In Leadership in Turbulent Times, Doris Kearns Goodwin focuses on four U.S. presidents: Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ.

Three of them are of special interest because they of them struggled with deep depression while becoming without doubt among the greatest leaders throughout modern history. The fourth, LBJ, did not but should be acknowledged as the president who did more for civil rights than any other president since Lincoln.

With regard to Theodore Roosevelt, Goodwin explains:

“The loss of his wife and mother on the same day became more than a catastrophic landmark in Theodore Roosevelt’s personal life: The brutal twist of fate shaped his philosophy of leadership as well. It underscored the vulnerability, fragility, and mutability of all his endeavors, political and personal. Career objectives now seemed air-drawn, subject to dissolving or reversing in a moment’s time. Following that gruesome February day, chance — good and bad — would be deemed a trump card in his deck. This basic fatalism helps explain what might otherwise seem a haphazard choice of career opportunities during the next decade.”

Two years of working to exhaustion on a ranch in the Dakotas enabled him to transform his mind as well as his body. What are the leadership lessons he learned from that ordeal?

“Hit the ground running; consolidate control; ask questions of everyone wherever you go; manage by wandering around; determine the basic problems of each organization and hit them head-on; when attacked, counterattack; stick to your guns; spend your political capital to reach your goals; and then when your work is stymied or done, find a way out.”

If you read nothing else among Theodore Roosevelt’s abundance of books, articles, and speeches, be sure to read his “Citizenship in a Republic” address at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910. It includes his thoughts about “The Man in the Arena.”

Here is a brief excerpt:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Millions of people throughout the world are now struggling to survive amidst the death and destruction caused by Covid-19. Roosevelt possessed resources they do not have, resources that enabled him to complete a transformation they ca not attempt. Perhaps, however, the example of his indomitable spirit can help at least some of them through their current ordeal.