ZAFFAROLOGY · MASTER YOUR MIND, BUILD YOUR LEGACY
50 people who were rejected, fired, broke or broken before they changed the world. Their setbacks did not end their stories. They became part of them.
HARD CHILDHOOD
16th U.S. President
Lincoln grew up in a log cabin, lost his mother at nine and had barely a year of schooling. As an adult he failed in business, lost several elections and lived with deep grief and depression. He became president, ended slavery and held the nation together through civil war.
FAILED AGAIN & AGAIN
Inventor
Edison was taken out of school early and taught at home. Finding a practical light bulb took thousands of failed tests. He treated each one as a way that did not work, and went on to earn more than 1,000 U.S. patents.
PUSHED OUT
Founder, The Walt Disney Company
A newspaper fired Disney, reportedly for lacking imagination. His first animation studio went bankrupt, and he later lost the rights to his popular character Oswald. He started again with a mouse and built an entertainment empire.
PUSHED OUT
Co-founder, Apple
At 30, Jobs was forced out of Apple, the company he had started in his parents' garage. He called it devastating, then founded NeXT and helped build Pixar. Apple brought him back in 1997, and he led it to the iPod and iPhone.
HARD CHILDHOOD
Media leader & philanthropist
Oprah was born into poverty in rural Mississippi and suffered abuse as a child. Early in her career she was removed as a news co-anchor and told she was unfit for TV news. Moved to a morning talk show, she found her voice and built a global media empire.
REJECTED
Author, Harry Potter
In the early 1990s Rowling was a single mother on welfare, battling depression after her mother's death and a failed marriage. Her first Harry Potter manuscript was rejected by 12 publishers. The series has sold more than 500 million copies.
REJECTED
Basketball legend
As a high-school sophomore, Jordan was left off the varsity team. He used the disappointment as fuel and trained relentlessly. He won six NBA championships and is widely called the greatest player of all time.
REJECTED
Author
King collected so many rejection slips that he pinned them on a nail until it could hold no more. Short of money, he threw an early draft of Carrie in the bin. His wife rescued it and urged him on, and Carrie launched one of the best-selling careers in history.
REJECTED
Physicist
After graduating, Einstein could not get a university teaching job and worked as a clerk in a Swiss patent office. In his spare time, in 1905, he published four papers that changed physics. He won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.
FAILED & BROKE
Founder, Ford Motor Company
Ford's first car company failed and he left his second, as investors lost faith in him. At 39 he founded Ford Motor Company. The Model T and the moving assembly line made cars affordable for ordinary families.
LATE STARTER
Founder, KFC
Sanders lost his roadside restaurant in his 60s when a new highway bypassed it. Living on a small pension, he drove from town to town selling his chicken recipe, reportedly hearing no hundreds of times. Kentucky Fried Chicken became a global brand.
FAILED AGAIN & AGAIN
Co-founder, Microsoft
Gates and Paul Allen's first business, Traf-O-Data, was a commercial flop. Gates then left Harvard to focus on software. The lessons fed into Microsoft, which helped put a computer on almost every desk.
FAILED AGAIN & AGAIN
Founder, SpaceX & Tesla
SpaceX's first three rocket launches failed, and by 2008 both SpaceX and Tesla were close to running out of money. Musk put his remaining funds into both. The fourth launch reached orbit, and both companies went on to lead their industries.
REJECTED
Founder, Alibaba
Ma failed China's university entrance exam twice and was turned down for around 30 jobs, including one at KFC. He says Harvard rejected him 10 times. In 1999 he founded Alibaba with 17 friends in his apartment.
REJECTED
Founder, The Huffington Post
Huffington's second book was rejected by more than 30 publishers. When she launched The Huffington Post in 2005, critics predicted it would fail. It won a Pulitzer Prize and sold to AOL for $315 million.
REJECTED
Film director
Spielberg was rejected by the University of Southern California's film school more than once. He kept making films anyway. He became one of the most successful directors in history, with three Academy Awards.
HARD CHILDHOOD
Actor & comedian
When Carrey was a teenager, his father lost his job and the family lived in a camper van for a time. He left school at 15 to work as a cleaner and help support them. He kept performing comedy and became one of Hollywood's biggest stars.
HARD CHILDHOOD
Actor & writer, Rocky
Nerve damage at birth left Stallone with slurred speech, and as a young actor he was broke and repeatedly turned down. He wrote Rocky in a few days and refused to sell the script unless he played the lead. Rocky won Best Picture.
REJECTED
Actor & entrepreneur
In 1995 Johnson was cut from the Canadian Football League, ending his football dream. He has said he had just seven dollars to his name. He turned to wrestling, then acting, and became one of the world's highest-paid actors.
REJECTED
Champion, actor & governor
Schwarzenegger arrived in America with a heavy accent and was told his body, accent and name were wrong for Hollywood. He won seven Mr. Olympia titles, became a global film star and served two terms as Governor of California.
REJECTED
Musicians
In 1962 Decca Records turned the Beatles down, reportedly saying guitar groups were on their way out. Other labels passed too. Signed by Parlophone, they became the best-selling music act in history.
HUMILIATED
Musician
Elvis was turned down by a gospel quartet and, in a famous account, told after a show to go back to driving a truck. He kept performing his own way. He became the King of Rock and Roll.
HUMILIATED
Comedian
At his first stand-up show, Seinfeld froze on stage and was booed off. He went back and kept working at his craft night after night. His show Seinfeld became one of the most successful sitcoms ever made.
HUMILIATED
Dancer & actor
A famous story says his first screen test report read: can't act, slightly bald, can dance a little. Astaire kept going. He became one of Hollywood's greatest dancers, starring in more than 30 musical films.
HUMILIATED
Actor
At his first audition, Poitier struggled to read his lines, and the director told him to go and get a job as a dishwasher. He taught himself to read better and lose his accent. In 1964 he became the first Black man to win the Oscar for Best Actor.
FAILED & BROKE
Founder, The Hershey Company
Hershey left school after fourth grade, and his first candy businesses failed, leaving him in debt. His caramel company finally succeeded. He sold it to build Hershey's chocolate and a whole town for his workers.
REJECTED
Children's author
Theodor Geisel's first children's book was rejected by more than 20 publishers. A chance meeting with an old college friend got it published. He went on to write more than 60 books loved by generations of children.
FAILED AGAIN & AGAIN
Founder, Spanx
Blakely failed the law school entrance exam twice and spent seven years selling fax machines door to door. With $5,000 in savings she started Spanx. In 2012 Forbes named her the youngest self-made female billionaire.
HARD CHILDHOOD
Entrepreneur
Born to formerly enslaved parents, she was orphaned at seven and widowed at 20, washing laundry for about a dollar a day. Hair loss led her to create her own hair-care products. She became one of America's first self-made female millionaires.
PRISON, WAR & ILLNESS
Scientist
As a woman in Russian-ruled Poland, Curie was barred from university, so she studied in secret classes and worked as a governess. In Paris she lived in poverty while studying. She became the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two sciences.
PRISON, WAR & ILLNESS
Painter
Van Gogh failed as an art dealer and a preacher, lived in poverty and struggled with serious mental illness. He sold very few paintings in his lifetime. Today he is one of the most influential painters who ever lived.
PRISON, WAR & ILLNESS
Composer
In his late 20s Beethoven began to lose his hearing, a devastating blow for a musician. By the end of his life he was almost completely deaf. He kept composing and wrote his Ninth Symphony without being able to hear it.
REJECTED
Actor
All India Radio rejected Bachchan for his deep voice, and filmmakers doubted him for his height. Later his company's losses nearly bankrupted him. He rebuilt his career and became one of India's most celebrated actors.
REJECTED
44th U.S. President
In 2000 Obama lost a run for Congress by a two-to-one margin and was left in debt. He seriously questioned his future in politics. Eight years later he was elected President of the United States.
PRISON, WAR & ILLNESS
President of South Africa
Mandela spent 27 years in prison for fighting apartheid, much of it breaking rocks on Robben Island. He came out without seeking revenge. He won the Nobel Peace Prize and became South Africa's first Black president.
PRISON, WAR & ILLNESS
Psychiatrist & author
Frankl survived Auschwitz and other Nazi camps, where his wife, parents and brother were killed. He came out convinced that people can endure almost anything if they find meaning. His book Man's Search for Meaning has inspired millions.
PRISON, WAR & ILLNESS
Founder, Honda
Toyota rejected Honda's early piston rings, and his factory was later destroyed by wartime bombing and an earthquake. He sold what was left and started fitting small engines to bicycles. That became Honda Motor Company.
HARD CHILDHOOD
Fashion designer
After her mother died when she was 11, Chanel was placed in a convent orphanage, where she learned to sew. She started with a small hat shop. She transformed women's fashion and built one of the world's best-known luxury brands.
LATE STARTER
Builder of McDonald's
Kroc spent decades selling paper cups and milkshake machines. He was 52 when he met the McDonald brothers in 1954. He turned their single restaurant into the world's largest fast-food chain.
LATE STARTER
Chef & TV host
Julia Child did not learn to cook until her late 30s. Her cookbook took about ten years to write and was turned down by its first publisher. It was published when she was 49 and made her a television star.
PUSHED OUT
Businesswoman & TV host
In 2004 Stewart was convicted of charges linked to a stock sale and spent five months in prison. Many thought her brand was finished. She came back to television, publishing and business.
REJECTED
11th President of India
Kalam sold newspapers as a boy to help his family. His dream of becoming a fighter pilot ended when he placed ninth for eight places. He became India's Missile Man and later its President.
HARD CHILDHOOD
Agricultural scientist
Born into slavery, Carver was turned away by a college when it found out he was Black. He became the first Black student at Iowa State. His work on crop rotation and peanuts helped transform farming in the American South.
FAILED & BROKE
Artist
In his early years in Paris, Picasso was so poor he reportedly burned drawings to keep warm, and his Blue Period paintings barely sold. He kept experimenting. He became the most influential artist of the 20th century.
REJECTED
Investor
At 19, Buffett was rejected by Harvard Business School. He went to Columbia instead, where he studied under the investor Benjamin Graham. He became one of the most successful investors in history.
FAILED AGAIN & AGAIN
Founder, Amazon
Bezos left a top Wall Street job to sell books online from his garage. In the 2000 dot-com crash Amazon's shares fell more than 90 percent and critics wrote it off. It became one of the world's most valuable companies.
REJECTED
Builder of Starbucks
Schultz grew up in public housing in Brooklyn. When he tried to raise money for his coffee bars, he says 217 of 242 investors said no. He bought Starbucks in 1987 and grew it into a global brand.
HARD CHILDHOOD
Actor & martial artist
At seven, Chan was sent to a strict Peking Opera school for ten years of harsh daily training. His first Hollywood films flopped. He kept refining his mix of martial arts and comedy and became a global film star.
REJECTED
Actress & TV pioneer
A drama school told Ball she had no talent and sent her home. She spent years in small film roles. At 40 she launched I Love Lucy and became one of television's biggest stars.
PRISON, WAR & ILLNESS
Education activist
At 15, Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban for speaking up for girls' education in Pakistan. She survived and kept campaigning. At 17 she became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Every person on this page kept going when quitting made more sense. The Zaffarology 90-Day Transformation Workshop helps you build the habits, systems and accountability to do the same.
Join the 90-Day WorkshopAll portraits are from Wikimedia Commons, used under their free licences. Follow each link for the photographer and licence.