Harry S. Truman
What failed
He failed at nearly every civilian thing he tried before forty. The academies turned him down for his eyesight, the zinc venture lost money, the oil company was dissolved, and the haberdashery went under in the 1921 recession.
What happened next
He refused to file for bankruptcy when his partner did in 1925, and kept paying down his share of the shop's debts instead; the last bank note was settled at a deep discount in 1935. He returned to county politics in 1926, reached the Senate in 1934, and became president in April 1945.
The point
The unglamorous choice — keep paying down the debt for thirteen years rather than discharge it in one — was the only asset he had when the machine that made him collapsed.
The sequence
5 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.
- 1901
Barred from West Point and Annapolis over his eyesight.
- 1915
Invests and loses money in zinc mining.
- 1919
The oil company he helped organise is dissolved.
- 1922
The haberdashery collapses. Writing as president, he recalled going to bed with a $35,000 inventory and waking to a $25,000 shrinkage.
- 1924
Defeated by Henry Rummel — the only election he ever lost.
- 1935
Settles the last of the shop's debts at a deep discount, thirteen years on. He never filed for bankruptcy.
- 1948
Elected in his own right after Gallup, Crossley and Roper had all predicted a Dewey win.
Sources
- Truman & Jacobson (Truman Library)
he paid off the last bank loan, at a deep discount, in 1935
- Prepresidential years (Truman Library)
the only election Truman ever lost
- Prepresidential years (Truman Library)
1922 Haberdashery business failed as a result of business recession, but Truman refused to file a petition of bankruptcy and paid off his share of the firm's debts during the ensuing fifteen years.
- Truman & Jacobson (Truman Library)
Eddie Jacobson declared bankruptcy in 1925.
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