Inspiring Individuals Who Turned Failure into Success

Failure this is a word that most people dread while many of us want to succeed in life it’s easy to fear that awful f-word and often it’s easy to avoid taking action on a goal because you want to avoid that pain of failure that said the most successful people in the world understand that it takes time and effort to achieve your important goals in other words you often have to fail many times before finding success just ask any successful person and you’ll probably hear a variety of stories about their missteps and blunders the big lesson here is that the difference between long-term success and failure is how to react to the obstacles in your life to illustrate this point this video will talk about 10 famous people who have achieved success but also experienced massive failure at one point in their lives so let’s talk about the specific setbacks that these individuals experienced

1. Albert Einstein
If asked to name a genius, most people would say Albert Einstein. Yet even for Einstein, genius did not come easy. He had speech difficulties as a child and was once thought to be mentally handicapped. As a teen, he rebelled against his school’s reliance on rote learning and failed. He tried to test into Zurich Polytechnic but failed again. Einstein buckled down, received the requisite training, and applied to Zurich Polytechnic again. He was eventually accepted. A few years later, he had a PhD and was recognized as a leading theorist. A few years after that, he earned a Nobel Prize for Physics and began to be recognized as the genius of our modern era.

2. Abraham Lincoln
If Lincoln had quit when the going got tough, the world might be a very different place. As a young man, Lincoln entered military service in the Black Hawk War as a captain, yet left as a private. With very little formal education, Lincoln taught himself and became a lawyer and then a congressman. His real rise to national prominence could also be viewed as a failure. In 1858, Lincoln tried for a seat in the Illinois Senate, which led to a series of hotly contested debates known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Lincoln lost the Senate election but impressed a lot of the right people. He kept at politics, and two years later, he ran for president and won. Thankfully, he did not let a lack of formal education, a spotty career of failures, or initial political defeat rattle him. Instead, he went on to become one of the greatest presidents of the United States.

3. Thomas Edison
As a child, Thomas Edison was thought to be dumb and was told by his teachers that he would never be a success because his mind would often wander in class. He is famous for being someone who wasn’t afraid to make mistakes in order to succeed. In fact, when asked about his thousands of failures while trying to create the light bulb, he said, “I have not failed; I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

4. Fred Astaire
Many people consider Fred Astaire to be the greatest male dancer of all time. Astaire didn’t start out a success, but he did start early—at six years old—when he began working in a vaudeville act. By his mid-teens, he found some success in vaudeville and began working on Broadway and in musicals. Astaire wasn’t an instant success in these areas either, but he gradually found a degree of fame. In his mid-30s, he tried to break into the burgeoning movie industry. During his first screen test, an RKO executive noted that “Astaire can’t sing, can’t act, balding, can dance a little.” Despite this initial rejection, Astaire persevered and became one of the top actors, singers, and dancers of his generation, earning Emmys, Grammys, and an Oscar.

5. Harlan David Sanders
Many of us find experiencing two or three rejections disheartening. Imagine how it must have been for Harlan David Sanders, whose fried chicken recipe was rejected over 1,000 times. At 65 years old, Sanders found himself bankrupt after his restaurant business failed. He drove around in his car, pleading with diner and restaurant owners to use his fried chicken recipe. For every piece of chicken sold, they were to give him a nickel as a commission. He was turned down 1,009 times before a restaurant agreed to use his recipe, which he called Kentucky Fried Chicken. Today, Colonel Sanders is an iconic figure who founded one of the most famous fast-food chains in the world.

6. Stephen King
Stephen King is one of the most prolific and successful writers of all time. He has written over 80 novels, with nearly every new release landing at the top of bestseller lists. However, King wasn’t born a naturally successful writer. As a teenager and college student, he wrote stories that were rejected repeatedly. He stored these rejected manuscripts in a large crate. While working as a teacher in rural Maine, he wrote his novel Carrie, only to have it rejected 30 times. After the 31st rejection, he threw the manuscript out. His wife rescued it from the trash and encouraged him to try one more time. That final attempt led to Carrie becoming a bestseller, and the rest is history.

7. Elvis Presley
You don’t need to be an Elvis fan to acknowledge the impact he’s had on popular music. They don’t call someone “The King of Rock and Roll” without a great amount of success. However, for Elvis, success came long after a number of failures. He failed his music classes, was a social misfit as a boy, and worked as a truck driver while trying to launch his recording career. After his first paying gig, his manager told him, “You ain’t going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck.” Despite early failures—including being rejected from a vocal quartet for not being able to sing—Elvis persevered. Eventually, his music caught on, and he became one of the most popular recording artists in history.

8. Michael Jordan
It’s hard to imagine, but Michael Jordan was once cut from his high school basketball team. Jordan persevered and worked hard on improving his skills. He made the team at North Carolina and became a star college player. Later, he played for the Chicago Bulls, where he helped his team win six NBA titles. In the middle of his career, Jordan took a break to pursue his dream of becoming a professional baseball player. While he ultimately failed to reach the major leagues, he performed respectably in the minor leagues. Jordan often attributes his success to the failures he’s experienced, saying, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

9. J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling is a perfect example of how success can come to anyone at any time. She always planned on being a writer, but life interfered. Rowling battled depression over the untimely death of her mother, endured a failed marriage, and struggled to provide for herself and her child while living on welfare. Despite her challenges, Rowling found success through her writing. She credits her failures for helping her succeed, saying in a Harvard commencement speech, “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” Her Harry Potter series became a global phenomenon, making her one of the most successful authors in history.

10. Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
When you were a child, you probably read Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat, among other books by Dr. Seuss. Over 600 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide. However, his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, almost didn’t get published. After 27 rejections, Dr. Seuss decided to burn the manuscript. At the last minute, a break came, paving the way for its publication. A glowing review transformed this first book into an instant bestseller, paving the way for his other successes.