The Great “Failures” Who Changed the World

The Great “Failures” Who Changed the World

1. Thomas Edison was kicked out of school after just four months. His teacher told his mother he was “mentally slow.”
2. Charles Darwin’s father scolded him for daydreaming, saying, “You care about nothing but your silly ideas!”
3. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper job because his editor thought he “lacked imagination.”
4. Ludwig van Beethoven’s teacher declared him hopeless and without talent.
5. Albert Einstein didn’t speak until the age of four. One of his teachers even called him mentally challenged.
6. Auguste Rodin’s father, talking about the future sculptor, once said: “My son is an idiot.” Rodin failed his art school entrance exam three times.
7. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—one of history’s greatest composers—was told by Emperor Joseph II that his opera The Marriage of Figaro had “too many notes.”
8. Dmitri Mendeleev, the father of the periodic table, got a C in chemistry.
9. Henry Ford is remembered as the father of the automobile industry. But before building the Ford empire, he barely knew how to read and write, and declared bankruptcy multiple times before finally finding success.
10. Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of the radio, was considered insane when he told friends he could send voices across the air. His family even had him examined by a psychiatrist. But within months, his invention saved the lives of shipwrecked sailors.