10 Entrepreneurs Who Failed Before They Succeeded
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door “ — Milton Berle
Whenever we see an iceberg in the ocean, we only see about 15 percent of it, we can’t even imagine the other 85 percent below, entrepreneurs are very much like that.
We only look at their top accomplishments, milestones, and riches, we can’t even imagine the failures, struggles, and darkness on the bottom, where the sun don’t shine.
Entrepreneurs; What are they? They’re a different breed from most people. Their origins are unknown, however, one thing we do have in common is failure.
As successful as they are, they are still real people with real struggles. Many of them have failed before they succeeded in life.
Their positive mindset, persistence, and wisdom let them get back up after falling down. and find a way to persevere and succeed instead of staying down and giving up.
Bill Gates — Traf-O-Data
If at first, you don’t succeed, try again!
Not everyone achieves success at first, Bill Gates’s first startup Traf-O-Data, was no exception. It “was a good idea with a flawed business model” Co-founder and lifelong friend of Gates, Paul Allen later admits. If they have done more “market research” it wouldn’t have gone bankrupt within a year.
From the failures they learned from their first startup, Gates and Allen were much more successful with their second startup Microsoft, which needs no introduction.
One thing both startups had in common was computers. By learning from Traf-O-Data, they were able to understand microprocessors and how they worked. Which was essential for starting Microsoft.
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” — Bill Gates
Henry Ford — Lessons A through T
Twenty-Time’s The Charm!
Henry Ford had two failed motor companies before he was successful with the third one, The Ford Motor Company. Ford’s first two, the Detroit Automobile Company (1899), and The Henry Ford Company (1901) failed because they were unable to get the product to market.
The Ford Motor Company’s early models were also failures because of overheating engines, brake failure, slipping transmission bands, to say a few, these problems were not minor. However, Like any entrepreneur, Ford will keep trying until he got it right.
Success wouldn’t come overnight when they released their first Ford Model A in 1903, it wouldn’t be until 1908 that the iconic Ford Model T, was released. Ford would keep labeling its vehicle models in order until they got it right. Anyone that knows their alphabet could tell you the letter T does not come after A or B, in fact, T is the twentieth letter in the Alphabet, meaning that Ford failed 19 times until they got it right on their twenty try with the infamous Ford Model T.
Fred Smith- A Nice Idea, But It’ll Never Work
All Or Nothing!
FedEx almost went bankrupt in 1973, when it just got started. To prevent this bankruptcy CEO, Fred Smith went to Las Vegas casinos and gambled it with the stakes, all or nothing. While playing blackjack, Smith won 27,000, enough to save his company for a few days, until he got investors to put in 11 million.
While attending Yale University in an economics class, Fred wrote a paper on the importance of overnight delivery in a computerized society by using technology. Fred Smith barely passed, his professor was less than impressed, stating that; “The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C’, the idea must be feasible.”
The concept was ahead of its time, not only was the idea feasible but it became a reality later on. Proving that professors don’t always know what they’re talking about.
Steve Jobs — Fired By The Company He Founded.
A Parent’s worst nightmare!
In 1985 Jobs experienced a parent’s worst nightmare, rejection from what he created. His child of course being the teenage Apple Inc.
The maternal love of a parent and their child is crucial if the child rejects the parent then the parent will start to question what went wrong?
What to do NeXT?
For Jobs NeXT was his next tech startup. They focussed on software, unlike Apple which focused in hardware.
The success of NeXT’s software gave Apple the opportunity to buy NeXT from Jobs where he would return as CEO.
A Happy ending Indeed
Walt Disney — Fired For “not being creative enough”
Just Wish Upon A Star
Believe it or not, but the man responsible for the “Wonderous World of Imagination” was once ironically fired for not having enough imagination. While working for a Missouri newspaper, the Kansas City Star, Walt’s editor fired him for lacking “imagination” and not having any “good ideas”
In 1996 Disney would later purchase Walt’s former place of employment, the Kansas City Star. Now, who’s firing who?
Early Struggles
Walt had to close his first studio, Laugh-O-Grams when the distributor went out of business. He survived on a can bean diet, he never gave that up even later in life when he made millions.
Disney’s first successful cartoon, Oswald The Rabbit was stolen by Universal. He lost all the rights to it and thus learned the importance of ownership, (considering today they own everything).
Walt had to mortgage his house to finance his first feature film, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Critics were calling it a failure before it was even released, it became the highest-grossing film ever until it was surpassed by Gone With The Wind a few years latter.
Harland David Sanders — Failure Until His 60s
It’s Never Too Late To Succeed!
Success has no age limit, as long as you are alive and breathing you can always change your life completely, Harland David Sanders knows this. Aka Colonel Sanders It wasn’t until he was 62 when he started franchising his fried chicken restaurant establishment.
Colonel Sanders was fired from many jobs and had unsuccessful past startups before starting his Kentucky Fried Chicken Empire.
He traveled all over the country looking for a distributor to sell his special chicken flavored with a secret recipe. His was rejected 1,009 times until a distributor in Utah finally accepted to work with the Colonel.
The moral here is: It’s Never Too Late, Especially if you don’t want to retire!
Thomas Edison — Teachers told him he was “Too stupid to learn”
Stupid Is A Stupid Word!
When it comes to being uneducated, Thomas Alva Edison is the last person to be labeled as having mental deficiencies, however, that’s exactly what he was back in grade school.
The school sent Edison home with a note that only his mother was allowed to read when she opened it she said “Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have good enough teachers to train him. Please teach him yourself.”
It wasn’t until years later after his mother had passed that Edison found out what it really said; “ Your son is mentally deficient. We cannot let him attend our school anymore. He is expelled.”
Edison had very little formal education. His mother taught him at home how to reading, writing, and math by herself. Thomas also took the initiative to do a lot of reading by himself. Edison took a strong interest in mechanics and chemical experiments.
Because of these circumstances, Edison became one of the greatest inventors of all time.
Similarly,
John Lennon’s Teachers said he lacked effort.
When John Lennon was asked by his teachers, what he wanted to be when he grew up? John replied; happy, in disappointment, they said he didn’t understand the assignment, John pronounced “they didn’t understand life.”
Rebel :O
Thus proving,
Those who can’t do, teach.
Oprah Winfrey- Fired From First Television Job: Too Emotionally Invested
Let your passion guide you!
Born into rural poverty with a mother on welfare, Oprah’s success story is a story that needs to be told. When Oprah got her first dream job as an anchor for a Baltimore television station, she thought she was set, however, things don’t always go as planned. After a short time later Oprah was fired for being too emotionally invested in her stories.
Naturally, this was devastating for Oprah, but looking back at it, Oprah admits it was for the best. It gave her time to re-think her strategy and learn how to become an aspiring influencer through Television.
In 1984, Oprah, along with her passion, takes over a failed talk show and renames it The Oprah Winfrey Show, it went nationwide in 1986, and the rest was history.
Milton Hershey — Original School Dropout
Sweet Success!
Dropping out of school after the fourth grade, Hershey did not get an education higher than a fourth-grader, meaning he did not take any business classes. When he was 12, Hershey focused on getting a real job to help his family.
He was able to cook delicious chocolate candy, but selling them was another matter. Hershey tried three startup candy businesses in New York, Chicago, and Denver, all of which failed.
Disappointed by the failure he went to his hometown Lancaster County where he started up his first successful candy business in 1886, the Lancaster Caramel Company. After his success, Hershey transitioned smoothly from caramel to chocolate with his next company, the Hershey Company.
Not Too Bad For A Dropout!
Jeff Bezos — Jack of All Trades, Master of Some
No Regrets
“I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.” — Jeff Bezos
Before Amazon became one of the world’s largest online Marketplace companies ever, CEO Jeff Bezos had plenty of failed ideas. One of them being an online auction site, zShops. It was a nice idea but failed. Bezos would later incorporate this lesson into the Amazon Marketplace.
Amazon is known for selling anything online, from groceries like Whole Foods to streaming services like Netflix, Amazon wanted to compete with Apple technology like the iPhone.
Everyone knows the Amazon Kindle, lesser-known was Amazon’s Fire Smartphone that failed. Bezos lost 170 million dollars invested in it. When they asked why they were doing this, the answer was because ‘Jeff wants it.’
Thoughts / Takeaway
So the next time you see an iceberg, do not judge it by the 15% you can see; instead, wonder about the 85% holding it up. It’s a long way to the road of success, and not every way will be quick and to the point. Just because you failed at first doesn’t mean you will fail last.
