Persistence

After Fred Astaire’s first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, said, “Can’t act! Slightly bald! Can dance a little!” Astaire kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home. An expert said of Vince Lombardi, “He possesses minimal football knowledge. Lacks moti...vation.” Beethoven’s teacher called him a hopeless composer. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. Walt Disney also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was too stupid to learn anything. Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn’t read until he was seven. His teacher described him as “mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams.” He was expelled and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded. Babe Ruth, considered by sports historians to be the greatest athlete of all time and famous for setting the home run record, also holds the record for strikeouts. Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He did not become Prime Minister of England until he was 62, and then only after a lifetime of defeats and setbacks. His greatest contributions came when he was a “senior citizen.” Richard Hooker worked for seven years on his humorous war novel, M*A*S*H, only to have it rejected by 21 publishers before Morrow decided to publish it. It became a runaway bestseller, spawning a blockbuster movie and highly successful television series. –Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hansen  

“To get over rejection, you have to realize that rejection is really a myth. It doesn’t really exist. It is simply a concept that you hold in your head. Think about it. If you ask Patty to have dinner with you and she says no, you didn’t have anyone to eat dinner with before you asked her, and you don’t have anyone to eat dinner with after you asked her. The situation didn’t get worse; it stayed the same. It only gets worse if you go inside and tell yourself something extra like “See, Mother was right. No one will ever like me. I am the slug of the universe!”

If you apply to Harvard for graduate school and you don’t get in, you weren’t in Harvard before you applied, and you are not in Harvard after you applied. Again, your life didn’t get worse; it stayed the same. You haven’t really lost anything. And think about this – you have spent your whole life not going to Harvard; you know how to handle that. The truth is, you never have anything to lose by asking, and because there is something to possibly gain, by all means ask.” –Jack Canfield