10 Very Successful People Who Suffered A Major Setback in Their Early Career (Part 1)

It is not easy to achieve success in life – if you ask a person who has achieved success, what helped him to climb to the top steps of the career ladder, then most likely you will hear something like “patience, dedication to your favorite work and hard work”, moreover, some will  mention, that at the beginning of the journey, they had faced difficulties and made mistakes. Failures go parallel with success, so do not get frustrated and disappointed if everything goes not quite as planned. All without exception, great entrepreneurs, inventors and writers in life have repeatedly overcome various obstacles, after all, as Winston Churchill said: “Success is a movement from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm”

Steven Spielberg

Almost everyone knows who Steven Spielberg is. The name of one of the greatest directors of the present, who has long been synonymous with success and relevance. However, before becoming famous, Stephen had to go through a series of failures, which almost put an end to his career.

When the future film genius entered the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, but he was not selected because of a low average score. The persistent young man tried to pass the exams and again he was rejected. Without losing hope, Stephen sent documents to another faculty and again was not successful.

If it was someone else, he would be disappointed in the cinema sphere forever, but the young man was determined and entered the technical college, during his free time he shot a short film that was noticed by the Universal Pictures studio which served basis for his future career.

Marilyn Monroe

Despite the fact that Monroe died more than half a century ago, she still remains a real icon for millions of people around the world –  many songs, books, poems are dedicated to her, not to mention the numerous films telling about her life path, which should be noted, was not the easiest.

As a child, Norma Jeane Mortenson had to wander around orphanages and foster families, because her own mother could not take care of her daughter. At the age of 16, Norma married so that she was not sent to another shelter in Los Angeles. Four years later she was invited to appear in the crowd in one of the films of the studio of 20th Century Fox, then the pseudonym Marilyn Monroe was created. The first film experience was not very successful. In 1948 Marilyn signed a contract with Columbia Pictures, but soon the contract was terminated – according to Columbia employees Monroe did not have either talent or even proper appearance for the career of the actress. Fortunately, all these troubles did not turn Marilyn away from her Hollywood dream – persistently continuing to act in episodes, the girl finally got her first major role, after which the career sharply went up.

Milton Hershey

The creator of the chocolate empire, Hershey Chocolate, had to master other specialties before he became a successful entrepreneur. Milton worked for a while as a typist in the printing house and later settled in a confectionery factory where he got acquainted with the technology of producing sweets and chocolate. Glowing with the idea of creating sweets, Hershey decided to start his own company, but the first experience in this area was unsuccessful.

The failure did not stop the novice industrialist – Milton went to Denver, Colorado to comprehend the secrets of the technology of making caramel. Having received all the necessary skills, the entrepreneur tried to set up production in New York but again failed. Two misfortunes did not weaken Hershey’s determination to engage in confectionery, he returned to his family’s farm and began experimenting with various ingredients in the hope of creating his own unique candy recipe. Finally, it was found – Milk chocolate Hershey rapidly became the bestseller in the confectionery market. Having earned from the sale of chocolate, the businessman opened his own factory, which brought him fabulous money and fame.

Theodore Geisel

Throughout the world Geisel is better known as Dr. Seuss – under this pseudonym, he wrote several children’s books that became a real classics of children’s literature. Even today in English-speaking countries children are still being taught to read according to Dr. Seuss’s books.

Of course, Geisel was not born successful – for example, before his first work, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” was published, the publishers denied the young author 27 times.

Experienced people of the publishing business told Geisel that his story about the power of a child’s imagination is meaningless and does not represent any interest for either children or adults. The writer was ready to surrender. So one day Geisel was walking down New York streets thinking about another discouraging refusal and accidentally met an old friend who, as it turned out, was the editor of the children’s department of one of the New York publishing houses. After reading the work of Geisel, the editor decided to publish it and soon the name of Dr. Seuss rumbled to the whole world.

Henry Ford

Henry Ford, no doubt one of the most outstanding people of his times – having developed the basic principles of conveyor production revolutionized not only the production of cars but also a wide variety of industries. It was him who created the first car in history, the Ford T, which could afford not only the rich but also the people with average incomes.

On the way to Henry’s success, there were two failures, which fortunately did not become fatal for his career. The first company founded by Ford was called the Detroit Automobile Company – its sponsor was businessman William H. Murphy, and Ford himself was directly involved in the development and production of cars. A year and a half after the opening, the investor closed the enterprise – because of the inexpressive appearance of his products, sales were miserable. Henry Ford persuaded Murphy to give him more money and created another company called Henry Ford Company, but this venture also failed – the production was unprofitable, so the first two automobiles of Ford were not successful.

Leaving the company and ceasing cooperation with Murphy, Ford established business relations with coal merchant Alexander Malcomson who financed the next venture of ambitious Henry. Improving the design of cars, Ford made a new profit, gradually Ford Motor Company became one of the world’s leading manufacturers of cars and remains so until now.