10 Famous Failure Story of Successful People

They didn’t Fail, They Learned

Have you ever thought that what inspires you more – success stories or the failure stories of a successful person. To answer your confusion we are here. So let us tell you that failure stories inspire you more. If you ask me how, here’s an answer- success stories will let you know about their great work but failure will let you know about the mistakes they did, and learning from other’s mistakes is a quality of a smart person. Therefore, reading failure stories is also important.

Every successful person has his own failure story, one may be a failure in school or drop out students or may be different than others but they never gave up on their dreams. Sumner Redstone once said, “Great success is built on failure, frustration, even catastrophe.”

When Edison was asked about his 1000 failure, he replied, “I didn’t fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.” He said, now he knew a thousand ways that cannot make a light bulb. Albert Einstein is one such example of success after failure. He couldn’t speak till he was 4 and couldn’t read until he was 7, but even though today is a legend known to everyone all over the world. Failure comes everyone’s way, but only those get successful who do not give up in those circumstances. Here are some failure stories of those successful people to inspire you in your tough times-

Failure Story of Successful People 

Failure Story of Successful People
Failure Story of Successful People

1) Isaac Newton:

Isaac Newton was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and one of the widely recognized scientists in the scientific revolution. Newton gave the world, the new form of the earth with laws of motion and universal gravitation.

Isaac had a hard childhood with a stepfather he hated so he lived with his maternal grandmother. Isaac went to school to learn Greek and Latin which probably imparted a foundation of mathematics. He was removed several times from the school and his mother attempted to make him farmer, the occupation he hated the most.

But his love for mathematics was persistent and made him one of the greatest scientists of the time.

2) Walt Disney:

Walt Disney was an American entrepreneur, animator, writer, and film producer. Walt developed an animation industry and brought cartoons to life. Even today cartoons play an important role in childhood.

Disney developed the love for drawing at a very early age and created the character Mickey Mouse in 1928 his first popular success. But once he was fired from a Missouri newspaper for not being creative enough and after that one of his ventures called Laugh-o-gram failed badly to make him bankrupt.

His company today is known as the Walt Disney company, generating $30 billion in revenue a year. Disney started its own business in its own home and produced the first cartoon that failed. Later he won 32 of Academy Awards for his unparalleled animation and still holds the record for the most Oscar-winning individual.

3) Bill Gates:

We are all known to the personality Bill Gates, who is one of the richest people on the planet today. William Henry gates III is an American business magnate, software developer and best known as the founder of Microsoft Corporation. He is the best-known entrepreneur and pioneer of the Microsoft revolution.

We have known him as the richest person on the earth for more than a decade, but very few people know that he had dropout from Howard University before starting his business before 1970. Even before Microsoft, he invested in a venture called Traf-O-Data but later failed to build the company and shifted towards his passion for computer programming. He always determined to go for his dream and achieved it.

Today Microsoft founder is what most people aspire to be and the known richest person on the planet who changed the world of computers.

4) Abraham Lincoln:

Probably the one best greatest example of diligence and perseverance is Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln faced defeats throughout his life but he never quit. Lincoln didn’t study for more than 5 years throughout his whole life because of poverty.

Lincoln lost eight elections, failed twice in business, and suffered throughout his life sometimes only because of fate. Before he got elected as President of the United States he lost elections, his mother, and later his fiancé. He ran out of money in business and paid the debt for 17 years. He was in bed for six months after a total nervous breakdown.

He would have wished to quit many times but still didn’t to become the most eminent and greatest presidents in the history of the US.

5) Albert Einstein:

Albert Einstein was a German physicist who developed the theory of relativity which formed the pillar of modern physics. He is best known for his mass-energy equivalence formula, E = mc2. He received the law of photoelectric effect and was awarded Nobel Prize in Physics.

We all know a small story of Einstein’s childhood. He couldn’t speak till he was 4 and didn’t read till he was 7. His parents thought that he a sub-normal child and one of his teachers told him that he was too slow, unsociable and most of the time wandering in his dreams. He was expelled from the school for his behavior.

Today Einstein has saved his name in the golden history of Physics.

Famous people failures

6) Thomas Edison:

Thomas Edison, an American inventor, and business who has been known for his greatest work of the light bulb will be known till the end of time. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, and sound recording.

But Edison was initially a failure in every way. He developed a hearing problem at a very young age. He went in and out of various schools and frustrated his teachers every time. They believed that he was a failure and will not do anything for his whole life.

He required 1000 attempts before he could successfully invent the light bulb. He always said he didn’t fail for 1000 times but after 1000 attempts the light bulb was made. With this positive attitude, Edison became the most successful investor of time who also had 1093 U.S rights to invent.

7) Winston Churchill:

Winston Churchill was a British politician, army officer, and writer. He was the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and he led the country to victory during the Second World War. Churchill was a member of parliament from 1900 to 1964 and five constituencies were represented by him. For most of his career, he was a member of the Conservative party and Liberal party.

But before his career, he was a failure who repeated grade after elementary school and was shifted to the lowest division in Harrow. He failed twice in the entrance exam to Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Even he was first defeated to serve the parliament before he could become Prime Minister.

He later wrote, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never- in nothing, great or small, large or petty- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, never, never, never give up.”

8) Henry Ford:

Henry Ford is an American industrialist and business tycoon who is the founder of Ford Motor Company and created the first automobile that the middle-class could afford.  As the owner of the company, Ford made up to the list of the richest and best-known people in the world.

Before the beginning of his success, Ford failed several times. He became bankrupt twice and he once refused to update the Model T-car which drowned his business in the 1920s. Ford also failed to launch his career as a politician.

But after all his failure, he realized improvement was the only way he could find success, and today also Ford is known for his pacifism during the First World War.

9) Soichiro Honda:

Soichiro Honda was a Japanese engineer and industrialist who established Honda Motor Co., Ltd. in 1948. His company leads to the manufacturing of bicycle to multinational automobile and motorcycle.

Honda was not so interested in schooling and education and left the home soon for work. He worked for six years before returning home to start his own auto repair business.

He had a business failure with Toyota Motor Corporation during the Second World War. He was ‘jobless’ until his neighbor bought a scooter at his home. As a result, he started his own company in his house which was named Honda.

Today it is one of the world’s highest-grossing automakers and the company has defeated GM and Chrysler with its production.

10) K. Rowling:

For the 90’s generation, Harry Potter, the story of witches and wizards is always an amusement and this was because of J.K. Rowling. She is a British author, screenwriter, producer, and philanthropist. She has won multiple awards for her fantasy books which became the bestselling book series in history and sold more than 500 million copies.

But very few of us know that before achieving this success, J.K. Rowling has faced so many toil and failures. Troubled by depression, she wanted to commit suicide but to overcome she started writing. Her first book was rejected by many publishers but despite such failure, she persisted and today her name is written in the letters of gold in the literary world.

Other than them, many such dropouts and failures are ruling their world today. But in the end, their persistence and determination have made them reach success. They are known today and will be known till the end of time.

“No matter how hard you work for success, if your thought is saturated with the fear of failure, it will kill your effort, neutralize your endeavors, and make success impossible.”

 – Baudouin

Failure doesn’t hurt you, it opens a way towards success. So keep failing and trying till you find your success.

So how are you going to see failure now?

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