9 Successful Musicians And Athletes Who Failed at First
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.
1. 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.
2. 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 going nowhere, son. You ought to go
back to driving a truck.”
3. 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.
4. 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. They 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.”
7. 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.
8. 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.”
9. 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.
