The BIGG Successs Show
Famous People Who Succeeded by Not Listening
We share 5 examples of famous people whose success came after disappointment and add two of our own stories. Find a written summary of today's show at BIGGSUCCESS.COM.
Welcome to the Big Success Show. Today, we'll talk about famous people who succeeded by not listening. The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. There's a great page on Emory University's site called "They Did Not Give Up" and it talks about famous people, the things that were said to them, situations they faced, how they overcame adversity and went against the opinion of others. Dr. Seuss, we all know Dr. Seuss. Green eggs and ham. There you go. There you go. I am, I am. Yeah. Wait, that's Neil Diamond. Oh, I'm sorry. That's I am, I said. Yeah, that's right. But in a way, Dr. Seuss, his first book was rejected by 27 publishers. Man, I probably would have stopped at 26. You think? I don't know. That's a lot, isn't it? Well, Sigmund Freud was booed from the podium when he first presented his ideas to the scientific community of Europe. He returned to his office and kept on writing. Wow, see, I don't know. It'd be pretty tough when I'd have to think twice. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because, quote, "He lacked imagination and had no good ideas." Now, that one's funny. That's amazing. Now, he also declared bankruptcy several times before he built Disneyland and the first time he proposed Disneyland, it was rejected. Well, and speaking of Walt Disney, see, now, there was Walt Disney getting turned down. Right. Walt Disney turned down a guy named Charles Schultz. Really? Yes, along with Linus and Snoopy and Lucy and Charlie Brown. And the thing is, you know, sort of par for the course, every cartoon that he submitted to his high school yearbook staff was rejected. Geez. Yeah, so there's how Charles Schultz got started. They were a bunch of blockheads. [laughter] Here's another one. After his first audition, Sidney Portier was told by the casting director, quote, "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?" Unfortunately, he didn't do that. That is just harsh. It is. And it was at that moment, recalls Portier, that he decided to devote his life to acting. Now, that's amazing. Well, and sometimes it doesn't pay to listen to people. And I remember my very first business was at Ben Franklin's store. And I mean, I was 23 years old. And this was in your hometown. This is in my hometown. And there were no stores like this in our hometown at that time. They'd all closed. And so we were trying to get open for back to school because people needed school supplies. Right. Well, my direct link within Ben Franklin, his boss, came in. And he told us there was no way in the world we could be opened by mid-August so that we could be ready for back to school. Well, guess what we did? We put the hammer down. We hired extra people. We got the job done. We opened August the 15th. I'll still remember that. Our store was flooded with people. It was a huge success, local media there. It was fantastic. And I got to say, I told you so. I guess you showed them. Good job. Coming up, how failure sometimes helps us find success. Today, we're talking about famous people who succeeded by not listening. And Marilyn, you have an example, actually, of how sometimes not succeeding actually helps you succeed. That's right. I'm not famous yet, but I think this is a good example. Are you in famous? Yes. Working on that. Yeah. But when I was in high school, I wanted to be on the basketball team. And so I tried out and I made it past the first round of cuts and I made it past the second round of cuts. I think this looks good. Right. I know. And so then it was time to see if I made the team and they had the names listed on the wall. My name wasn't on it. I remember just standing there and I kept looking and looking and looking, like for some reason I thought it would suddenly appear. Right. And I was really disappointed. Okay. Very disappointed, but I was also involved in music. And so after I got over the fact that I wasn't going to be on the team, I started focusing my energy and efforts in my music. And as a result, I mean, I went to tons of competitions, I won lots of awards, I won a scholarship. Awesome. And so that failure to make the basketball team was actually a blessing because it led me to music where I was able to succeed bigger than I probably would have been able to in basketball. Well, it's a funny thing, I think, because so many times in life, that disappointment, you know, when the storm clouds are the darkest, the rainbow is just around the corner. Right. It can be a bad thing turned upside down. You can find a written summary of today's show on our site at Big Success. That's big with 2gsuccess.com. We also have a link to the site where you can read more stories about famous people who would not give up. Next time, we'll talk about opportunities that every sale presents. Until then, here's to your big success. Go to Big Success. Big Success. Big Success. Big Success. Big Success.