CHAPTER 1
BELIEVE IN YOU
“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.
I have lost almost 300 games.
On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot,
and I missed.
I have failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.”
~Michael Jordan
Former NBA Player and Owner of the Charlotte Hornets
MICHAEL JORDAN WAS CUT FROM his high school basketball team. He went on to win six NBA Championships.
Tennis player Stan Smith was denied an opportunity to be a lowly ball boy for a Davis Cup tennis match because organizers felt he was too clumsy and uncoordinated. Smith went on to win the Wimbledon, U.S. Open, and eight Davis Cups.
TV icon Oprah Winfrey was fired from her job as a television reporter because she was considered “unfit for TV.”
Tyler Perry was abused by his father as a child and lived on the streets of Atlanta with no money as a young adult. He is now one of the most successful entertainers on stage, TV, and movies.
Movie executives told actor Harrison Ford, who reached iconic status playingIndiana Jones, that he did not have what it takes to be a star when acting in his first film.
Famed director Steven Spielberg was rejected from the University of Southern California School of Theater, Film, and Television three times before making it big in the movie industry.
One of the best-selling artists of all time, Elvis Presley, was fired after one performance and told by the manager of a famous concert hall, “You ain’t going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck.”
Author Stephen King’s first book, the classic thrillerCarrie, received 30 rejections, finally causing King to throw the manuscript in the trash. He quickly got over his frustration, and he didn’t give up. To date, his 54 published novels have sold more than 350 million copies, many of which have been adapted into feature films, miniseries, television shows, and comic books.
American writer and philosopher Robert Pirsig was rejected 121 times before finally finding a publisher for
