1. Woody Allen
Failed motion picture production at NYU and City College of NY. Oh and also failed English at NYU. Before winning Oscars for directing, producing and writing.
2. Thomas Carlyle
Loaned The French Revolution manuscript to a friend whose servant used it for kindling. Carlyle went home and re-wrote the whole thing.
3. M*A*S*H
Richard Hooker received 21 rejections for this novel before it was published, became a bestseller, a huge movie success and a massively popular TV series.
4. Star Wars
Yoda et al were rejected by every Studio in Hollywood. Eventually 20th Century Fox relented and the film became one of the highest grossing movies evah.
5. E.T., Forrest Gump, Home Alone, Speed and Pulp Fiction
All were passed on by major studios. All are now iconic pieces of popular culture.
[Source: Adapted from Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul (2000) by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Bud Gardner]
The lesson from the lessons:
It’s only failure if you stop there.
More Quick Tricks
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