Or, as M4 contributor Mitch Miller says…

Wanna make a million bucks?

Here’s some shocking proof: It doesn’t matter how many times you failed, you only have to be right once…

Walt Disney was fired by an editor because, “he lacked imagination and had no original ideas.”

His first animation company went bankrupt and it’s said that he was turned down hundreds of times when he sought financing for Disney World.

The Walt Disney company makes average revenue of U.S. $30 billion annually.

Henry Ford‘s first two car companies failed.

Larry King was 352,000 in debt before he got his job at CNN.

The following dudes have been bankrupt BEFORE becoming successful:

Milton Hershey (Hershey)
Hj Heinz (Heinz)
Bob Guccione (Penthouse magazine)
William C Durant (General Motors/Chevy)
Stan Lee (Marvel Comics)
PT Barnum (Barnum & Bailey’s Circus)

Akio Morita’s first product was a rice cooker, but it burned the rice. Eventually he created Sony.

Rowland Hussey Macy‘s first 4 retail stores failed. Then he built Macy’s…

J.K. Rowling was an unemployed and divorced single parent living on welfare when she came up with the idea for Harry Potter.

She wrote most of the Harry Potter book in cafés, as she had to keep walking around to get her daughter, Jessica sleep in her pushchair. In spite of that sacrificial effort, her book was rejected the first time by 12 publishers. But Rowling was unrelenting and Harry Potter went on to become a global success, selling over 400 million copies.

The film adaptations hold the record as the highest grossing films series in history; and J.K. Rowling is now worth an estimated $1 billion.

Foot Locker: Before starting the Woolworth Company (now Foot Locker), Frank Woolworth worked at a dry goods store. His boss did not allow him to wait on customers because Woolworth “didn’t have enough common sense to serve the customers.”

The Woolworth Company was one of the original five-and-ten-cent stores, which is the model Sam Walton used to start Walmart.

Woolworth’s eventually became one of the largest retail chains in the world…

Fedex: While studying at Yale University, Fred Smith presented a business idea to his business management class that received a nearly failing grade.

The idea was for a parcel service that could deliver packages overnight.

Smith ignored the grade and founded FedEx.

Will Smith: In 1985, Will teamed up with DJ Jazzy Jeff, and their first album “He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper” went multi-platinum in 1989.

Smith became a millionaire almost overnight, and went on a spending spree. However, he was then given a $2.8 million (£2.1 million) bill by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and had to hand over practically everything he owned to pay off some of the debt.

Luckly, Smith landed the role as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air about a year later, and managed to pay off the remainder, with the IRS charging him 70% on everything he earned. After three years, he was in the clear

Lady Gaga: During her 2009 Monsters Ball tour, Lady Gaga was technically bankrupt. She had $3 million (£2.3 million) dollars to her name, and she threw it all into making the stage.

“I remember I went home and I was with my dad and he said, ‘I don’t understand. Bad Romance is out. You are all over the radio. Everyone is talking about you and you don’t have a pot to p*ss in,'” she told The Mirror. “I said, ‘Just let me do this. Let me just put it on the stage because I think if I can do this I can get Arthur Fogel’s attention.’ And I did.”

After the show, Fogel and Live Nation wrote Gaga a $40 million (£30.6 million) cheque.

You only need to be right once, and they are wrong about you…

The real secret is it’s not about who you are or who you are not, it’s about what you don’t give up on.

Don’t give up on yourself too early, keep this post nearby when you feel defeated, and make your fucking dreams happen.