Emanuel shared his second life lesson through a story of professional failure. After joining Bill Clinton's long-shot presidential campaign in 1992 and helping win the election, he was named political director in the White House — a remarkable job for someone just a few years out of college. But success went to his head. He shot off his mouth too many times, picked too many fights, and was demoted. It felt terrible, like he had ruined the biggest opportunity of his life. Rather than quitting, he dug in. He threw himself into passing the assault weapon ban, NAFTA, welfare reform, and the crime bill, while trying to prove he could work well with others. He connected this to Abraham Lincoln, who endured a lifetime of setbacks and failures of his Union Army generals before finally assembling the team and strategy to save the nation. 'The greatest President of our nation has known a lifetime of setbacks,' Emanuel said. 'His greatness came from how he came back from his failures.'