The Early Career Failures of the Most Successful Billionaires

There aren’t many certainties in life, but one thing you can be sure on is that failure will be a major stepping stone on the road to success. In fact, the road to success will almost never be smooth and freshly paved. It is through our failures that we learn what doesn’t work, and how to improve and grow. Even some of the most successful Billionaires throughout the world have hit a road block or two on their way to the top.

Of course, our first reaction to failure is a feeling of disappointment. But failure shouldn’t be used as a reason to stop pursuing your goal. After all, who would have thought that Bill Gates — one of the founder father’s of modern computing — first business and tech venture would be a failure? Or that Jack Ma, who struggled with school and rejection, would eventually co-found one of the largest multi-national commerce, retail, Internet, AI and technology conglomerate.

Failure is about picking ourselves up and pushing forward, learning what doesn’t work and how to overcome those challenges that we face. Now that will be easier said than done, but once we realize that failure happens to even the best of us, it will be much easier to take in stride. At the end of the day, any good success story will feature failures, especially those early on in your ventures.

To help encourage those just getting started, or in the midst of pursuing their dreams, we collected a list of the early failures of some of the biggest billionaires on the planet.