"In her mid-twenties she ran as the Conservative candidate for the strong Labour seat of Dartford at the General Elections of 1950 and 1951, winning national publicity as the youngest woman candidate in the country. She lost both times, but cut the Labour majority sharply and hugely enjoyed the experience of campaigning."
At times in life when we lose, we have to be careful how we interpret what happened. To look at the experience from the wrong perspective can cause us to lose the value in the experience.
Most times, when we lose, it is temporal, and in reality it's a win for us.
Look at Thatcher's "losses" above. In her chosen field of politics, she was able to whittle down her competitors in a big way, and build up experience along the journey. She was learning and building the foundation to where she really wanted to go: all the way to the top in British politics.
What was very telling in all this is she not only didn't get discouraged, but thoroughly enjoyed the process she went through. Her two losses did nothing to dampen her goals and purpose - she knew what she wanted and the value of what she went through.
She looked at this time of her life as training and preparation. She was softening up and preparing the market for the moment she began her pursuits in earnest. It worked tremendously in a hostile environment, where at the time she was by far part of the minority in the country.
So when we go through times of loss and what seems to be failure, look at how it relates to your overall plans and vision.
It's not that we won't need to kick ourselves once in a while and learn from our mistakes, but we must understand we're on a journey that will have its times of failures and times of success.
Even if Thatcher would have won those elections when she was younger, it wouldn't have mattered as far as her long-term goals went. She was moving toward an end that wasn't affected by the temporary setbacks of the present.
At various times of our careers, whether we win or lose isn't as important as setting ourselves up for the next step. Thatcher was completely self-conscience of this, which is why she knew even though she lost in the short-term, in the long-term the steps she was taking were leading her to what she really wanted to win.
Let our competitors temporarily think we've been stopped, when in reality we're just setting ourselves up for victory.
Margaret Thatcher Resources:
The Best Quotes From Margaret Thatcher's 'Statecraft'
Margaret Thatcher & the Revival of the West
Interview with Margaret Thatcher
Magaret Thatcher's Life in the Shadows
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