Not everyone who is on top today achieved it with success after success. More often than not, those who are famous and history rememberst the best were faced with many obstacles that forced them to work harder and show more determination than others. This can be said for education as well, as advancing in your education with a bachelor’s or master’s degree can also help do wonders for your success. Next time when you're feeling down about your failures or obstacles in college or in a career, you might want to remember these famous people and remind yourself that sometimes failure is just the first step towards success.
Business Gurus
These businessmen and the companies they founded are today known around the world, but as these stories show, their beginnings weren't smooth as we imagine they might be.
Henry Ford: Ford is known for his innovative assembly line and American-made cars, but he wasn't an instant success. In fact, his early businesses failed and left him with five times before he founded the successful Ford Motor Company.
Bill Gates: After dropping out of Harvard, Gates didn't seem like a shoe-in for success and starting a failed first business with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen called Traf-O-Data. While this earlier project didn't work, Gates' later work did, creating the global empire that is Microsoft.
Walt Disney: Today Disney rakes in billions from merchandise, movies and theme parks around the world, but Walt Disney himself didnt have a exciting start. He was fired by a newspaper editor because, "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." After that, Disney started numerous businesses that didn't last too long and ended with bankruptcy and failure. He kept plugging along, however, and eventually found a path for success that worked.
Scientists and Thinkers
These people are often regarded as some of the greatest minds of our century, but they often had to face great obstacles, the ridicule of their peers, and the animosity of society.
Albert Einstein: Most of us know Einstein as a genius, but he didn't always show such promise. Einstein couldn't speak until he was four and couldn't read until he was seven, causing his teachers and parents to think he was mentally handicapped and slow. Eventually, he was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School but he caught on pretty well in the end, winning the Nobel Prize and changing the face of modern physics.
Isaac Newton: when it came to math, Newton was undoubtedly a genius, but he had some failings early on. He never did particularly well in school and when put in charge of running the family farm, he failed so poorly in fact that his uncle took charge and sent him off to Cambridge where he finally turned into the scholar we know today.
Inventors
These inventors changed the face of the modern world, but not without a few failed prototypes along the way.
Thomas Edison: In his early years, teachers told Edison that he was "too stupid to learn anything." Work was no better, as he was fired from his first two jobs for not being enough useful. Even as an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb and all those unsuccessful attempts finally resulted in the design that worked.
Public Figures
From politicians to talk show hosts, these figures had a few failures before they came out on top.
Winston Churchill: This twice-elected Prime Minster of the United Kingdom wasn't always as well regarded as he is today. Churchill struggled and failed the sixth grade. After school he faced many political failures, he was defeated in every election for public office until he finally became the Prime Minister at the old age of 62.
Writers and Artists
We've all heard about starving artists and struggling writers, but these stories show that sometimes all that work really does pay off with success in the long run.
J. K. Rowling: Rowling may be rolling in a lot of Harry Potter dough today, but before she published the series of novels she was nearly penniless, severely depressed, divorced, trying to raise a child on her own while attending school and writing a novel.
Musicians
While their music is some of the best selling, best loved and most popular around the world today, these musicians show that it takes a whole lot of determination to achieve success.
The Beatles: Still popular with listeners around the world today, the beatles were told no by a recording company. The were told "we don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out," two things the rest of the world couldn't have disagreed with more.
Athletes
While some athletes rocket to fame, others endure a path fraught with a little more adversity, like those listed here.
Babe Ruth: You probably know Babe Ruth because of his home run record (714 during his career), but along with all those home runs came a pretty hefty amount of strikeouts as well (1,330 in all). When asked about this he simply said, "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."