Lessons from famous people who failed but ended successful

WE ALWAYS hear the success stories of people but we seldom hear and witnessed about the struggles and failures of some famous and most successful people. Here then, are few of those very famous winners as a living testimony of what Mr. Soichiro Honda, Founder of Honda Corporation stated; "To me success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection. In fact, success represents 1% of your work that results from the 99% that is called failure." These indicated people below started and encountered so many challenges before they reached the pinnacle of their life are the following:

• Soichiro Honda was passed over for an engineering job at Toyota and left unemployed. But then he began making motorcycles, started a business and became a billionaire.

• Thomas Edison's teachers told him he was "too stupid to learn anything." Edison also famously invented 1,000 light bulbs before creating one that worked.

• Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade. He was defeated in every public office role he ran for. Then he became the British prime minister at the age of 62.

• Marilyn Monroe's first contract with Columbia Pictures expired because they told her she wasn't pretty or talented enough to be an actress.

• Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas." Several more of his businesses failed before the premiere of his movie Snow White. Today, most childhoods wouldn't be the same without his ideas.

• Harland David Sanders, the famous KFC "Colonel," couldn't sell his chicken. More than 1,000 restaurants rejected him. But then one did, and today there are KFC restaurants bearing his image all over the world.

• R.H. Macy had a history failing businesses, including a dud Macy's in NYC. But Macy kept up the hard work and ended up with the biggest department store in the world.

• Albert Einstein didn't speak until age four and didn't read until age seven. His teachers labeled him "slow" and "mentally handicapped." But Einstein just had a different way of thinking. He later won the Nobel Prize in physics.

• Oprah Winfrey was fired from her television reporting job because they told her she wasn't fit to be on screen. But Winfrey rebounded and became the undisputed queen of television talk shows. She's also a billionaire.

• Henry Ford's first auto company went out of business. He abandoned a second because of a fight and a third went downhill because of declining sales. He went on to become one of the greatest American entrepreneurs ever.

• J.K. Rowling was unemployed, divorced and raising a daughter on social security while writing the first Harry Potter novel. J.K. Rowling is now internationally renowned for her 7 book Harry Potter series and is the first person to become a billionaire from writing.

• Stephen King was initially so frustrated with his first novel, Carrie that he threw it in the trash. King's wife found the manuscript in the trash and took it out. To date his 49 novels have sold 350 million copies.

• After his first film, Harrison Ford underwhelmed the producer and was told he would probably never succeed. But today Ford is the third highest-grossing actor of all time.

• Sir Isaac Newton was tasked with running the family farm but was a miserable failure. Newton was sent off to Cambridge University and became a physics scholar.

The aforementioned failed but successful people have their own definition of success. We can also have our own meaning what success all about and our own strategies to reach at the top But according to Peter Lowe, who conducts the extremely successful "Success Seminars" all over America says, "I don't think you can be a success if your business is thriving but your children hate you. I don't think you're successful if you're climbing the corporate ladder while running your health into the ground. Integrity demands that we practice habits and develop character traits that will serve us in each area of our lives. Without this balance, we cannot achieve true success."

And according to Mr. Danny Thomas, "All of us are born for a reason, but all of us don't discover why. Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others."

Finally, it is my personal belief that it is what you are able to leave behind after you're gone that will ultimately determine just how successful your stay on earth has been. If you've left it a better place than it was when you arrived in the areas that comprise your responsibilities, then I believe you are successful. Look at some of the above mentioned failed people but succeeded and be your inspiration. Listen to what the people I've quoted above have to say and there is no doubt…..you will be successful in life!