Lincoln understood something that the merely ambitious miss: adversity actually ennobles us, strips away pretense, and forces honesty with ourselves. Power, by contrast, is a mirror that shows us precisely who we are when nobody's watching—which is why so many capable leaders have quietly become tyrants in their own boardrooms or households. The distinction matters because we celebrate people for surviving hardship, yet the executive who treats subordinates poorly reveals far more about their actual nature. A parent with authority over a silent child, a manager with control over someone's paycheck—these are the moments when character either holds firm or evaporates.