9 Inspiring Stories Of People Who Proved Success Is The Best Revenge

Whatever you do in life people are going to judge, but the successful are the ones who don’t pay heed to others’ judgments and negative opinions. There are times when we lack motivation after being let down more than once. Some people might not accept us, like us, and belittle us which can affect our mental health. But whatever the situation, to succeed in our lives we need to stand tall and focus on our goal by holding our heads high.

Our future depends entirely upon us and we need to face our tough times, hang in there and come out stronger. History proves that you can achieve your desired goals even after being rejected multiple times.

Here we bring you some of the most inspiring stories that will give you the moral boost and courage to carry forward with your dreams.

Take a look at their influential stories that will change your perspective of life:

1. Arunabh Kumar – Got rejected by MTV India

Remember the popular Yogi from the TVF Pitchers? He started his own venture and gained lakhs of YouTube subscribers. He became popular by the name The Qtiyapa Guy. He is the former CEO of TVF. The first web series of The Viral Fever (TVF), Permanent Roommates was a huge success and there was no looking back for him.

But did you know that Arunabh was dissatisfied with the content in the Indian Television industry? So he expressed his idea of producing content-rich shows by working with the youth-oriented channel – MTV India. But MTV rejected his idea. According to reports he revealed,

”When MTV rejected the idea, I think that was the best rejection of my life. Youth channels told me Indian youth doesn’t want to watch this. I wanted to prove them wrong. Had they accepted, the idea would have ended up in some maximum 10 to 15 episodes.”

2. Walt Disney – A Newspaper company fired him because he lacked creativity

He expressed his interest in art and photography at the young age of 7. He used to sell his drawings to his neighbors, then he went on to study at McKinley High School in Chicago. After his education, he started working in Kansas City Star newspaper. The newspaper apparently fired him because he lacked creativity.

He started his own ventures after that but they didn’t last long which led to bankruptcy. After numerous trials and failures, his brilliant animation skills gained recognition and he was hired by Motion Pictures in 1928. This is when the iconic Mickey Mouse was born.

Walt Disney holds a record of winning the most Academy Awards. He won 26 Academy Awards (Oscars)

Later, he went on to take his sweet revenge by buying the newspaper company that fired him, and the parent company of the newspaper, ABC.

3. Michael Jordan – His high school basketball team rejected him

A well-known American professional basketball player who won the Most Valuable Player Award 5 times. There are rumors that the ace basketball player was rejected by his high school basketball team. Though according to the reports by Forbes, this incident is not true and it was apparently made up to inspire other athletes.

Whatever the case, we are happy that it was not a setback in Michael Jordan’s life and the talented man shined through the sport.

4. Sania Mirza – Bellittled because of her clothes and marriage to a Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik

The famous Indian Tennis player who had to face the wrath of the public for wearing tennis clothes. Her clothes were termed by the Muslim community as ‘un-Islamic’ and ‘corrupting’ because the player happens to be Muslim.

She was also targeted for speaking at a conference about ‘safe sex’, people said that she is a bad influence on the Indian youth. When she got married to the Pakistani cricketer, Shoaib Malik, being an Indian, she was called a traitor. She even received death threats for this. But none of this could demoralize her.

Sania became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam in Women’s Doubles at Wimbledon in the year 2015. She was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in the same year.

5. Steve Jobs – Fired from his own company

Who doesn’t know Steve Jobs? But the success wasn’t easy for him either. After he recruited Pepsi executive John Sculley to direct Apple. Sculley convinced the board to fire Jobs in 1985.

Steve Jobs didn’t sit silently, after being fired, he built a company called NeXT, which was acquired in 1997 by Apple for $400 million. After this Steve Jobs gained control of the company again and the rest is history.

In the year 2005, while giving a Stanford Commencement Speech he said,

“I didn’t see it then, but 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.”

6. Steven Spielberg – University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts rejected him 3 times

If you have watched Jurassic Park, you have definitely heard of the mastermind Steven Spielberg. He is also famous for his movies like Jaws, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler’s list, and Indiana Jones. He is a reputed screenwriter, director, and producer.

You will find this shocking that the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts rejected him thrice. The Admissions Officer thought his C-level grade average was too low. He made his way into the film industry by directing Jaws, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and the Indiana Jones series by seeking education from elsewhere.

Spielberg has a net worth of billions due to his production company Dreamworks.

The school that rejected him, USC, later invited him after his success to accept an honorary degree. Reports suggest that Spielberg added one condition to the agreement, he said he would only accept the invitation if the person who had rejected him, signed the degree himself.

7. J.K Rowling – Got fired from a company, had to work through a failed marriage and a dependent child

Joanne Kathleen Rowling’s Harry Potter was a huge success, but before Harry Potter, she worked as a secretary at Amnesty International. Reports suggest that her dreaming got her fired while she was laying the foundation of Harry Potter in her mind. She was married during that time.

She got divorced after some years and after graduating from her university, with a failed marriage and a dependent child to take care of, Rowling witnessed herself as a failure. But her failure allowed her to focus on writing and the rest is history.

She was named the Most Influential Woman in Britain after the success of Harry Potter, and also ranked 48th on the list of the most powerful celebrities of 2007 by Forbes.

8. Brian Acton – Rejected from Facebook, and Twitter, and founded Whatsapp

Acton co-founded the widely used social messenger, Whatsapp along with Jan Koum. They worked together at Yahoo for 9 years but in 2007, both left Yahoo and took a year off. Both of them applied to Facebook and failed, and Brian was denied a job at both Twitter and Facebook.

Later, Facebook acquired Whatsapp for $19 billion in the year 2014 which was its biggest acquisition ever. Brian must have felt proud after that.

9. Ratan Tata’s revenge on Ford

When Ratan Tata approached Ford to offer a deal to sell Tata’s motor division, he was denied and got a humiliating response from Ford officials in the year 1999. He decided to seek help from Ford, who showed interest. After the 3-hour-long meeting, Ford executives said that even if they buy their passenger car division they would be doing a huge favor to Tata.

Ratan Tata was asked,

“You do not know anything, why did you start the passenger car division at all?”

According to reports, Ratan Tata left the room after the disgraceful remark. In 2008, nine years after this encounter, Ford had to let go of their iconic Jaguar and Land-Rover brands for $2.3 billion as the company was struggling with bankruptcy.

Any idea who came to the rescue? Ratan Tata. Ford chairman Bill Ford thanked Ratan Tata by saying

“You are doing us a big favor by buying JLR.”

So, now you know the journey to success is not easy and even the most successful people on this earth had to face numerous failures and disappointments but the one thing that is common among all is that they never gave up on their dreams. Some of them even got their revenge.