The difference between Amir Khan and Salman Khan Approach

"the pursuit of excellence may be less profitable than the pursuit of bigness but it can be more satisfying"

David Ogilvy

Writing Tips from the Writers themselves.

General Writing Tips

http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/11/17/words-of-wisdom-101-tips-from-the-worlds-most-famous-authors/

Improve any type of writing you do with these solid tips from successful writers themselves.

1. Ernest Hemingway. Use short sentences and short first paragraphs. These rules were two of four given to Hemingway in his early days as a reporter–and words he lived by.
2. Mark Twain. Substitute "damn" every time you want to use the word "very." Twain's thought was that your editor would delete the "damn," and leave the writing as it should be. The short version: eliminate using the word "very."
3. Oscar Wilde. Be unpredictable. Wilde suggested that "consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."
4. Anton Chekhov. Show, don't tell. This advice comes out of most every writing class taught. Chekhov said it most clearly when he said, "Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
5. EB White. Just write. The author of Charlotte's Web, one of the most beloved of children's books, said that "I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all."
6. Samuel Johnson. Keep your writing interesting. "The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new."
7. Ray Bradbury. Learn to take criticism well and discount empty praise, or as Bradbury put it, "to accept rejection and reject acceptance."
8. Toni Morrison. Remember that writing is always about communication. "Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it."
9. George Orwell. Orwell offered twelve solid tips on creating strong writing, including an active voice rather than a passive one and eliminating longer words when shorter ones will work just as well.
10. F. Scott Fitzgerald. "Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke."
11. Anais Nin. "The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say."
12. Truman Capote. Editing is as important as the writing. "I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil."
13. Maurice Sendak. Keep revising. "I never spent less than two years on the text of one of my picture books, even though each of them is approximately 380 words long. Only when the text is finished … do I begin the pictures."

Tips for Beginning Writers

If you are thinking about a career in writing or are just starting to write seriously, then use these tips for great suggestions.

14. Stephen King. "Read a lot and write a lot." Reading and understanding different styles is integral to finding your own style.
15. Margaret Mahy. Be persistent. This popular New Zealand author suggests that being persistent will pay off when facing adversity while writing or trying to get your writing published.
16. John Grisham. Keep your day job. Grisham suggests finding your career outside of writing. Experience life, suffering, and love to be able to write effectively.
17. John Steinbeck. "I’ve always tried out material on my dogs first." Make sure that above all, you are happy with your work…and see if the dogs stay awake.
18. Flannery O'Connor. Sometimes you need to stir the emotions to be heard. "I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial."
19. Isaac Asimov. Use humor effectively." Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments."
20. Lillian Hellman. Trust your instincts. "If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves."
21. Doris Lessing. "I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer."
22. Jessamyn West. "Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary."
23. William Faulkner. "A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others."
24. Margaret Atwood. Don't be afraid of failure. "A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason."
25. Richard Bach. Never stop trying. "A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit."
26. Isabel Allende. Follow your passion, despite the obstacles. "I couldn’t write a novel sitting in a car but I could write short stories. The advantage to this is because with a short story you write fragments. In a couple of weeks you have a story and then you do some more. If you really want to do something you do it in the most awkward circumstances, of course."

Fiction Tips

These tips are specifically for writing fiction, but many are good tips for writing in general.

27. Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut offers eight rules of writing a short story, including tips such as "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water" and "Every sentence must do one of two things–reveal character or advance the action."
28. Roald Dahl. From one of the most magical of storytellers: "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
29. Louis L'Amour. "A plot is nothing but a normal human situation that keeps arising again and again….normal human emotions–envy, ambition, rivalry, love, hate, greed, and so on."
30. John Irving. Know the story. Irving suggests knowing the basic outline of the entire story before you begin writing the first paragraph.
31. Jack Kerouac. Although Kerouac set down 30 tips, the gist of most of them is to know yourself and write for yourself with abandonment.
32. Scott Turow. Drawing from his experience as a trial lawyer, Turow discovered that what makes attorneys successful is what would make him successful as a writer: Tell a good story.
33. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Write about what you know. "If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own."
34. Leo Tolstoy. "Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man's life, must place him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that when it is untied, the whole man is visible."
35. Katherine Anne Porter. "If I didn't know the ending of a story, I wouldn't begin. I always write my last line, my last paragraph, my last page first.
36. Robert Louis Stevenson. "The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean."
37. W. Somerset Maugham. Make your own rules. "There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
38. Vladimir Nabokov. The careful construction of details can make all the difference in your writing. "Caress the detail, the divine detail."
39. EL Doctorow. "Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."

Poetry

Poets can find many helpful tips from writers who have come before them here.

40. Robert Frost. Poetry offers many levels for readers. Capitalize on all you can. "A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom."
41. Salman Rushdie. "A poet`s work is to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep."
42. WH Auden. Anticipate and recognize ideas. "All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but must wait until what he believes to be a good idea for a work comes to him."
43. TS Eliot. Seek life experience. "Any poet, if he is to survive beyond his 25th year, must alter; he must seek new literary influences; he will have different emotions to express."
44. Henry David Thoreau. Understand the power of each word. "A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art."
45. Paul Valery. Keep revising. "A poem is never finished, only abandoned."
46. Percy Bysshe Shelley. Think about the obvious in new ways. "Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar."
47. Plato. Don't just rely on the beauty of the words: make a statement. "Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history."
48. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Remember the importance of each word used in each poem. "I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose = words in their best order; –poetry = the best words in the best order."
49. Robert Graves. Write poetry because you want to, not because you expect to earn a living. "There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money either."

Tips for Creativity

Whether you are facing writer's block or just want to add a little more pizzazz to your work, use these tips to find more creativity.

50. Annie Dillard. "Writing sentences is difficult whatever their subject. It is no less difficult to write sentences in a recipe than sentences in Moby Dick. So you might as well write Moby Dick." No matter what, write.
51. William Wordsworth. Write with passion. Wordsworth advocated, "Fill your paper with with the breathings of your heart."
52. Alice Walker. Walker recommends meditation for writing, as well as life. She credits meditation for helping her write her books.
53. James Patterson. "I’m always pretending that I’m sitting across from somebody. I’m telling them a story, and I don’t want them to get up until it’s finished."
54. John Cheever. Looking inwards and learning from yourself provides great material for writing. "The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and discover one's usefulness."
55. Agatha Christie. Let your mind go while keeping your hands busy. "The best time for planning a book is when you're doing the dishes."
56. Francis Bacon. Always carry something to write on. "A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought are commonly the most valuable and should be secured, they seldom return."
57. Jack London. "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." Sometimes you need to actively seek your sources of inspiration.
58. Maya Angelou. Follow your instincts and do what you feel you must. "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
59. Virginia Woolf. "Arrange whatever pieces come your way." Sometimes you have to recognize what you have and make the best of it.
60. Charles Dickens. Play with your ideas, talk with them, and coax them into a fully-formed creation. "An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself."

School and Education

Find out what famous writers have to say about school and getting an education.

61. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Recognize what students can give to teachers as well as what teachers can impart. "Of course you will insist on modesty in the children, and respect to their teachers, but if the boy stops you in your speech, cries out that you are wrong and sets you right, hug him!"
62. Barbara Kingsolver. "Libraries are the one American institution you shouldn't rip off."
63. Martin Luther King, Jr. Use education to build character. "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically… Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education."
64. Robert M Hutchins. Keep in mind what school provides for the long run. "The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives."
65. Norman Cousins. "The purpose of education is to enable us to develop to the fullest that which is inside us."
66. Nelson Mandela. Use your knowledge to make a difference. "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
67. John Dewey. "Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not a preparation for life but is life itself.
68. BF Skinner. Appreciate knowledge and the rest will come. "We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading."
69. Aristippus. Use your education to cultivate what you already have. "Native ability without education is like a tree without fruit."
70. Robert Frost. Learn to separate emotion from knowledge. "Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence."
71. Charlotte Bronte. Embrace the opportunity to see beyond your known world. "Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among stones."

Lifelong Learning

Learning should go far beyond college, and these writers agree. Find out what they suggest to keep the quest for knowledge alive.

72. Aristotle. Learn to analyze what you are being told. "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
73. Robert Frost. Don't ever stop learning. "Education is hanging around until you've caught on."
74. Albert Einstein. Don't ever stop questioning. "The important thing is not to stop questioning."
75. WB Yeats. Discover what lights your fire. "Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire."
76. CS Lewis. Learn by doing. "Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn."
77. Friedrich Nietzche. Learn the basics first. "He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance, one cannot fly into flying."
78. Socrates. Learning is ultimately your own responsibility. "I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."
79. Aldous Huxley. Don't become complacent. "A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention."
80. Willa Cather. Embrace every opportunity to learn. "There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm."
81. Confucius. Education should be much more than memorizing facts. "Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous."

Success

No matter what career you pursue after college, success is likely a goal. Discover what tips these authors have to share about achieving success in life.

82. Isak Dinesen. "When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself."
83. Margaret Atwood. Speak your mind and stand up for what you believe. "A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together."
84. Malcolm S. Forbes. "Failure is success if we learn from it."
85. Helen Keller. Find the joy in small accomplishments. "I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."
86. Dr. Seuss. Be responsible for your own success. "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go."
87. Kahlil Gibran. Stay the course, even when it feels like you aren't making progress. "One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night."
88. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Believe in yourself. "Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage."
89. Paul Coelho. "Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience."
90. Tennessee Williams. Let success happen in its own time. "Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it… Success is shy – it won't come out while you're watching."

On Living

These last few tips all include good, solid advice on living life to your best potential.

91. Alexander Pope. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Pope is the author of one of the most famous quotes on allowing yourself to make a mistake with his famous, "To err is human, to forgive divine."
92. Benjamin Franklin. "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."
93. JK Rowling. "If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
94. Barbara Kingsolver. "The truth needs so little rehearsal."
95. Maya Angelou. "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
96. Umberto Eco. Sometimes things are just as they seem. "But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth."
97. John Ruskin. "There is no wealth but life."
98. George Bernard Shaw. Appreciate the good and the bad–it is all a part of life. "Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."
99. Arthur Miller. "Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
100. Charles M. Schulz. "Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use."
101. John Burroughs. Realize what is important to you. "I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see."

50 Writers who got rejected repeatedly!

1. Dr. Seuss: Here you'll find a list of all the books that Dr. Seuss' publisher rejected.
2. William Golding: William Golding's Lord of the Flies was rejected 20 times before becoming published.
3. James Joyce: James Joyce's Ulysses was judged obscene and rejected by several publishers.
4. Isaac Asimov: Several of Asimov's stories were rejected, never sold, or eventually lost.
5. John le Carre: John le Carre's first novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, was passed along because le Carre "hasn't got any future."
6. Jasper Fforde: Jasper Fforde racked up 76 rejections before getting The Eyre Affair published.
7. William Saroyan: William Saroyan received an astonishing 7,000 rejection slips before selling his first short story.
8. Jack Kerouac: Some of Kerouac's work was rejected as pornographic.
9. Joseph Heller: Joseph Heller wrote a story as a teenager that was rejected by the New York Daily News.
10. Kenneth Grahame: The Wind in the Willows was not intended to be published, and was rejected in America before appearing in England.
11. James Baldwin: James Baldwin’s Giovanni's Room was called "hopelessly bad."
12. Ursula K. Le Guin: An editor told Ursula K. Le Guin that The Left Hand of Darkness was "endlessly complicated."
13. Pearl S. Buck: Pearl Buck's first novel, East Wind: West Wind received rejections from all but one publisher in New York.
14. Louisa May Alcott: Louisa May Alcott was told to stick to teaching.
15. Isaac Bashevis Singer: Before winning the Nobel Prize, Isaac Bashevis Singer was rejected by publishers.
16. Agatha Christie: Agatha Christie had to wait four years for her first book to be published.
17. Tony Hillerman: Tony Hillerman was told to "get rid of the Indian stuff."
18. Zane Grey: Zane Grey self-published his first book after dozens of rejections.
19. Marcel Proust: Marcel Proust was rejected so much he decided to pay for publication himself.
20. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen: Chicken Soup for the Soul received 134 rejections.
21. William Faulkner: William Faulkner's book, Sanctuary, was called unpublishable.
22. Patrick Dennis: Auntie Mame got 17 rejections.
23. Meg Cabot: The bestselling author of The Princess Diaries keeps a mail bag of rejection letters.
24. Richard Bach: 18 publishers thought a book about a seagull was ridiculous before Jonathan Livingston Seagull was picked up.
25. Beatrix Potter: The Tale of Peter Rabbit had to be published by Potter herself.
26. John Grisham: John Grisham's A Time to Kill was rejected by 16 publishers before finding an agent who eventually rejected him as well.
27. Shannon Hale: Shannon Hale was rejected and revised a number of times before Bloomsbury published The Goose Girl.
28. Richard Hooker: The book that inspired the film and TV show M*A*S*H* was denied by 21 publishers.
29. Jorge Luis Borges: It's a good thing not everyone thought Mr. Borges' work was "utterly untranslatable."
30. Thor Heyerdahl: Several publishers thought Kon-Tiki was not interesting enough.
31. Vladmir Nabokov: Lolita was rejected by 5 publishers in fear of prosecution for obscenity before being published in Paris.
32. Laurence Peter: Laurence Peter had 22 rejections before finding success with The Peter Principles.
33. D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers faced rejection, and D.H. Lawrence didn't take it easily.
34. Richard Doddridge Blackmore: This much-repeated story was turned down 18 times before getting published.
35. Sylvia Plath: Sylvia Plath had several rejected poem titles.
36. Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance faced an amazing 121 rejections before becoming beloved by millions of readers.
37. James Patterson: Patterson was rejected by more than a dozen publishers before an agent he found in a newspaper article sold it.
38. Gertrude Stein: Gertrude Stein submitted poems for 22 years before having one accepted.
39. E.E. Cummings: E.E. Cummings named the 14 publishers who rejected No Thanks in the book itself.
40. Judy Blume: Judy Blum received nothing but rejections for two years and can't look at Highlights without wincing.
41. Irving Stone: Irving Stone's Lust for Life was rejected by 16 different editors.
42. Madeline L'Engle: Madeline L'Engle's masterpiece A Wrinkle in Time faced rejection 26 times before willing the Newberry Medal.
43. Rudyard Kipling: In one rejection letter, Mr. Kipling was told he doesn't know how to use the English language.
44. J.K. Rowling: J.K. Rowling submitted Harry Potter to 12 publishing houses, all of which rejected it.
45. Frank Herbert: Before reaching print, Frank Herbert's Dune was rejected 20 times.
46. Stephen King: Stephen King filed away his first full length novel The Long Walk after it was rejected.
47. Richard Adams: Richard Adams's two daughters encouraged him to publish Watership Down as a book, but 13 publishers didn't agree.
48. Anne Frank: One of the most famous people to live in an attic, Anne Frank's diary had 15 rejections.
49. Margaret Mitchell: Gone With the Wind was faced rejection 38 times.
50. Alex Haley: The Roots author wrote every day for 8 years before finding success.

50 inspirations

Business Gurus

These businessmen and the companies they founded are today known around the world, but as these stories show, their beginnings weren't always smooth.

1. 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.
2. R. H. Macy: Most people are familiar with this large department store chain, but Macy didn't always have it easy. Macy started seven failed business before finally hitting big with his store in New York City.
3. F. W. Woolworth: Some may not know this name today, but Woolworth was once one of the biggest names in department stores in the U.S. Before starting his own business, young Woolworth worked at a dry goods store and was not allowed to wait on customers because his boss said he lacked the sense needed to do so.
4. Soichiro Honda: The billion-dollar business that is Honda began with a series of failures and fortunate turns of luck. Honda was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation for a job after interviewing for a job as an engineer, leaving him jobless for quite some time. He started making scooters of his own at home, and spurred on by his neighbors, finally started his own business.
5. Akio Morita: You may not have heard of Morita but you've undoubtedly heard of his company, Sony. Sony's first product was a rice cooker that unfortunately didn't cook rice so much as burn it, selling less than 100 units. This first setback didn't stop Morita and his partners as they pushed forward to create a multi-billion dollar company.
6. Bill Gates: Gates didn't seem like a shoe-in for success after dropping out of Harvard and starting a failed first business with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen called Traf-O-Data. While this early idea didn't work, Gates' later work did, creating the global empire that is Microsoft.
7. 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.
8. Walt Disney: Today Disney rakes in billions from merchandise, movies and theme parks around the world, but Walt Disney himself 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.

Scientists and Thinkers

These people are often regarded as some of the greatest minds of our century, but they often had to face great obstacles, the ridicule of their peers and the animosity of society.

9. Albert Einstein: Most of us take Einstein's name as synonymous with genius, but he didn't always show such promise. Einstein did not speak until he was four and did not read until he was seven, causing his teachers and parents to think he was mentally handicapped, slow and anti-social. Eventually, he was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. It might have taken him a bit longer, but most people would agree that he caught on pretty well in the end, winning the Nobel Prize and changing the face of modern physics.
10. Charles Darwin: In his early years, Darwin gave up on having a medical career and was often chastised by his father for being lazy and too dreamy. Darwin himself wrote, "I was considered by all my masters and my father, a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect." Perhaps they judged too soon, as Darwin today is well-known for his scientific studies.
11. Robert Goddard: Goddard today is hailed for his research and experimentation with liquid-fueled rockets, but during his lifetime his ideas were often rejected and mocked by his scientific peers who thought they were outrageous and impossible. Today rockets and space travel don't seem far-fetched at all, due largely in part to the work of this scientist who worked against the feelings of the time.
12. Isaac Newton: Newton was undoubtedly a genius when it came to math, but he had some failings early on. He never did particularly well in school and when put in charge of running the family farm, he failed miserably, so poorly in fact that an uncle took charge and sent him off to Cambridge where he finally blossomed into the scholar we know today.
13. Socrates: Despite leaving no written records behind, Socrates is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the Classical era. Because of his new ideas, in his own time he was called "an immoral corrupter of youth" and was sentenced to death. Socrates didn't let this stop him and kept right on, teaching up until he was forced to poison himself.
14. Robert Sternberg: This big name in psychology received a C in his first college introductory psychology class with his teacher telling him that, "there was already a famous Sternberg in psychology and it was obvious there would not be another." Sternberg showed him, however, graduating from Stanford with exceptional distinction in psychology, summa cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa and eventually becoming the President of the American Psychological Association.

Inventors

These inventors changed the face of the modern world, but not without a few failed prototypes along the way.

15. Thomas Edison: In his early years, teachers told Edison he was "too stupid to learn anything." Work was no better, as he was 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.
16. Orville and Wilbur Wright: These brothers battled depression and family illness before starting the bicycle shop that would lead them to experimenting with flight. After numerous attempts at creating flying machines, several years of hard work, and tons of failed prototypes, the brothers finally created a plane that could get airborne and stay there.

Public Figures

From politicians to talk show hosts, these figures had a few failures before they came out on top.

17. Winston Churchill: This Nobel Prize-winning, twice-elected Prime Minster of the United Kingdom wasn't always as well regarded as he is today. Churchill struggled in school and failed the sixth grade. After school he faced many years of political failures, as he was defeated in every election for public office until he finally became the Prime Minister at the ripe old age of 62.
18. Abraham Lincoln: While today he is remembered as one of the greatest leaders of our nation, Lincoln's life wasn't so easy. In his youth he went to war a captain and returned a private (if you're not familiar with military ranks, just know that private is as low as it goes.) Lincoln didn't stop failing there, however. He started numerous failed business and was defeated in numerous runs he made for public office.
19. Oprah Winfrey: Most people know Oprah as one of the most iconic faces on TV as well as one of the richest and most successful women in the world. Oprah faced a hard road to get to that position, however, enduring a rough and often abusive childhood as well as numerous career setbacks including being fired from her job as a television reporter because she was "unfit for tv."
20. Harry S. Truman: This WWI vet, Senator, Vice President and eventual President eventually found success in his life, but not without a few missteps along the way. Truman started a store that sold silk shirts and other clothing–seemingly a success at first–only go bankrupt a few years later.
21. Dick Cheney: This recent Vice President and businessman made his way to the White House but managed to flunk out of Yale University, not once, but twice. Former President George W. Bush joked with Cheney about this fact, stating, "So now we know –if you graduate from Yale, you become president. If you drop out, you get to be vice president."

Hollywood Types

These faces ought to be familiar from the big screen, but these actors, actresses and directors saw their fair share of rejection and failure before they made it big.

22. Jerry Seinfeld: Just about everybody knows who Seinfeld is, but the first time the young comedian walked on stage at a comedy club, he looked out at the audience, froze and was eventually jeered and booed off of the stage. Seinfeld knew he could do it, so he went back the next night, completed his set to laughter and applause, and the rest is history.
23. Fred Astaire: In his first screen test, the testing director of MGM noted that Astaire, "Can't act. Can't sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little." Astaire went on to become an incredibly successful actor, singer and dancer and kept that note in his Beverly Hills home to remind him of where he came from.
24. Sidney Poitier: After his first audition, Poitier was told by the casting director, "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?" Poitier vowed to show him that he could make it, going on to win an Oscar and become one of the most well-regarded actors in the business.
25. Jeanne Moreau: As a young actress just starting out, this French actress was told by a casting director that she was simply not pretty enough to make it in films. He couldn't have been more wrong as Moreau when on to star in nearly 100 films and win numerous awards for her performances.
26. Charlie Chaplin: It's hard to imagine film without the iconic Charlie Chaplin, but his act was initially rejected by Hollywood studio chiefs because they felt it was a little too nonsensical to ever sell.
27. Lucille Ball: During her career, Ball had thirteen Emmy nominations and four wins, also earning the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors. Before starring in I Love Lucy, Ball was widely regarded as a failed actress and a B movie star. Even her drama instructors didn't feel she could make it, telling her to try another profession. She, of course, proved them all wrong.
28. Harrison Ford: In his first film, Ford was told by the movie execs that he simply didn't have what it takes to be a star. Today, with numerous hits under his belt, iconic portrayals of characters like Han Solo and Indiana Jones, and a career that stretches decades, Ford can proudly show that he does, in fact, have what it takes.
29. Marilyn Monroe: While Monroe's star burned out early, she did have a period of great success in her life. Despite a rough upbringing and being told by modeling agents that she should instead consider being a secretary, Monroe became a pin-up, model and actress that still strikes a chord with people today.
30. Oliver Stone: This Oscar-winning filmmaker began his first novel while at Yale, a project that eventually caused him to fail out of school. This would turn out to be a poor decision as the the text was rejected by publishers and was not published until 1998, at which time it was not well-received. After dropping out of school, Stone moved to Vietnam to teach English, later enlisting in the army and fighting in the war, a battle that earning two Purple Hearts and helped him find the inspiration for his later work that often center around war.

Writers and Artists

We've all heard about starving artists and struggling writers, but these stories show that sometimes all that work really does pay off with success in the long run.

31. Vincent Van Gogh: During his lifetime, Van Gogh sold only one painting, and this was to a friend and only for a very small amount of money. While Van Gogh was never a success during his life, he plugged on with painting, sometimes starving to complete his over 800 known works. Today, they bring in hundreds of millions.
32. Emily Dickinson: Recluse and poet Emily Dickinson is a commonly read and loved writer. Yet in her lifetime she was all but ignored, having fewer than a dozen poems published out of her almost 1,800 completed works.
33. Theodor Seuss Giesel: Today nearly every child has read The Cat in the Hat or Green Eggs and Ham, yet 27 different publishers rejected Dr. Seuss's first book To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.
34. Charles Schultz: Schultz's Peanuts comic strip has had enduring fame, yet this cartoonist had every cartoon he submitted rejected by his high school yearbook staff. Even after high school, Schultz didn't have it easy, applying and being rejected for a position working with Walt Disney.
35. Steven Spielberg: While today Spielberg's name is synonymous with big budget, he 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. Thirty-five years after starting his degree, Spielberg returned to school in 2002 to finally complete his work and earn his BA.
36. Stephen King: The first book by this author, the iconic thriller Carrie, received 30 rejections, finally causing King to give up and throw it in the trash. His wife fished it out and encouraged him to resubmit it, and the rest is history, with King now having hundreds of books published the distinction of being one of the best-selling authors of all time.
37. Zane Grey: Incredibly popular in the early 20th century, this adventure book writer began his career as a dentist, something he quickly began to hate. So, he began to write, only to see rejection after rejection for his works, being told eventually that he had no business being a writer and should given up. It took him years, but at 40, Zane finally got his first work published, leaving him with almost 90 books to his name and selling over 50 million copies worldwide.
38. J. K. Rowling: Rowling may be rolling in a lot of Harry Potter dough today, but before she published the series of novels she was nearly penniless, severely depressed, divorced, trying to raise a child on her own while attending school and writing a novel. Rowling went from depending on welfare to survive to being one of the richest women in the world in a span of only five years through her hard work and determination.
39. Monet: Today Monet's work sells for millions of dollars and hangs in some of the most prestigious institutions in the world. Yet during his own time, it was mocked and rejected by the artistic elite, the Paris Salon. Monet kept at his impressionist style, which caught on and in many ways was a starting point for some major changes to art that ushered in the modern era.
40. Jack London: This well-known American author wasn't always such a success. While he would go on to publish popular novels like White Fang and The Call of the Wild, his first story received six hundred rejection slips before finally being accepted.
41. Louisa May Alcott: Most people are familiar with Alcott's most famous work, Little Women. Yet Alcott faced a bit of a battle to get her work out there and was was encouraged to find work as a servant by her family to make ends meet. It was her letters back home during her experience as a nurse in the Civil War that gave her the first big break she needed.

Musicians

While their music is some of the best selling, best loved and most popular around the world today, these musicians show that it takes a whole lot of determination to achieve success.

42. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mozart began composing at the age of five, writing over 600 pieces of music that today are lauded as some of the best ever created. Yet during his lifetime, Mozart didn't have such an easy time, and was often restless, leading to his dismissal from a position as a court musician in Salzberg. He struggled to keep the support of the aristocracy and died with little to his name.
43. Elvis Presley: As one of the best-selling artists of all time, Elvis has become a household name even years after his death. But 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 goin' nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck."
44. Igor Stravinsky: In 1913 when Stravinsky debuted his now famous Rite of Spring, audiences rioted, running the composer out of town. Yet it was this very work that changed the way composers in the 19th century thought about music and cemented his place in musical history.
45. The Beatles: Few people can deny the lasting power of this super group, still popular with listeners around the world today. Yet when they were just starting out, a recording company told them no. The were told "we don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out," two things the rest of the world couldn't have disagreed with more.
46. Ludwig van Beethoven: In his formative years, young Beethoven was incredibly awkward on the violin and was often so busy working on his own compositions that he neglected to practice. Despite his love of composing, his teachers felt he was hopeless at it and would never succeed with the violin or in composing. Beethoven kept plugging along, however, and composed some of the best-loved symphonies of all time–five of them while he was completely deaf.

Athletes

While some athletes rocket to fame, others endure a path fraught with a little more adversity, like those listed here.

47. Michael Jordan: Most people wouldn't believe that a man often lauded as the best basketball player of all time 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."
48. Stan Smith: This tennis player was rejected from even being a lowly ball boy for a Davis Cup tennis match because event organizers felt he was too clumsy and uncoordinated. Smith went on to prove them wrong, showcasing his not-so-clumsy skills by winning Wimbledon, U. S. Open and eight Davis Cups.
49. Babe Ruth: You probably know Babe Ruth because of his home run record (714 during his career), but along with all those home runs came a pretty hefty amount of strikeouts as well (1,330 in all). In fact, for decades he held the record for strikeouts. When asked about this he simply said, "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."
50. Tom Landry: As the coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Landry brought the team two Super Bowl victories, five NFC Championship victories and holds the records for the record for the most career wins. He also has the distinction of having one of the worst first seasons on record (winning no games) and winning five or fewer over the next four seasons.