15 People Who Found Success Despite Seemingly Impossible Circumstances

These stories will make you leap out of your chair with hope. They will set your passion aflame again!

#1  Colonel Sanders

The founder of KFC. He started his dream at 65 years old! He got a social security check for only $105 and was mad. Instead of complaining, he did something about it. He thought restaurant owners would love his fried chicken recipe, use it, sales would increase, and he’d get a percentage of it. He drove around the country knocking on doors, sleeping in his car, wearing his white suit. Do you know how many times people said no till he got one yes? 1009 times!

#2  Larry Ellison

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to a single mother, Ellison was raised by his aunt and uncle in Chicago. After his aunt died, Ellison dropped out of college and moved to California to work odd jobs for the next eight years. He founded software development company Oracle in 1977, which is now one of the largest technology companies in the world.

#3  Mike Adenuga

He was born on 29 April 1953 to a school teacher Father and a his mother a businesswoman. He had to work as a taxi driver and a security guard to support his education while studying at the university. He graduated from Northwestern-Alva Oklahoma State university and Pace university New York, with a degree in business administration.

He then took over his mother’s sawmill business, distributed lace, and other materials and also sold Coca-Cola. Then to Oil sector and Telecommunications. Globacom, His telecommunications company is the second largest operator in Nigeria with 36 million subscribers, he also runs Conoil, and other business. The young man who once struggled to sponsor his university education now worths $5.8 billion.

#4  Walt Disney

The man who gave us Disney World and Mickey Mouse. His first animation company went bankrupt. He was fired by a news editor cause he lacked imagination. Legend has it he was turned down 302 times before he got financing for creating Disney World.

#5  Dwayne Johnson

He was confused as a kid. He wanted  to be like  Harrison Ford, Elvis Presley and Chuck Norris rolled up into one. He got arrested so many times until the age of sixteen while trying to survive  financial hardship. So many times he and his mom were locked out of the house. Leaving his mother frequently in tears.source

He played American football. Was cut off the team. He got into pro wrestling. Was booed on his first match. He later bounced back with an authentic expression of himself, “The Rock”.

Although he got to the height of his career in wrestling, he wanted more as a person and entertainer. So he went into acting and wanted to be the best at it. In 2013 he was named “Number one international box office star”. His autobiography debuted as 1 on New your times best seller list.

#6 Lionel Messi

At the age 8, he was diagnosed to be suffering from a growth hormone deficiency and without the necessary treatment, his dreams of a career in football would be dashed. His father tried to pay his medical bill(for growth hormone injections) which was several hundred dollars per month but couldn’t catch up. He was assisted by social security for a while. But the bills were too much. FC Barcelona later agreed to pay his bills and admitted the very talented lad into the academy.

By the end of 2012, Messi had accumulated an astounding 91 goals in club and international play, eclipsing the 85 netted in a single calendar year by Gerd Muller in 1972. Fittingly, he broke another record when he was named the FIFA Ballon d’Or winner for the fourth time in January 2013.

#7 Mark Cuban

The billionaire owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks got rich when he sold his company to Yahoo for $5.9 billion in stock. He admitted he was terrible at his early jobs. His parents wanted him to have a normal job. So he tried carpentry but hated it. He was a short order cook but a terrible one. He waited tables but couldn’t open a bottle of wine. He says of his failures. “I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter how many times you failed,” Cuban says. “You only have to be right once. I tried to sell powdered milk. I was an idiot lots of times, and I learned from them all.”

#8 Vincent Van Gogh

He only sold one painting in his lifetime! Just one to a friend. Despite that, he kept painting and finished over 800 pieces. Now everyone wants to buy them and his most expensive painting is valued at $142.7 million.

#9  Pastor EA Adeboye

He was born in 1942 to his father who was uneducated and didn’t believe in educating any of his children either. His father was so poor that the whole family jubilated on the purchase of an umbrella. Young Adeboye was so particular about acuqiring a formal education that he went on an hunger strike till his father gave in, sold his goat and enrolled him in school.

He wore his first shoe(borrowed) at age 19 and despite the hardship he pursued his clear goals of becoming the youngest vice chancellor. He worked really hard towards his goal until he had a ministerial call and became the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in 1981.Now with branches in 110 countries (Over 14,000 in Nigeria).

#10  Steven King

His first book “Carrie” was rejected 30 times which made him give up and throw it in the trash. His wife retrieved it out of the trash and encouraged him to resubmit it. The rest is history. He has published more than 50books, sold more than 350 million copies

#11  Stephenie Meyer

The author of the crazy Twilight series said the inspiration for the book came from a dream. She finished it in three months but never intended to publish it until a friend suggested she should. She wrote 15 letters to literary agencies. Five didn’t reply. Nine rejected. One gave her a chance. Then eight publishers auctioned for the right to punishment blish Twilight. She got a three-book deal worth $750,000. In 2010, Forbes reported she earned $40 million.

#12  Michael Jordan

He’s famous for being cut from his high school basketball team. He turned out to be the greatest basketball player but never let failure deter him. I love this quote…

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

#13  Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield was rejected 144 times before he found a publisher for his book, “Chicken Soup for the Soul”. When Jack told the publisher he wanted to sell 1.5 million books in the first 18 months, the publisher laughed and said he’d be lucky to sell 20,000.That first book sold more than 8 million copies in America and 10 million copies around the world. Canfield’s book brand is now a $1 Billion brand.

 Canfield’s advice:
“So the reality is that you just have to say, ‘I’m more committed to my vision than I’m committed to your doubt or my fear,’ and just go for it…”

#14  Frank Edwards

He narrated how he and his mom hawked together in Enugu. He said, “I will hawk in this direction while my mother hawked in the other direction”. It wasn’t easy for the Gospel singer who stated that he also later encountered sponsors who had requested that he compromised but for his love to do God’s will, he got double success eventually.

Now with lots of awards to his name, his album, Frankincense which featured Micah Stampley and Nathaniel Bassey got everyone wowed when it topped Beyonce’s and Adele’s albums within few hours of release on iTunes album chart. And his “Grace” Album feat Don Moen is also said to be another hit and a record breaker.

#15 Thomas Edison

No list of success from failures would be complete without the man who gave us many inventions including the light bulb. He knew failure wouldn’t stop him.

If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. There is no success without failure

Decide what is important to you and take huge steps every day even though it doesn’t seem like it’s working.

Success doesn’t happen without failures. It’s reality. Deal with it.

How bad do you want to achieve your goal? It better be so bad that rejection won’t derail you. How much do you believe in what you’re doing? Colonel Sanders did despite 1009 rejections!

“Fall down seven times, get up eight.” – Japanese proverb

Which of the stories inspired you most?

Sources:

Forbes, Google, Biography.com, Bradaronson.com, Wikipedia.com, Goal.com