Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.”
As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4-years-old and did not read until he was 7. His parents thought he was “sub-normal,” and one of his teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams.”
He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.
He did eventually learn to speak and read. Even to do a little math.
Winston Churchill failed sixth grade.
He was subsequently defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister at the age of 62.
He later wrote, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never -in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never give up.’’
Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies and ranked 15th out of 22 students in chemistry.
Henry Ford could not read nor write, failed and went broke five times in business before he succeeded.