If at First You Don’t Succeed…
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. No matter how many times you read that sentence, it still is amazing. The man who would go on to win six championships, five MVP awards, ten scoring titles, and be named by ESPN as the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century, did not even make his high school basketball team his sophomore year. He was deemed too short to play at that level.
Being cut from an amateur athletic team produces a variety of responses in young men and women—for Jordan, he used it as motivation. He trained vigorously, set his goals high, and the rest is history. He never let go of the motivating influence of being cut from the team, as was illustrated many years later during his Hall of Fame induction speech. Jordan unceremoniously chided the high school basketball coach who had cut him. That act might have been petty, but it was obvious that the motivation created from being cut had long survived.
Michael Jordan is far from the lone example of people who failed only to eventually succeed. As previously mentioned, Jordan was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The man who founded this company, Walt Disney, did not immediately find success. In fact, Disney had wanted to become a newspaper artist, but was fired from his first newspaper job because his boss felt that he lacked imagination, and did not have any good ideas.
Disney personified the entrepreneurial spirit from a young age, and did not let this early firing stop him. He decided to launch early businesses based on animation, only to have those businesses fail and put him into bankruptcy. At this point, Walt Disney had been fired, had failed at business, could barely pay rent, and had no money for food. So what did he decide to do? Move to Hollywood, and start a new business. At every point of failure, his dream became larger and larger. It was almost as if failure fueled the size of his dream. Generations of children and adults alike have been the beneficiaries of this perseverance.
Disney might have taken a different path without the technology available to him at the time. This technology was the result of relentless dedication of tireless inventors such as Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison is credited with developing the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and, of course, the incandescent light bulb. These are just some of his better known inventions, as his prolific inventing career ended up with 1,093 U.S. patents in his name. He also founded 14 companies—one of which is General Electric, one of the largest companies in the world.
Edison’s eventual success must have shocked his early teacher, who had told Edison that he was too stupid to learn anything. Edison also lost early jobs for lack of productivity. Edison never gave up on his passion and dreams, and he literally changed the world because of his perseverance.
Jordan, Disney, and Edison are far from alone as examples of individuals who went on to greatness after initial turmoil, setbacks, and failure. Here are a few more examples:
JK Rowling – Fired as a secretary. Went on to pursue her dream to be a writer and created the Harry Potter series.
Mark Cuban – The colorful owner of the Dallas Mavericks was fired as a salesman at a computer store. Never worked for anyone ever again and has amassed a billion-dollar empire.
Elvis Presley – Performed at the Grand Ole Opry once early in his career only to be told by the manager that he had no chance of success and ought to go back to his truck-driving job. Presley went on to become The King and one of the bestselling artists of all time.
Stephen King – His first book, Carrie, received numerous rejections.
Steven Spielberg – Rejected from the University of Southern California School of Theatre, Film, and Television multiple times.
Oprah Winfrey – Fired from her job as a television reporter because she was “unfit for TV.”
These are just a few of the names that went on to great success after initial failures and setbacks. While serving as a wonderful source of inspiration, it also makes you wonder what great art, books, inventions, songs, businesses, and technology is not available today because the journey was too hard or the criticism too much for those that housed the inspiration.
Thomas Edison was told as a child he was too stupid to learn anything, and Walt Disney was told he lacked imagination and good ideas. Thankfully, they possessed the inner strength and passion for their ideas to not let these criticisms stop them. It is amazing how much criticism we can face when we let the world know what our dreams are, even from those closest to us. Remembering famous examples of individuals that fought through their own critics should help us as we face those that do not understand, are jealous, or do not support the dreams you want to achieve.
Your Life and Your Dreams
There is a wonderful quote from Robert Kiyosaki that summarizes why those successful people in this article went onto their success: “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire, the size of your dream, and how you handle disappointment along the way.” Each of these famous people achieved tremendous success because they were passionate about what they did, had vision, and overcame the disappointment they encountered.
The recipe for success is no different for us than for Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Thomas Edison, or Walt Disney. Find something that you are passionate about, something that you truly desire to achieve. Dream big and eliminate the word “unrealistic” from your vocabulary. Be prepared for the setbacks that are likely to occur along the way, as how you handle them can very well be the difference between achieving your dreams and wondering what could have been many years from now.
We have wonderful and inspirational examples all around us. Use them as a source of motivation as you start your days in the coming month, and who knows? Maybe someday, someone will be using you as an example of motivation along with the likes of Elvis and Edison.