’s worth your time.
Now here’s what I’ve been reading, listening, and watching:
Alexander Graham Bell (the sleepless man who invented the telephone) on Founders
Just Keep Buying by Nick Maggiulli
The Seven Frequencies of Communication by Erwin Raphael McManus
The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom
Children’s book (I have a 5-year old): Where Happiness Lives by Barry Timms
Here’s what I’ve been writing:
