8 people who turned career disaster into success - Yahoo! UK & Ireland Finance

8 people who turned career disaster into success - Yahoo! UK & Ireland Finance


Investopedia staff, 12:27, Tuesday 14 June 2011


It may be a cliché, but how you respond to failure has a great impact on your overall success. These eight prominent people suffered major career setbacks, but the reason you've even heard of them is because they dusted themselves off and got back in the game.

1. James Dyson
James Dyson's bag-less vacuum cleaners made him famous. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, his net worth in 2011 is said to be £1.45 billion, and he certainly doesn't need to do his own hoovering.

But it hasn't all been plain sailing for Dyson. In fact, Dyson designed his new-fangled vacuum way back in 1978. After four and a half years and more than 5,000 prototypes, the Dyson vacuum was born. But what you might not know is that no manufacturers or distributors would buy or launch the product in the United Kingdom. Dyson was short of money and getting further into debt.

However, Dyson's determination spurred him on, and after failing to sell his invention to the major manufacturers, he set up his own manufacturing company.

Today, Dyson outsells many of the companies who rejected his idea and his invention has become one of the UK's most popular brands.

2. John Caudwell

Mobile phone entrepreneur John Caudwell came from humble beginnings in Stoke on Trent, but his mobile phone emporiums are certainly a far cry from his first job sweeping a pottery floor in the midlands.

It was in 1987, while working as a used-car salesman, that he noticed the first of the new mobile phones. The phones were the size of bricks and set you back a staggering £1,500, but Caudwell saw a market.

He bought 26 mobiles at £1,350 each from Motorola, and spent the next eight months flogging them for £2,500 to the likes of plumbers, taxi drivers and television repairmen.

Although there wasn't yet a big market for cell phones, Caudwell knew he was in a crucial business. He believed he had backed the right horse, and his bet paid off: These days The Caudwell Group employs 8,500 staff, turns over £2 billion and sells 26 mobile phones a minute.

3. Phillip Green

Sir Phillip Green's £4.1 billion fortune is a far cry from the 'half crowns' he earned working as a teenager in his mum's shops in Croydon in the 1960s.

Green faced adversity early on in life - his father died of a heart attack when Green was only 12. The death of his father left him the head of the family business in shoe retail, so he set out to learn the ropes. Soon, what he didn't know about shoes wasn't worth knowing.

In 1979, Green heard tell of 10 designer gear outlets going out of business. He took a risk, and bought up the entire stock for extremely low prices. He sent the clothes to the dry cleaners, then hung and wrapped them in polythene. He sold them at a huge markup.

In 1988, Green was forced out of his role as a manager of discount clothing stores by shareholders who weren't satisfied by the falling profit levels; in 1999, he launched a takeover bid against Marks and Spencer, which was staunchly blocked by shareholders.

But Green refused to be deterred, and continued down the path of becoming a billionaire with a huge stake in high street fashion. Since then he has overturned the fate of Bhs and the entire Arcadia Group — sending profits on a gentle upward annual trajectory.

4. JK Rowling

Inventing the magical mystery world of Harry Potter has made JK Rowling phenomenally wealthy, but the lifestyle she now enjoys is a world away from the one she inhabited when she dreamt up the character.

Living off welfare payments in "grotty and depressing" government housing, Rowling developed Harry Potter's world as a means of escape.

A Scottish Arts Council grant helped her to pay for a typewriter, which she used to write the manuscript that would eventually become a global hit. But not before it was rejected by 12 publishing houses. Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book in 1997 — and the rest is history. The Harry Potter series has sold more than 400 million copies worldwide, making Rowling the first author to make it onto the Forbes billionaires' list.

5. Richard Branson

Branson was born to a decent family in Blackheath, London, but he didn't do well in school. It wasn't just a challenge for him, it was a nightmare. His dyslexia meant his true talents went unnoticed.

When Branson saw an opportunity to set up a discount record-mail order business, he seized it, and with his magazine experience, made it such a success that he was able to open several record stores.

In 1972, he launched his own music label, Virgin Records; in 1984, Virgin Atlantic Airways was formed, followed by Virgin Mobile in 1999.

Today, the Virgin Group encompasses more than 400 companies, and Richard Branson is the fifth richest person in the United Kingdom, with an estimated net worth of approximately £2.58 billion.

6. Alan Sugar

Sir Alan Sugar is well known for his rags to riches tale. Brought up on a council estate in Hackney, he is now worth an estimated £770 million.

His entrepreneurial bent started young. Before even his teen years he had a number of "enterprises" on the go: A milk and paper round, shifts at the baker's and greengrocer's, selling his home-brewed ginger beer to the neighbours and factory discards to the rag-and-bone man.

His first business was selling car aerials from the back of a van he'd bought with savings for £100. At 21, he founded Amstrad and by 1970 his first manufacturing project was in full swing.

Sugar attributes his success to "hard graft".

7. Simon Cowell

TV's Mr Nasty is one of the most recognisable faces in the UK — and one of the richest — but having dropped out of school at 16, how did he have the drive and determination to go on to become one of the world's most influential figures?

Cowell's first job in show-business was perhaps not the glamorous start we might expect, working as a runner on the set of The Shining and reportedly polishing the infamous axe used by Jack Nicholson in the famous horror movie! But he did not get along well with colleagues and bosses, and eventually his father who was helpfully an executive at the recording giant EMI Music Publishing, managed to get him a job in the mail room.

After tiring of shuffling envelopes, his first move of any real note came when he helped form E&S Music in the early 1980s. Despite offices in a converted gents' loo in a Soho car park, it was responsible for a number of hit records, and was Cowell's first big break.

In 1989 Cowell's record label Fanfare went under and he lost everything. Cowell had to start over with nothing. He owed over £300,000 in loans which took three or four years to re-pay.

But Cowell has since worked his way back to the top of the entertainment industry and is estimated to have a fortune of £200 million, making him the sixth richest person in the British music industry.


8. Will Smith

Will Smith, who started out as a goofy rapper and sitcom star, is now arguably one of the most famous names in Hollywood. From his beginnings with Jazzy Jeff and his years as the Fresh Prince, he has now transitioned to a major Hollywood name - and even his kids are in on the act.

But in the early days, Smith almost lost it all before it began, as he freely spent money and underpaid his income taxes. The Internal Revenue Service eventually assessed a $2.8 million tax debt against Smith and took many of his possessions. In 1990 Smith was nearly bankrupt when the NBC television network signed him to a contract and built a sitcom, 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air', around him.

This was a turning point for Smith, and the start of a successful acting career. His careful study and drive paid off, and today he is the only actor in history to have had eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office.

The road to success

The road to success is rarely a smooth one. But what many self-made millionaires have in common is a desire to succeed and the tenacity to plough on when the world has knocked them down.

Even if you don't dream of extreme wealth, determination, confidence, and perseverance can go a long way in life, even if you're starting from the very bottom.

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