What is “holding you back” from creating the life of your dreams?Have you “failed” in the past? Or, are you just scared to try anything because you might “fail”?Throughout history, there have been thousands of famous failures.Let’s take another look at some very successful failures and see what we can learn from their stories.Chris Gardener | | The story of Chris Gardener was chronicled in one of the most inspiring movies in present-day history, The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith, in 2006.
Gardener wrote his autobiography to shed light on his early struggles and failures in life, which resulted in an immense amount of pain.
Born in 1954, Gardener had a rough upbringing.
With a father that wasn’t present, his mother and siblings suffered abuse at the hands of his stepfather.
In and out of the foster care system, Gardener was at the mercy of an unstable childhood.
In 1977, Gardener married Sherry Dyson.
But after a 3-month affair with another woman who became pregnant with his child, he decided to leave his first wife.
In 1981, his son, Christopher Gardner Jr. was born while working as a research lab assistant at UCSF, which didn’t pay enough to help support his family.
This led to the decision to become a medical-equipment salesman.
If you’ve seen the movie, you likely already know how this turned out.
Gardener struggled, but was committed to living a better life, one that didn’t involve so much struggle and turmoil.
He met a man driving a red Ferrari who ultimately led him on a career path to become a stockbroker.
But, during that journey, he suffered through an eviction and homelessness, jail and an eventual divorce.
But that didn’t stop him. Not whatsoever. Jack London | | Born in 1876, Jack London is an American novelist who penned the poignant classics, The Call of the Wild and White Fang.
He was put up for adoption by his biological mother who had attempted suicide at the time.
She shot herself after news of the pregnancy after William Chaney, her husband at the time, demanded that she have an abortion.
At the age of 21-years old, in 1897, while in attendance at the University of California in Berkley, London wrote to his father, Chaney, who denied that he was the boy’s dad, instead of sending him a letter that chastised him and his biological mother.
Completely distraught by this, London quit Berkley and moved to the Klondike to live in the wilderness for a year.
Upon returning, he had committed to mastering the art of writing, deciding to write at least 1,000 words per day no matter what the situation.
Realizing that mastery would come only through this method, he followed through with his goals, working from sunup until sundown, every single day without fail.
Yet, with every piece that he would mail to a newspaper or magazine, with the enthusiasm that he would get published, failure after failure returned in the envelopes that were sent back.
No one was willing to publish his writing.
After some time, he tired of the feeling of failure and rejection.
However, by 1899, after the rise of lower-priced technologies for printing presses that resulted in a boon for magazines, his first story had been published.
In that year, he had earned a respectable $2,500 through his writing, equivalent to about $70,000 in today’s dollars when accounting for inflation.
Yet, London suffered through more than 50 separate rejections during a 5-month period of sending out his manuscripts and writing to various publishers.
Just a few short years later, in 1903, at the age of 27-years old, London’s celebrated novel, The Call of the Wild had been published, and he had reached a dizzying height of success in his career. Richard Branson | | Richard Branson, born in 1950, is an English billionaire entrepreneur and business magnate well known around the world for being one of the most famous and successful individuals at the helm of a global brand, Virgin Group, with businesses in a wide variety of fields such as music, telecom, hospitality and travel.
In the late 1960’s, Branson started the Student magazine, where he interviewed prominent people.
He also started to sell records through the magazine at a discounted rate, helping it result in an overnight success.
Branson opened a record shop in 1971, but was labeling records sold as export stock, and thus had to pay a hefty fine and unpaid taxes.
His mother had to re-mortgage the house to help his son pay the settlement cost with the government.
Ultimately, however, the Virgin Records store was a success, and it allowed him to create his own record label.
By 1992, at the age of 42-years old, he had created Virgin Atlantic and the Virgin Megastores.
But in order to keep the airline afloat, he was pressured into selling the record label or have to suffer a major financial failure and loss in the airline industry.
He sold the label to EMI for £500 million and was completely distraught after this because the record business was his first foray into the business world.
Eventually, the airline succeeded and the Virgin brand today is synonymous with value and customer service, also making Branson one of the richest people on the planet.
He simply refused to give up, even through all the failures and the setbacks.
| | Born in 1969, Shawn Carter, also known as Jay-Z, is an American singer, songwriter and entrepreneur who’s sold over 100 million records and rose up against extraordinary odds to succeed in life.
While quite possibly considered as one of the most famous and successful rappers of all time, his early life was dominated by a string of failures and unstable family life that led to a career of dealing drugs.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Carter grew up in the housing projects known as the Marcy Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
After his father had abandoned the family, it was his mother that raised him and his three siblings.
He became passionate about music early on, appearing on several early recordings of artists such as Jaz-O and Big Daddy Kane’s, Daddy’s Home.
However, while wanting to pursue a record career, he realized that no label wanted to sign him, so he opted instead to selling CDs out of the trunk of his car.
Every major label had turned him down, so he did what any enterprising young individual would do that was committed to succeeding — he co-founded his own label called Roc-A-Fella Records.
Once the label had been setup, he sought out to find a distribution partner, which was no easy task.
Ultimately, after finding one, Jay-Z released his debut album entitled, Reasonable Doubt, which reached number 23 on the Billboard 200, and it eventually hit platinum status, with Rolling Stones calling it one of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
This was the start of a long and very successful career.
“Those who are successful overcome their fears and take action. Those who don’t submit to their fears and live with regrets” – Jay-Z Source – wanderlustworker ----------------------------------------------------------------- So, what can we learn from these historical Successful Failures?
They were beaten down and “lost” at many things, yet they kept persevering.
They didn’t give up. They overrode their fears and took “action”!
Their desire to succeed overrode any fears they may have had.
Do you give up when failure strikes?
Or, do you take your failures and find the “silver lining” and learn from the situation?
I hope you take these examples and examine your own life and make any necessary adjustments to turn the corner.
Take these famous Successful Failures and use them to build the desire and determination to “pick yourself up” and keep reaching for your dreams just like Gardner, London, Branson and Jay-Z did.
To your future success,
- Duane Eberhard
PS – Watch this video of another Successful Failure. From multiple failures to millionaire. It’s pretty inspiring! |
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