10 People Who Became Wildly Successful After Facing Rejection

Sujan-patel

Sometimes, you jump out of the gate with a great idea that you can polish and run with. Everything’s going well -- until you get hit with a failure. Failure punches you in the gut, leaving you with throbbing wounds and the inability to do anything but moan about what might have been.

But take heart -- failure isn’t the end, unless you let it be. Failure means you’re on the road so many others have taken to success. Don’t believe me? Here are 10 people who lived through failure before going on to become names known around the world:

1. Milton Hershey

Image credit: Hersheys.com

The man who blessed us with the sweet milk-chocolate treat we all love wasn’t a hit the first time around. Before launching his own candy business, he had worked for a local candy factory. But when he decided to go out on his own, he failed miserably.

Despite two more failures, he returned to the family farm and perfected the art of making delicious milk-chocolate candy, which we enjoy in the form of Hershey chocolate today.

Related: 6 GOP Presidential Candidates Who Are Examples of Overcoming Failure

2. Theodor Giesel

Image credit: WikiCommons

This author struggled to write a novel that publishing companies would call something other than “pure rubbish” several times -- 27 to be exact. The man just wouldn’t quit, though.

One fateful night, he ran into an old friend who had recently taken over as a children’s literature editor. The friend agreed to publish Giesel’s work. Better known today as Dr. Seuss, Giesel was never again called a failure after his first book struck it big.

3. Albert Einstein

Image credit: WikiCommons

Despite being known as a true genius in the present day, this intellectual didn’t have a great start (to say he was running behind is an understatement). As a kid, he didn’t begin to speak a word until he was 4 years old. A few years later, his elementary school teachers considered him lazy because he would ask abstract questions that made no sense to others.

He kept on anyway, eventually formulating the theory of relativity -- something most of us still can’t understand today.

4. Benjamin Franklin

Image credit: WikiCommons

A founding father, the inventor of bifocals and the lightning rod and elementary-school dropout -- it sounds crazy, but this is an accurate description of Franklin.

His family couldn’t afford to finance his education after his 10th birthday, but that didn’t stop him. He read books like crazy and took every opportunity he could to learn. Ironically, Franklin is now found in the history books that 10-year-old kids around the world read every day.

5. Stephen King

Image credit: Stephen King | Facebook

King is a best-selling writer (currently 350 million books sold and climbing) whose work has been made into several motion pictures. However, his first work was rejected 30 times, which lead to King throwing it in the trash. Thankfully, his wife made him keep working at it, and -- from that inauspicious start -- Carrie was born.

6. Oprah Winfrey

Image credit: Oprah Winfrey | Facebook

To many, losing a child is worse than losing a business. Oprah lived through this hellish reality after giving birth at 14. She managed to not only overcome this, but also being repeatedly molested by her cousin, uncle and a family friend. Despite her tragic past, she has worked hard to become a success and amass a net worth of $2.9 billion.

Related: The Best Thing to Do When You Get Knocked Down Flat on Your Face

7. Thomas Edison

Image credit: WikiCommons

Edison may just hold the record for most failed attempts before reaching success on a single project, having failed several thousand times before inventing a functional light bulb. His response has become famous to entrepreneurs: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

8. Michael Jordan

Image credit: Barbara moore | Flickr

As a kid, Jordan loved basketball and knew he wanted to make a career out of it, though no coach would give him a chance because he was short. After using an inside connection to get into a basketball camp from which players for college teams were chosen, Jordan got noticed by a coach -- who still chose not to invite him to the team.

Jordan returned home discouraged, but decided to prove the coach wrong. Now a member of the NBA Hall of Fame, just about everyone would agree he succeeded.

9. Walt Disney

Image credit: WikiCommons

Disney began his career by being fired by a newspaper for not being creative enough. Later, his Mickey Mouse cartoons were rejected because they were deemed to be “too scary for women.” If that wasn’t enough, "The Three Little Pigs" was also turned down because it only had four characters.

Thankfully, we have the Disney company today because Walt chose not to listen to any of his critics and press forward towards his dreams.

10. Kris Carr

Image credit: Kriscarr.com

We all get hit by unforeseen obstacles. For Carr, it was a rare cancer. Carr fought her disease head on with a new nutritional lifestyle, developing a career as a successful author and health coach in the process. Despite facing challenging circumstances from the start, she is now looked to as one the most knowledgeable experts on healthy living online today.

Ultimately, you’re no different than the people in the list above. We will all fail at one point or another. The important thing is to learn how to overcome failure and to keep pushing forward towards your dreams.

How do you overcome failure? Share your favorite tips and recommendations in the comments section below.

Your heart may be ‘older’ than you are

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Three out of four American adults have a heart that’s “older” than their years, raising their risk for heart attack or stroke, federal health officials said Tuesday.

Your “heart age” is based on a risk profile that includes blood pressure, smoking history, diabetes and body mass index.

“Half of US men and nearly half of US women have a heart age that’s five or more years older than their chronological age,” Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a media briefing.

The idea of heart age was created to communicate a person’s risk of dying from heart attack or stroke, and to show how to lower that risk, Frieden said.

Doctors can use risk assessment calculators to aid treatment decisions and encourage patients to adopt healthy habits, he explained.

A 53-year-old woman may learn her heart age is 75. “That’s because she smokes and has uncontrolled high blood pressure,” Frieden said.

Or a 45-year-old man might find out that his heart is 30 years older than he is because he has untreated high blood pressure, smokes and has diabetes.

“For that woman or that man, learning your heart age can be a call to take charge of your health,” Frieden said.

How can you do that?

Maintaining healthy blood pressure, cholesterol levels and body weight, engaging in regular physical activity and not smoking will help turn back the clock, said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Individuals can take proactive steps to reduce their heart age and as a result live longer and healthier lives, free from heart disease and stroke,” Fonarow said.

It’s never too late, Frieden added, noting a 50-year-old smoker who quits can gain 14 years of heart life.

The findings from the new report can also be used to boost heart health among groups at the highest risk of heart attack and stroke, Frieden said.

State and local health departments can help by promoting healthier living spaces, such as tobacco-free areas, more access to healthy food options, and safe places to walk, he said.

For the Vital Signs report, CDC researchers used risk factor data from every state and information from the Framingham Heart Study. Key findings include:

The average adult man has a heart age eight years older than his chronological age. The average woman’s heart is five years older.

On average, heart age exceeds chronological age in all racial/ethnic groups. It’s highest among blacks (average of 11 years older for men and women).

Among men and women, excess heart age decreases with increased education and increased income.

Heart age differs across states, with Southerners having the oldest hearts. Mississippi, West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana and Alabama have the largest percentage of adults with a heart age five years or more over their actual age. Utah, Colorado, California, Hawaii and Massachusetts have the lowest percentage.

“Heart disease and stroke remain leading causes of death, disability and health care expenditures for men and women in the United States,” said Fonarow. “However, the majority of fatal and nonfatal heart attacks and strokes are preventable.”

New York Times Service

20 Quotes From Steve Jobs To Help You Get What You Want At Work

PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS BY CASEY IMAFIDON

It is hard to deny the brilliance of Steve Jobs. Not only did he pioneer Apple to become a revolutionary company, but also to be the most valued brand of its time. Steve Jobs thrived on many different philosophies to make him as successful as he was. If we can tap into his mindset and explore these thoughts, the inspiration may trigger positive action towards becoming the best definition of ourselves in our careers. To help you get inspired, here are some of his quotes.

1. “I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

2. “We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”

3. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

4. “My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.”

5.“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

6. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

7. “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

8. “Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

9. “That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.”

10. “We’re just enthusiastic about what we do.”

11. “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

12. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.”

13. “My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.”

14. “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

15. “When you’re doing something for yourself, or your best friend or family, you’re not going to cheese out. If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much.”

16. “I was worth about over a million dollars when I was 23 and over ten million dollars when I was 24, and over a hundred million dollars when I was 25 and… it wasn’t that important — because I never did it for the money.”

17. “I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”

18. “Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”

19. “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

20. “Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.”

Featured photo credit: OiMax via flickr.com

5 habits that helped turn ordinary people into self-made millionaires

• Thomas C. Corley, Credit.com

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Flickr/BenOrdinary people can earn their fortunes — with the right habits.

Of all of your daily activities, 40% of them are habits, according to the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. This means 40% of the time you're on auto-pilot, every day.

Habits save the brain work and conserve brain fuel. There is very little processing power involved with respect to habits.

So what does that have to do with being rich? I studied 177 self-made millionaires and uncovered certain unique good habits that made it possible for them to automatically process success on a daily basis.

Here are five of the top habits of self-made millionaires that helped them accumulate an average of $7.4 million in 12 years.

1. They set good goals vs. bad goals.

You hardly ever hear anyone talk about goals in a negative context. Goals are almost always perceived to be good. But there are goals that add no real value to your life when achieved yet consume valuable resources. So how do you know when a goal is good or bad?

Good goals create long-term benefits and long-term happiness when achieved. They allow you to grow as an individual and alter your behavior in a positive way. Good goals get you from point A to point B. Point B being a better place, such as more wealth, a better job, higher income, better school system for your kids, etc.

An example of a good goal would be to lose 20 pounds. Setting a weight-loss goal often involves a daily regimen of exercise, healthy eating and encourages a healthy lifestyle. Good health results from exercising and eating right. It may also motivate you to moderate your consumption of alcohol or to quit smoking. When the weight eventually comes off you enjoy the compliments, feel healthier and all of this creates lasting happiness.

Bad goals create short-term happiness and no long-term benefits when achieved. An example of a bad goal might be to own a Ferrari, particularly if it is not within your means. In that case, in order to own a Ferrari, you must make more money. Making more money will likely involve either more work or taking excessive financial risk (for example, taking out a loan you may not be able to afford — or, say, gambling, if that's your tendency).

There's a cost-benefit to working more — you invest time that you will never recoup. Don't misunderstand me here. Working more to make more money can be a good thing. But where the goal goes south is when you then use that money to buy stuff, like a Ferrari, that is financially out of your reach and perhaps not a necessity.

The happiness you derive from owning more or better stuff fades over time, since happiness derived from buying stuff is typically short-term. You will eventually revert back to your genetic happiness baseline and, after a few weeks, the Ferrari will no longer create lasting happiness. The lost time with the family, however, can never be recouped.

If the goal, instead, was to judiciously invest that extra money you earned into a calculated risk, such as a side business, an investment or a vacation home that would enable you to spend more time with your family, then it may shifts the "work more/earn more" goal into a good goal.

Ideally, achieving a goal will create long-term benefits: a stronger business, more time with the family, more personal growth, financial independence, improved health, etc.

Flickr / Katrine ThielkeThey don't waste time.

2. They avoid time-wasters.

Sixty-seven percent of wealthy people watch less than an hour of TV a day and 63% spend less than an hour a day on the Internet, unless it is job-related. They spend their free time instead engaged in self-improvement, networking, volunteering, working side jobs or side businesses, or pursuing some goal or dream that will lead to financial rewards down the road.

Matthew Eisman / Stringer / Getty ImagesWealthy people dream big.

3. They dream-set before they goal-set.

You must Dream-Set before you Goal-Set. Dream-Setting provides you with the destination; Goal-Setting is the transportation to get you to your destination. Dreams represent a vision of some future, ideal state or reality. Dreams are the springboard for goals. You can't achieve goals that are actually dreams in disguise.

Most who set goals, mistake a dream for a goal, and that is why most fail to achieve their goals. For example, making an additional $100,000 a year is a dream, not a goal. Becoming an Olympic athlete is a dream, not a goal. Owning a house on the beach is a dream, not a goal (unless you have the money already).

Dream-Setting is the act of clearly defining a dream. It's a two-step process:

1. Ask yourself what you want your ideal life to be 10, 15 or 20 years out. Then write down every detail of your ideal future life. Be very specific in the details: the income you earn, the house you live in, the boat you own, the car you drive, the money you've accumulated, etc.
2. Using this detailed description of your ideal future life, make a bullet-point list of each one of the details that represent your ideal life. These would be the income you earn, the house you live in, the boat your own, etc. These details represent your wishes or dreams.

Goal-Setting requires you to build goals around each one of your wishes or dreams. In order to build goals around each wish or dream you need to ask yourself two questions:

1. What would I need to do, what activities would I need to engage in, in order for each wish or dream to come true?
2. Can I perform those activities?

If the answer to Question #2 is yes, then those activities represent your goals. Goals are only goals when they involve physical action and you have the capability to successfully take action.

Let's summarize this Dream-Setting / Goal-Setting process:

1. Paint a picture with words of your ideal life.
2. Define each wish or dream that must be realized in order to have your ideal future life.
3. Establish specific goals around each one of your wishes or dreams.
4. Take action. Pursue and achieve each of the specific goals that will make each wish or dream come true.

You then repeat this process for every other wish or dream. When you realize each one of your wishes or dreams, your ideal future life will then become your actual real life.

Jeff J Mitchell / Getty ImagesWealthy people don't quit on their dreams.

4. They never quit on a dream.

Self-made millionaires are persistent. They never quit on their dream. They would rather go down with the ship than quit. Twenty-seven percent of the self-made millionaires in my study failed at least once in business. And then they picked themselves up and went on to try again. They persisted. Persistence requires doing certain things every day that move you forward in achieving your goals or life dream. Persistence makes you unstoppable. No obstacle, mistake or momentary failure can stop you from moving forward if you keep at it.

These millionaires learned to pivot and change course, growing in the process. Persistence allowed them to learn what didn't work and continuously experiment, until they found what did work. Persistence is the single greatest contributor to manifesting good luck. Those who persist, eventually get lucky. Some unintended consequence emerges, something unexpected and unanticipated happens to those who persist.

Sometimes, those closest to you will urge you on and encourage you. But more often, those closest to you, those directly impacted by the obstacles, mistakes and failures that are part of the success journey, will try to stop you from persisting. It takes superhuman effort to continue to pursue success when there are so many forces fighting you. That's what makes successful people so special and also, so rare. If you want to be successful in life, you must persist in the face of unrelenting adversity. 

Charlie Crowhurst / Stringer / Getty ImagesRich people don't pull all their eggs in one basket.

5. They create multiple streams of income.

Self-made millionaires do not rely on one singular source of income. They develop multiple streams. Three seemed to be the magic number in my study. Sixty-five percent had three or more streams of income that they created over time. Diversifying your sources of income allows you to weather the economic downturns that always occur in life.

If you put "one pole in one pond," when that single income stream is negatively impacted in some way, you can suffer financially. Conversely, having "several poles in several ponds" allows you to draw income from other sources when one source is temporarily impaired.

Some of the additional streams might include: real estate rentals (each rental unit = a stream of income), REITs (each one = a stream of income), tenants-in-common real estate investments (each one = a stream of income), triple net leases, stock market investments, annuities (each one = a stream of income), seasonal real estate rentals (beach rentals, ski rentals, lakefront rentals), private equity investments, part ownership in a side businesses (each one = a stream of income), financing investments, ancillary products or services and royalties (patents, books, oil, timber, etc.).

Remember, this study followed ordinary people who built their wealth over a period of time. So it takes work, determination and establishing the habits that will help get you there. These are only a few examples of the many good habits that support wealth-building, but they're a good place to start.

Here are the major differences between successful and unsuccessful people

Jacquelyn Smith

Last year, Dave Kerpen, author and chief executive of Likeable Local, received a postcard that illustrated the traits and behaviors of successful and unsuccessful people.  

The card came from fellow Entrepreneurs Organization member Andy Bailey, the chief executive of Petra Coach. Although the two CEOs have never met, Kerpen said in a 2014 LinkedIn post that the postcard has had a profound effect on him, "reinforcing values I believe in and reminding me on a daily basis of the attitudes and habits that I know I need to embrace in order to become successful."

The postcard, shown below, points out 16 big differences between successful and unsuccessful people. 

Courtesy of Dave Kerpen

Here are six of our favorites:

1. Successful people embrace change. Unsuccessful people fear it. "Embracing change is one of the hardest things a person can do," Kerpen says. With the world moving fast and technology accelerating at a rapid speed, it’s imperative that we embrace these changes and adapt, rather than fear them, deny then, or hide from them, he says. Successful people are able to do just that. 

2. Successful people talk about ideas. Unsuccessful people talk about people. Instead of gossiping about people — which gets you nowhere — successful people discuss ideas. "Sharing ideas with others will only make them better," Kerpen says.

3. Successful people accept responsibility for their failures. Unsuccessful people blame others. Truly successful leaders and businesspeople experience both ups and downs in their lives and careers. But they always accept responsibility for their failures. Kerpen says blaming others solves nothing. "It just puts other people down and absolutely no good comes from it." 

4. Successful people give others all the credit for their victories. Unsuccessful people take all the credit from others. Letting people have their moments to shine motivates them to work harder, and, consequently, makes you look better as a leader or teammate. 

5. Successful people want others to succeed. Unsuccessful people secretly hope others fail. "When you’re in an organization with a group of people, in order to be successful, you all have to be successful," Kerpen explains. That’s why the most successful people don’t wish for their demise; they want to see their co-workers succeed and grow. 

6. Successful people continuously learn. Unsuccessful people fly by the seat of their pants. The only way to grow as a person, professional, and leader is to never stop learning. "You can be a step above your competition and become more flexible because you know more," Kerpen writes. "If you just fly by the seat of your pants, you could be passing up opportunities that prevent you from learning (and growing!)."

Other major differences: Successful people exude joy, share data and information, and read every day, while unsuccessful people exude anger, hoard data and information, and watch TV every day

9 ways too much stress screws up your life

Shana Lebowitz

Most experts agree: There are benefits to stress. For one, it makes you more focused and alert. And it signals that something you care about is at stake.

But it's possible to have too much of a good thing. When stress becomes unmanageable, it can wreak havoc on everything from your diet to your relationships.

We rounded up nine science-backed ways that both short- and long-term stress affect your daily behavior.

Read on to find out why you may act less rationally, ethically, and friendly when you're overwhelmed.

1. You may end up making bad decisions.

Research suggests that it's best to avoid making important choices when you're feeling stressed. That's because you tend to overemphasize the potential positive outcomes of your decision, while underemphasizing the negative. 

For example, if you're under pressure to decide whether to take a job offer, you might focus on the company perks and forget about the long commute. 

2. You may act irritable.

You're likely already aware that you're less exciting to be around when you're stressed out. 

Blame it on your neurobiological activity: Scientists recently discovered that chronic stress triggers an enzyme to attack a certain molecule in the brain, and the result is decreased sociability (at least in rodents). 

3. You may have a harder time achieving your goals.

In one experiment, scientists found that stress hormones inhibit activity in the areas of the brain involving goal-directed behavior — but not in areas of the brain involved in habitual behavior.

In other words, when you're under stress, you're likely to fall back into old patterns instead of changing your behavior to achieve specific goals. So if you're in a stressful situation while trying to lose weight, you may find yourself snacking on cookies as usual instead of grapes.

ShutterstockStress can increase the likelihood of unethical behavior.

4. You may be more likely to behave unethically.

Beware the impulse to cheat on a high-stakes exam.

A recent study found that people with high levels of the hormones testosterone and cortisol were more likely to cheat on a math test. (Cortisol generally increases when you're stressed.)

Moreover, the study also found that people who cheated exhibited decreased cortisol levels, meaning cheating may have been a way to relieve some of their stress symptoms. 

5. You may be willing to work harder for a reward, even though you don't necessarily like it more.

Another recent study helps explain why you might raid every cabinet in search of a chocolate bar when you're feeling frazzled. According to the research, stress makes us want rewards more than usual — even though the pleasure we experience from getting those rewards isn't any greater. 

The study authors say these findings help explain why stress is an important determinant of relapses in addiction, gambling, and binge eating.

6. You may take greater risks.

Research on adolescents suggests that socially anxious individuals are more likely to take risks when they experience stress. 

One potential explanation why is that people who are highly anxious and under stress focus on regulating their response to the stressor and don't have sufficient cognitive resources to inhibit their risky behavior. 

At the same time, another study found that men in general are more likely to take risks when under stress, while women become more conservative. 

FlickrWhen you're stressed, it may be harder to put down the junk food.

7. You may have a harder time resisting junk food.

New research findings help illuminate why we so often turn to candy and "comfort foods" when we're feeling stressed. According to the study, stress affects the part of the brain that communicates sensory information (like taste) as well as the part involved in self-control.

In other words, unhealthful food may appear even more delicious, and it may be even harder to stick to your weight-loss or weight-maintenance goal.

8. You may be less inclined to exercise.

A growing body of research suggests that stress inhibits physical activity (although some studies have found that stress increases physical activity among people who are already avid exercisers). 

Researchers say that's possibly because stress may make the unpleasant sensations associated with exercise even more salient. 

9. You may be more forgetful.

If you've ever felt scatterbrained and about to cry during an extended stressful period, recent research could explain why.

A study on rats finds that chronic stress rewires parts of their brains so that they're more emotional and more forgetful.