3 entrepreneurs who never gave up

When you set out to start a business, people will tell you that the things you need most include start-up capital, industry knowledge and lots of contacts. However, when you look at the annals of history, and the challenges that various entrepreneurs have faced on the road to success, it is evident that the most important thing for a new business owner to have is tenacity. As the following case studies remind us, success does not always happen overnight but is the reward for those who refuse to give up.

Rejected by publishers before founding The Huffington Post

HuffPost, formerly known as The Huffington Post, is a well-loved news aggregator and blog, covering content from around the world. The brand is a household name, and its existence is testament to the tenacity shown by Arianna Huffington. At the time when she became one of the founders of The Huffington Post, her second book had been rejected by 36 publishers. 

Instead of licking her wounds, Huffington kept going, and her story is living proof that success doesn't come easily or consistently. In Huffington's words, failure is not the opposite of success. "It was just a bridge that would take you to success," she explains. "Perseverance is everything." Not only did her news empire become a huge success, but Huffington is now the author of at least 15 books. Her books cover a wide variety of topics, including redefining success.

Success, like all good art, takes time

Today, Walt Disney is one of the most ubiquitous names in children's fiction and movies. Once upon a time, however, he was just an unhappy boy who signed up for military service earlier than he should to get away from his father. He had always had a passion for art, and soon after returning home from war, brothers Walt and Roy Disney launched their own cartoon business, Laugh-O-Gram studios. After just a couple of years, the business went under, marking Disney's first professional failure. 

Rather than wallowing in this failure, Disney got back to work - albeit in a different field. He left for Los Angeles to become an actor but unfortunately failed at that too. He convinced Roy to move to LA and give their business another try. Soon after, Disney's luck began to change, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit became the first successful character that he created. Luck, however, took another U-turn when his producer used some underhanded business tactics to rob the Disney brothers of all rights to Oswald. After travelling to New York to attempt to renegotiate his contract, Walt Disney decided to take a train back to California. It was on this train ride that he had the idea for Mickey Mouse, and the rest is history.

Delivering success despite being told you will fail

In 2021, there's scarcely a large-scale business on the planet that hasn't made use of FedEx or a similar service. The FedEx story begins when founder Fred Smith was a student at Yale University, and wrote a paper detailing an idea for an overnight delivery service. His professor considered the idea infeasible, giving him a "C" for his efforts. 

A few years after graduation, Smith decided to prove his professor wrong, and Federal Express was founded in 1971. After just over two years in operation, Smith had racked up $29 million in losses. Smith refused to accept failure - or that his professor had been right - and by 1976, the company was bringing in some $75 million in revenue. Fast forward 44 years to 2020 and with Fedex's annual revenue sitting at $17.4 billion, it would seem that, thanks to Smith's hard work and tenacity, his professor is the one deserving of a "C" - or worse.

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