10 Famous Failures That Will Inspire You to Be a Success
Failure
occurs everyday, in school, jobs, housework, and within families. It is
unavoidable, irritating and causes pessimism. While the thought of
flinging your hands in the air and walking away is all too appealing, take a
second to connect with the people who have been there and survived.
Here are a
few successful failures who all failures around the world should consider.
1. J.K. Rowling
During a Harvard commencement speech, Harry Potter author
J.K. Rowling outlined the importance and value of failure. Why? Simply because
she was once a failure too. A few short years after her graduation from
college, her worst nightmares were realized. In her words, “I had failed on an
epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was
jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain,
without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I
had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was
the biggest failure I knew.” Coming out of this failure stronger and more
determined was the key to her success.
2. Steve Jobs
The now revolutionary Apple started
off with two men in a garage. Years later we all know it as a $2
billion company with over 4000 employees. Yet, almost unbelievably,
Steve Jobs was fired from the very company he began. The dismissal made
him realize that his passion for his work exceeded the disappointment of
failure. Further ventures such as NeXT and Pixar eventually led Jobs back to
the CEO position at Apple.
“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that
getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to
me,” Jobs said in 2005.
3. Bill Gates
Bill Gates was a Harvard dropout. He co-owned a business called Traf-O-Data, which was a true failure.
Bill Gates was a Harvard dropout. He co-owned a business called Traf-O-Data, which was a true failure.
However, skill and a passion for computer
programming turned this failure into the pioneer of famous software
company Microsoft ,and the then 31-year-old into the world’s youngest
self-made billionaire.
In his own words: “It’s fine to celebrate
success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
This isn’t to say that dropping out of Harvard
will make you into a billionaire, but maybe that shiny degree isn’t worth
as much as the drive and passion to succeed.
4. Albert Einstein
The word ‘Einstein’ is associated with intelligence and synonymous with genius. Yet it is a famous fact that the pioneer of the theory of general relativity, Albert Einstein himself, could not speak fluently until the age of nine. His rebellious nature led to expulsion from school, and he was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.
The word ‘Einstein’ is associated with intelligence and synonymous with genius. Yet it is a famous fact that the pioneer of the theory of general relativity, Albert Einstein himself, could not speak fluently until the age of nine. His rebellious nature led to expulsion from school, and he was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.
His earlier setbacks did not stop him from
winning the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1921. After all, he
believed that “success is failure in progress.” To this day, his research has
influenced various aspects of life including culture, religion, art, and even
late night TV.
Just because you haven’t achieved anything
great yet, doesn’t mean you can’t be an Einstein yourself.
5. Abraham Lincoln
Failing in business in 1831, suffering a
nervous breakdown in 1836, defeated in his run for president in 1856,
Abraham Lincoln was no stranger to rejection and failure. Rather than taking these signs as a motivation for
surrender, he refused to stop trying his best.
In this great man’s words: “My great concern
is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”
Lincoln was elected in 1861 as the 16th
President of the United States of America.
The amount of rejection you receive is not a
defining factor. Success is still within your reach.
6. Michael Jordan
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my
career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the
game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my
life. And that is why I succeed.” This quote by retired basketball
legend Michael
Jordan in a Nike advertisement speaks for
itself.
It would be an easy misconception that
Jordan’s basketball skills revolve around natural talent. In fact, in
his earlier
years, basketball coaches had trouble
looking past the fact that Jordan didn’t reach the minimum height. It was years
of effort, practice, and failure that made the star we know today.
7. Steven Spielberg
Regarded as one of the most influential
filmmakers of all time, Steven Spielberg is a familiar household
name. It is surprising to realize therefore that the genius behind Jaws and E.T. had poor
grades in high school, getting him rejected from the University
of Southern California three times.
While he was in college, he caught the eye of
executives at Universal, who signed him as a television director in 1969. This
meant that he would not finish his college degree for another 33 years.
Perseverance and acceptance of failure is the
key to success, after all. “Even though I get older, what I do never gets old,
and that’s what I think keeps me hungry.” Bad grades in high school aside,
there is no questioning the genius involved.
To date, Spielberg has directed 51 films and
has been awarded three Oscars.
8. Walt Disney
Mickey Mouse creator Walt Disney dropped out of school at a young age in a failed
attempt at joining the army. One of his earlier ventures, Laugh-o-Gram Studios,
went bankrupt due to his lack of ability to run a successful business. He was
once fired from a Missouri
newspaper for “not being creative enough.”
Yet today, The genius behind Disney studios
is responsible for generations of childhood memories and dreams. From Snow
White to Frozen, Disney will continue to entertain
the world for generations to come.
The logic behind this is simple: “… we don’t
look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors, and
doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down
new paths.”
9. Vincent Van Gogh
During his lifetime Vincent Van Gogh suffered mental illness, failed relationships, and committed suicide at the age of 37.
During his lifetime Vincent Van Gogh suffered mental illness, failed relationships, and committed suicide at the age of 37.
He only ever sold one painting in his life,
pinning him a failure as an artist. However that did not put a damper on his
enthusiasm and passion for art.
He would never know that years and years
after his death he would become known as a key figure in the world of
post-impressionism, and ultimately, one of the greatest artist that ever
lived. He would never know that he became a hot topic in art classes and his
image was going to be used in TV, books and other forms of popular culture.
In the words of this great, but tragic man,
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means
paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
10. Stephen King
As a paranoid, troubled child, tormented by
nightmares and raised in poverty, it is no surprise that Stephen
King grew up to the title: “Master of
Horror”.
An addiction to drugs and alcohol were his
mechanisms to cope with the unhappiness he felt with his life. The frustration
he felt towards multiple rejections by publishers in combination with illicit
substances caused him to mentally contemplate violence towards his own
children.
These intense emotions were those that he
focused onto his writing. This became his new coping mechanism, and this is how
the master author we know today grew to success.
Elizabeth Andal
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/10-famous-failures-that-will-inspire-you-success.html
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