Famous Failures

Famous failure stories, checked against the sources. Einstein did not fail math. The true ones are better anyway.

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

Four network shows cancelled under him in nine years — one after seven episodes — before he was Michael Scott — Steve Carell, acting. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/0xQ9mDI02o

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

One of the most recognisable children in the world, and then the call-backs stopped. She became a writer, which is the point — Mara Wilson, writer, former child actor. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/YBNUizbU8B

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

He lost four elections in three years, was ruined at twenty by South American mining shares, and his first speech in the Commons was shouted down — Benjamin Disraeli, novelist and prime minister. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/ZRsgeFebUH

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

He quit comedy for about a decade to sell aluminium siding, then came back in his forties under a different name — Rodney Dangerfield, comedian. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/KSHH1HA4Ia

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A week after his fourth gold medal in Berlin the Amateur Athletic Union suspended him from amateur competition, and by Christmas he was racing a horse in Havana for money — Jesse Owens, sprinter and long jumper. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/3iEwGnIpVu

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On her fortieth birthday another rejection arrived. She covered her typewriter and swore she was done — Madeleine L'Engle, novelist. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/a9YhiuqXsE

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She bombed the law entrance exam twice, was turned down for a Goofy costume, and sold fax machines for seven years — Sara Blakely, consumer products founder. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/dmPseNQDrC

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

Demoted, defunded, pushed out after 24 years. Kept running the experiment — Katalin Karikó, biochemistry. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/KAymlwSglM

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

T. S. Eliot rejected him twice, twelve years apart. The second book was Animal Farm — George Orwell, novelist and essayist. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/lCVei8bvbG

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

He crashed a power network trying to make diamonds, came back from Trinidad with most of his capital gone, and was written off as a lunatic in a newspaper's reception — John Logie Baird, engineer. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/cdEM0HLZzZ

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He was Chunk in The Goonies. He aged out of acting at sixteen, and is now the lawyer other former child actors hire — Jeff Cohen, entertainment lawyer, former child actor. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/9hz2eMCB2r

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

Turned away by the Marines for being too short, then by the paratroopers, then nearly sent to cookery school — Audie Murphy, soldiering. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/R8xrKpq1yZ

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

Rembrandt van Rijn failed 5 times. The money never came back. The work kept coming. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/syI7XWpSDC

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

He ran the family hardware business into the ground, was jailed for debt on and off from 1830 to 1855, and was still about two hundred thousand dollars in debt when he died — Charles Goodyear, inventor. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/eQDQFjJzF2

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His own school yearbook would not print his drawings. He called it his first major rejection — Charles M. Schulz, cartooning. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/UgN7dJyGIS

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

He failed the RAF medical twice as a boy of fifteen and sixteen, was told the jet engine was impracticable, and lost the patent over a £5 renewal fee nobody would pay — Sir Frank Whittle, engineer. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/SKMCABPOoe

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

Hayao Miyazaki failed 9 times. Founded Studio Ghibli. Two Academy Awards. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/HVvUHCuIkr

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

He developed stage fright at fifty-seven and kept walking on stage anyway, terrified, for years — Laurence Olivier, stage actor. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/9tKG1NiLbx

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

He was thirty-one, making lavatories for aeroplanes, and kept the factory job mindset for years — Bill Withers, soul singer-songwriter. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/0OLKOjsQUr

[Famous Failures @FailurePledge]

Dropped by his label, working demolition — and a star in countries he had never visited — Sixto Rodriguez, singer-songwriter. #famousfailures #failurepledge https://t.co/8KFf2ZSIum