If these 10 people had given up the world would have been totally different
I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan
Even the most famous performers and prosperous entrepreneurs had to start somewhere. For many, that place is, ironically, failure. On the long road to success, failure is an inevitable step many people must take. While no one likes failing, those experiences teach us far more valuable lessons than succeeding on the first try. The key is taking what you've learned and applying it to your next attempt.
It might seem easier to give up on your dreams, but what if Abraham Lincoln, J.K. Rowling, or Michael Jordan had thrown in the towel at the first sign of trouble? Our world would be a much different — and far worse — place if they had. Because they overcame all the obstacles thrown their way, you can too.
These 10 stories of legendary innovators who learned how to fail in order to succeed will inspire you to not only believe in your dreams, but to go after them.
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Oprah Winfrey
Long before she was the world's first Black female billionaire, Oprah Winfrey was publicly fired from her first television job as an anchor in Baltimore for getting "too emotionally invested in her stories." But instead of listening to her critics, she followed her heart. After she began hosting a local daytime TV show, People are Talking, she continued to gravitate toward human interest stories that would become her trademark on The Oprah Winfrey Show and later, Oprah.
The talk show revolution she started still influences the television industry — and the world. In her 2013 Harvard commencement speech, she hoped to share some of what she'd learned over her long and successful career: "There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction."
3. Henry Ford
While you might not love your daily commute, you should still thank Henry Ford for making it, and many other forms of modern transportation, possible. After watching his first automobile business go bankrupt in a year, he easily could have quit, or at least tried to break into another industry. But he trusted his ideas enough to believe in them when no one else did. Finally, in 1903, he manufactured success in the Model A and then, most famously, the Model T in 1908.
Besides being the father of modern transportation, he also invented the modern assembly line. Though his long business career was filled with both successes and failures, he met each one with the resilience he'd taught himself from the very beginning.
4. J.K. Rowling
Today, Muggles of all ages can't imagine a world without the magic of Harry Potter but, once upon a time, J.K. Rowling wasn't so sure. Like many authors, she was no stranger to rejection. The first book of her literary sensation Harry Potter series was rejected 12 times before Bloomsbury decided to take a chance on it. Rowling also recently shared two more rejection letters for a 2013 crime novel written under her pseudonym, with her Twitter followers.
She hoped that by showcasing her own shortcomings she could inspire other writers to never give up on their dreams. Case in point: look what happened when she didn't.
5. Michael Jordan
6. Vera Wang
7. The wright Brothers
8. Stephen King
King was broke and struggling when he was first trying to write. He lived in a trailer with his wife—also a writer—and they both worked multiple jobs to support their family while pursuing their craft. They were so poor they had to borrow clothes for their wedding and had gotten rid of the telephone because it was too expensive.
King received so many rejection letters for his works that he developed a system for collecting them. In his bookOn Writing, he recalls: “By the time I was 14…the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and kept on writing.” He received 60 rejections before selling his first short story, “The Glass Floor,” for $35. Even his now best-selling book, Carrie, wasn’t a hit at first. After dozens of rejections, he finally sold it for a meager advance to Doubleday Publishing, where the hardback sold only 13,000 copies—not great. Soon after, though, Signet Books signed on for the paperback rights for $400,000, $200,000 of which went to King. Success achieved!
9. Colonel Harland Sanders
Colonel Harland Sanders was fired from a variety of jobs throughout his career before he first started cooking chicken in his roadside Shell Service Station in 1930, when he was 40 years old, during the Great Depression. His gas station didn’t actually have a restaurant, so he served diners in his attached personal living quarters.
Over the next 10 years, he perfected his “Secret Recipe” and pressure fryer cooking method for his famous fried chicken and moved onto bigger locations. His chicken was even praised in the media by food critic Duncan Hines (yes, that Duncan Hines). However, as the interstate came through the Kentucky town where the Colonel’s restaurant was located in the 1950s, it took away important road traffic, and the Colonel was forced to close his business and retire, essentially broke. Worried about how he was going to survive off his meager $105 monthly pension check, he set out to find restaurants who would franchise his secret recipe—he wanted a nickel for each piece of chicken sold. He drove around, sleeping in his car, and was rejected more than 1,000 times before finally finding his first partner.
10. Walt Disney
Even the most famous performers and prosperous entrepreneurs had to start somewhere. For many, that place is, ironically, failure. On the long road to success, failure is an inevitable step many people must take. While no one likes failing, those experiences teach us far more valuable lessons than succeeding on the first try. The key is taking what you've learned and applying it to your next attempt.
It might seem easier to give up on your dreams, but what if Abraham Lincoln, J.K. Rowling, or Michael Jordan had thrown in the towel at the first sign of trouble? Our world would be a much different — and far worse — place if they had. Because they overcame all the obstacles thrown their way, you can too.
These 10 stories of legendary innovators who learned how to fail in order to succeed will inspire you to not only believe in your dreams, but to go after them.
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Oprah Winfrey
Long before she was the world's first Black female billionaire, Oprah Winfrey was publicly fired from her first television job as an anchor in Baltimore for getting "too emotionally invested in her stories." But instead of listening to her critics, she followed her heart. After she began hosting a local daytime TV show, People are Talking, she continued to gravitate toward human interest stories that would become her trademark on The Oprah Winfrey Show and later, Oprah.
The talk show revolution she started still influences the television industry — and the world. In her 2013 Harvard commencement speech, she hoped to share some of what she'd learned over her long and successful career: "There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction."
3. Henry Ford
While you might not love your daily commute, you should still thank Henry Ford for making it, and many other forms of modern transportation, possible. After watching his first automobile business go bankrupt in a year, he easily could have quit, or at least tried to break into another industry. But he trusted his ideas enough to believe in them when no one else did. Finally, in 1903, he manufactured success in the Model A and then, most famously, the Model T in 1908.
Besides being the father of modern transportation, he also invented the modern assembly line. Though his long business career was filled with both successes and failures, he met each one with the resilience he'd taught himself from the very beginning.
Today, Muggles of all ages can't imagine a world without the magic of Harry Potter but, once upon a time, J.K. Rowling wasn't so sure. Like many authors, she was no stranger to rejection. The first book of her literary sensation Harry Potter series was rejected 12 times before Bloomsbury decided to take a chance on it. Rowling also recently shared two more rejection letters for a 2013 crime novel written under her pseudonym, with her Twitter followers.
She hoped that by showcasing her own shortcomings she could inspire other writers to never give up on their dreams. Case in point: look what happened when she didn't.
5. Michael Jordan
6. Vera Wang
7. The wright Brothers
8. Stephen King
King was broke and struggling when he was first trying to write. He lived in a trailer with his wife—also a writer—and they both worked multiple jobs to support their family while pursuing their craft. They were so poor they had to borrow clothes for their wedding and had gotten rid of the telephone because it was too expensive.
King received so many rejection letters for his works that he developed a system for collecting them. In his bookOn Writing, he recalls: “By the time I was 14…the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and kept on writing.” He received 60 rejections before selling his first short story, “The Glass Floor,” for $35. Even his now best-selling book, Carrie, wasn’t a hit at first. After dozens of rejections, he finally sold it for a meager advance to Doubleday Publishing, where the hardback sold only 13,000 copies—not great. Soon after, though, Signet Books signed on for the paperback rights for $400,000, $200,000 of which went to King. Success achieved!
9. Colonel Harland Sanders
Colonel Harland Sanders was fired from a variety of jobs throughout his career before he first started cooking chicken in his roadside Shell Service Station in 1930, when he was 40 years old, during the Great Depression. His gas station didn’t actually have a restaurant, so he served diners in his attached personal living quarters.
Over the next 10 years, he perfected his “Secret Recipe” and pressure fryer cooking method for his famous fried chicken and moved onto bigger locations. His chicken was even praised in the media by food critic Duncan Hines (yes, that Duncan Hines). However, as the interstate came through the Kentucky town where the Colonel’s restaurant was located in the 1950s, it took away important road traffic, and the Colonel was forced to close his business and retire, essentially broke. Worried about how he was going to survive off his meager $105 monthly pension check, he set out to find restaurants who would franchise his secret recipe—he wanted a nickel for each piece of chicken sold. He drove around, sleeping in his car, and was rejected more than 1,000 times before finally finding his first partner.
10. Walt Disney
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