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.Elizabeth Arden | | Canadian, Elizabeth Arden, born Florence Nightingale Graham in 1878, was a business magnate who overcame failure to achieve tremendous success.
She created an unprecedented beauty empire by 1929 that included 150 salons throughout the United States and Europe, and eventually selling over 1000 products across 22 separate countries.
At the height of her success, during her lifetime, she was also considered to be one of the wealthiest women in the world.
However, in 1909, at the age of 31-years old, Arden failed in business after a 6-month stint when she formed a partnership with Elizabeth Hubbard.
One year later, in 1910, at the age of 32-years old, she pieced together the name Elizabeth Arden with the name “Elizabeth” used in an effort to save money on a sign for her salon, and “Arden,” which stemmed from the name of a nearby farm, thus giving birth to that name, the same year that she opened up the Red Door Salon, in New York City.
In 1912, she traveled to France where she would learn beauty and facial techniques.
Upon her return, she joined forces with a chemist to begin developing what would become a vast arsenal of beauty products, lending a hand in catapulting the makeup industry into a widely acceptable practice that moved beyond the upper classes.
Her company, Elizabeth Arden, Inc., has surpassed $1 billion in annual sales, making it one of the most successful beauty businesses ever started still to this day. J.K. Rowling | | Quite possibly one of the most famous and renowned former-failures of our time, J.K. Rowling is the author of the wildly-popular Harry Potter series of books.
Born in 1965, she grew up with a tumultuous childhood that included a difficult and oftentimes-strained relationship with her father, and dealing with the illness of her mother.
In 1982, at the age of 17-years old, she attempted to gain acceptance to Oxford University.
She failed and was rejected, instead enrolling at the University of Exeter where she received her Bachelor of Arts in French and Classics.
After graduating from university, at the age of 21-years old, she moved to London to work for Amnesty International in 1986.
After London, she moved to Manchester with her boyfriend. It was there, in 1990, at the age of 25-years old, while on a 4-hour-delayed train, when the idea of a young wizard popped into her mind, later stating that it came “fully formed,” and all she needed to do was flesh out the details.
However, it was just a few short months after that her mother, Anne, died from Multiple Sclerosis, leaving her extremely distraught and upset.
In the wake of her mother’s death, only a few months afterwards, she moved to Porto, in Portugal, to teach English.
There, she met a man, got married, got pregnant, and gave birth to her daughter, who was born in 1993.
The relationship was a very strenuous one, with reports of domestic abuse, resulting in a separation and eventual divorce. With only three chapters of Harry Potter completed, at the end of 1993, when she was at the age of 38-years old, she moved to Edinburgh, to live with her sister.
At that point, she considered herself a major failure.
She had failed at just about everything she had ever attempted to do in life.
She was diagnosed with clinical depression and was suicidal.
Two years later, in 1995, five years after the initial idea had come to her, she managed to finish the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
She located an agent, but after one year of trying to get it published, all 12 major publishing houses had rejected her book.
It wasn’t until 1996, when a small literary house in London named, Bloomsbury, gave the green light and a very small advance of £1500, only due to the behest of the owner’s daughter, that the book was published.
In 1997, seven years after the initial idea for the young wizard, the first Harry Potter book was published.
By 2004, Rowling had become the first author to become a billionaire through book writing, according to Forbes. Marilyn Monroe | | Originally born, Norma Jeane Mortenson, in 1926, in Los Angeles, California, Marilyn Monroe is an American actress and model who achieved extraordinary fame in Hollywood.
Monroe never knew her biological father and had a sister and brother that she didn’t know about until she was 12-years old.
Monroe’s mother suffered a mental breakdown in 1934 and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Her mother was in and out of mental institutions for the rest of her life.
This meant Monroe had become a ward of the state, moving in and out of foster homes for the next several years, where she was sexually abused, became withdrawn and also developed a stutter.
In 1936, her mother’s family friend, Grace McKee Goddard, became her legal guardian, but she was molested by Goddard’s husband, Doc.
She was in and out of homes again subsequent to that and eventually attended Van Nuys High School, but dropped out in 1942 at the age of 16-years old, marrying the son of a neighbor in order to stay in the state after the Goddard’s had to leave to West Virginia.
In 1946, after a stint of appearances on the covers of 33 magazines, she secured a contract with an acting agency, and ultimately, a 6-month contract with 20th Century Fox.
During that time, she procured no work, and instead focused on taking dancing, acting and singing lessons while also spending time in the studio to observe others acting.
Her contract wasn’t renewed when it came to an end, but she was determined to make things work.
However, in 1948, at the age of 22-years old, she was signed to Columbia Pictures and starred in a low-budget movie called, Ladies of the Chorus. Still, her contract at Columbia was also not renewed.
Later that same year, she signed with the William Morris Agency, with the persistent attitude to never give up.
Still, her big breakthrough didn’t come until 1950, when she had appearances in a couple of critically acclaimed films.
Since then, her films went on to gross over $200 million, and subsequently turning her into a pop culture icon and sex symbol.
| | Thomas Edison is an American inventor and entrepreneur born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio, one of seven siblings in a very large family.
Edison was homeschooled by his mother and developed hearing problems early on in life.
He was trained to use the telegraph after a train almost struck the son of a station agent who was so grateful that he taught Edison how to use the system, eventually leading to a job working for Western Union.
In 1877, at the age of 30-years old, Edison invented the phonograph, an invention that was so magical that it made the public dub him with the name “The Wizard of Menlo Park.”
In 1878, just a year later, Edison began working on a commercially viable incandescent lightbulb that would be both long-lasting and highly efficient by not drawing too much energy to operate.
Thomas Edison went through thousands of iterations to make this dream a reality.
In fact, he failed over 10,000 times trying to invent the commercially-viable electric bulb.
At one point, when asked by a reporter whether he felt like a failure after so many failed attempts.
He said, “I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
Edison had a huge impact on society, holding 1,093 patents to his name at the time of his death.
His work in a number of fields created the basis for much of the technologies that we enjoy today and take for granted.
However, like anyone else, he suffered through failure numerous times, but where others quit, he persisted. 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. 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 Arden, Rowling, Monroe and Edison 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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