Walt Disney
As well as ensuring that acting students would always be able to find work walking around in oversized Mickey Mouse suits, Walt Disney also dropped out of school at a young age in a failed attempt at joining the army. One of his earlier ventures, Laugh-o-Gram Studios, went bankrupt due to his lack of ability to run a successful business. He was called everything from incompetent to fool hardy in his ability to handle finance and he was once fired from a Missouri newspaper for ‘not being creative enough.’
It’s hard to believe that the man who was ultimately responsible for giving so many us so many wonderous childhood memories could be spoken about so poorly by so many, so often. Really makes you think.
As the man said himself:
“We don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
Vincent Van Gogh
The man who inspired the most memorable scene in the movie Reservoir Dogs also had quite some adversity to overcome in his life but is ultimately remembered as one of European arts greats.
During his lifetime, Vincent Van Gogh suffered mental illness, failed relationships, and committed suicide at the age of 37. He only ever sold one painting in his life, pinning him a failure as an artist. However, that did not put a damper on his enthusiasm and passion for art.
He would never know that years and years after his death he would become known as a key figure in the world of post-impressionism, and ultimately, one of the greatest artists that ever lived. He would never know that he became a hot topic in art classes and his image was going to be used in TV, books and other forms of popular culture.
Michael Jordan
It would be an easy misconception that Jordan’s basketball skills revolve around natural talent. In fact, in his earlier years, basketball coaches had trouble looking past the fact that Jordan didn’t reach the minimum height. It was years of effort, practice, and failure that made the star we know today.
Michael Jordan’s success all came down to his Intrinsic Motivation , one of the most invincible types of motivation that drives people to succeed.
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