10 Successful People Who Didn’t Let Failure Stop Them

Often, failure causes us to lose the strength to continue. However, the truth is that success is only achieved with perseverance.

So, what we must understand at all times is that we have to work hard to achieve our goals.

In this article, we’ll talk about 10 successful people who at first failed but didn’t let these failures discourage them.

1. Walt Disney

When we hear his name, we think about how he’s one of the most successful movie producers. However, the truth is that it wasn’t always this way.

Walt Disney worked as a cartoonist for a newspaper and was fired because he had a “lack of imagination and good ideas.”

It was not until the premiere of his first film, Snow White, that he achieved success. After that, his career did nothing but soar.

2. Albert Einstein

Who would say that a genius like Einstein struggled to be recognized for his talent?

People used to think that he was disabled or mentally slow because he didn’t fit in, nor follow the way of thinking during his period.

Moreover, he didn’t start talking until he was 4 years old and starting read at 7.

However, this slow boy won the Nobel Prize in Physics thanks to his key discovery of:

• General relativity
• Special relativity
• Mass-energy equivalence
• The photoelectric effect
• Brownian motion

3. Charles Darwin

Darwin didn’t do well in his studies since he wasn’t a great student. In fact, he began his medical career but then left it to pursue theology.

Thanks to this, some time later, he found his true vocation in nature.

Years later he would lay the foundations of the theory of evolution through natural selection.

4. Thomas Alva Edison

He made more than a thousand attempts to invent the light bulb. He failed so many times that his students asked him whether he had become discouraged by so many setbacks.

However, he felt that with each try he knew one more reason why the light bulb didn’t work.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Thanks to his passion and perseverance, we now have a lot of inventions and creations:

• The light bulb
• The microphone
• The phonograph
• Movies

5. Oprah Winfrey

The journalist had a very complicated childhood, marked by poverty and sexual abuse.

According to her bosses, when she worked as a television reporter, she “was unfit for television news,” so she was fired.

However, she persevered, bounced back and became the most powerful woman in American television.

6. Vincent Van Gogh

His artistic career in life was a disaster, so much so that the only painting he sold was bought by a friend.

He eventually starved to create his paintings, which reached a sum total of around 800.

His works were not appreciated until after his death. It was then that he became a renowned painter, even though he never lived to see this.

7. Stephen King

This writer was not at all pleased with his first work, Carrie. In fact, he threw it directly into the trash.

If it wasn’t for his wife, who salvaged the novel and brought it to light, his life wouldn’t have been the same.

Today, his books have sold several hundred million copies and Carrie is now a cult horror classic.

8. J.K. Rowling

The author of Harry Potter didn’t always do well.

She failed in the world of journalism, was a single mother and looked after her daughter alone with the help of social welfare. In fact, she was quite poor until she published her first book in 1997.

Now, she’s well off and is recognized all over the world.

9. Winston Churchill

Churchill wasn’t a brilliant student, and he even dropped out of sixth grade. Nor was he very successful in the public positions he held.

However, at the age of 62, he managed to become a renowned British Prime Minister, a position few people succeed in reaching.

10. Steven Spielberg

Spielberg wasn’t even able to get into the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. In fact, he was rejected three times, so he decided to study elsewhere.

He wasn’t motivated there, so he tried to become a director. However, he didn’t have much hope with this career either.

Despite this rough start, he’s now one of the most awarded directors in the world.