In 1961 a band auditioned for a Decca Records deal. Decca Records rejected them , saying "guitar groups are on the way out" and "The band would have no future in show business,". That band was the The Beatles.
In 2003 a group of friends came together to start a gaming company. They made 51 games with no luck. Their 52nd game was Angry Birds.
Failed at business eight times, Milton Hershey founded the Hershey's which is now one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the U.S.
He was rejected by Eddie Bond when the 18-year old Elvis Presley auditioned for his band. Eddie Bond 'advised' Presley to stick with driving trucks 'because you're never going to make it as a singer'. Shortly after, Presley recorded his first single. The rest is history.
What does it take to overcome failure? Hope, faith, belief... these are important, especially when failure feels imminent. This video might inspire you to have a little more faith in yourself and fuel your inspiration:
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill
George Steinbrenner bankrupted a basketball team. He owned a small basketball team called the Cleveland Pipers back in 1960 and within two years it was bankrupt. Steinbrenner took over the Yankees in the 1970s and had a rocky start before becoming the infamous New York Yankees with six World Series entries between 1996 and 2003.
Apple fired Steve Jobs. When he was 30, Apple’s board of directors decided to fire him. Undaunted by the failure, Jobs founded a new company, NeXT, which was eventually acquired by Apple. Once back at Apple, Jobs proved his capacity for greatness by reinventing the company’s image and taking the Apple brand to new heights.
Others you may know who overcame failure:
Jim Carrey:
He was booed off stage at his first stand-up gig and worked as a janitor at the age of 15 to help support his family.
Katy Perry:
She was dropped from three record labels and her first album only sold 200 copies.
Oprah Winfrey:
She lived in extreme poverty, was sexually abused from the age of 9, and fired from her first job for being "unfit for television."
Jay-Z (Shawn Carter):
He grew up in Brooklyn's drug-infested projects, was abandoned by his father at the age of 11, and turned down by every major record label.
J.K. Rowling:
She was a single mother on welfare in London, jobless and penniless, and her first manuscript was rejected by all 12 major publishers. She went on to author Harry Potter books.
Stephen King:
His first novel was rejected 30 separate times and it was thrown into the trash before it was later retrieved by his wife. Stephen King has been a best selling author for decades.
Bill Gates:
His first business - a device for reading & generating reports for roadway engineers from raw traffic data - failed. Microsoft... 'nuff said.
Henry Ford:
His first company went bankrupt. His second company was failing and he was forced out with only the rights to his name. Henry Ford changed the world.
Colonel Sanders:
He was broke at the age of 62 with only a $105 social security check to his name, and 1,009 restaurants rejected his idea. Kentucky Fried Chicken is finger licking good.
Thomas Edison:
His teacher said he was "too stupid to learn anything" and he failed over 10,000 times inventing a commercially-viable electric lightbulb.
Walt Disney:
He was fired from his first job because he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas" and his first business went bankrupt.
Sir James Dyson:
Failed 5,126 times before inventing the world's first bagless vacuum cleaner, and every major distributor in the UK turned him down.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma was rejected from 30 jobs, including KFC, before becoming the richest man in China.
The failure you feel today may seem like the end, but there are countless men and women in the world today enjoying success because they persevered instead of giving up.
Thank you to S. Dehart for inspiring this.
