Henry Ford

While Ford is today known for his innovative assembly line and American-made cars, he wasn't an instant success. In fact, his early businesses failed and left him broke five time before he founded the successful Ford Motor Company.

  Jan Koum

Jan Koum was turned down by Facebook in 2009. Today he runs the $6.8 billion dollar messaging service WhatsApp, which was recently sold to Facebook. Koum, also a university dropout, is now on the board of partners for Facebook.

Harland David Sanders

Perhaps better known as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, Sanders had a hard time selling his chicken at first. In fact, his famous secret chicken recipe was rejected 1,009 times before a restaurant accepted it.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney had a bit of a rough start. He was fired by a newspaper editor because, “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” After that, Disney started a number of businesses that didn't last too long and ended with bankruptcy and failure. He kept plugging along, however, and eventually found a recipe for success that worked.

Thomas Edison

In his early years, teachers told Edison he was “too stupid to learn anything.” Edison was also fired from his first two jobs for not being productive enough. Even as an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. Of course, all those unsuccessful attempts finally resulted in the design that worked.

Abraham Lincoln

In his youth Lincoln went to war a captain and returned a private. Lincoln didn't stop failing there, however. He started numerous failed businesses and kept running for public office despite numerous defeats until he got it right.

Steven Spielberg

Spielberg was rejected from the University of Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television three times. He eventually attended school at another location, only to drop out to become a director before finishing.

Elvis Presley

Back in 1954, Elvis was still a nobody, and Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after just one performance telling him, “You ain't going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck.”

Michael Jordan

Often lauded as the best basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan was actually cut from his high school basketball team. Luckily, Jordan didn't let this setback stop him from playing the game and he has stated, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Michael Madhusudan Dutt

Michael Madhusudan aspired to be an English poet and  to travel to England to make his name. When his father, concerned by these trends, arranged his marriage, he rebelled and could not make the trip. Later on in his life, Dutt went to England to study law, but the weather and racism made it unbearable. Madhusudan Dutt never got established in legal practice in Kolkata. But despite multiple failed ambitions, Madhusudan Dutt went on to become one of the most popular 19th century Bengali poets and dramatists.