7 Successful People Who Have Failed - The Muse

7 Successful People Who Have Failed - The Muse7 Successful People Who Have FailedIts easy to feel like your failures are bigger and mora permanent than everyone elses failures. I would know. As a high school senior, I was rejected by 10 of the 13 colleges Id applied to- and as I looked around at all my friends, who were heading off to schools like Cornell and Columbia and Yale, I couldnt help but feel like the least impressive, least intelligent, least promising person ever.There was a lot of crying and wallowing. But after a couple months, I forced myself to move on so I could focus on enjoying my college experience and getting started on establishing my career.Two years later, more than 800 of my articles have been published in places like Forbes, Business Insider, Inc., USA TODAY College, and The Daily Muse, and Ive already gotten a couple job offers for when I graduate next June.My point is that failure isnt permanent. Even if youre at a low point right now, that doesnt say anyth ing about your talent or potential. To prove it, Ive rounded up seven stories of super successful people who experienced and overcame failure. 1. Steven SpielbergJaws, Jurassic Park, E.T., Saving Private Ryan- I think its safe to say Spielberg has had lots of hits. Nonetheless, he was rejected from the University of Southern Californias School of Cinema Arts- twice.While he couldve held a grudge, Spielberg instead lent his support to the school, donating money and buildings. He was awarded an honorary degree in 1994 and appointed a trustee in 96.2. Anna WintourWintour is 28 on Forbes Most 100 Powerful Women, but her early career wasnt so promising. After only nine months as a fashion editor for Harpers Bazaar, Winter was fired for not understanding the American market. She moved to Viva, which folded a couple years later. Finally, after a few more stints at various publications, Wintour became editor-in-chief of Vogue.I think everyone should get fired once, she said. Which means tha t if youve ever been let go, dont worry that it will negatively impact your career- instead, think of how it just might help.3. Evan SpiegelSnapchats co-founder is the worlds youngest billionaire. Yet, just five years ago, as an undergraduate at Stanford, Spiegels life hardly seemed momentous. His girlfriend had broken up with him, his fraternity chapter had been kicked off campus, and the only user of his first company was his mom.I really had nothing going on, he later said. Just goes to show that persistence can go a long way- even when it feels like nothing is going right.4. Arianna HuffingtonHuffingtons second book was rejected by 36 publishers. And when she ran for California governor in 2003, she received just 0.55% of the vote. Its pretty clear now that Huffington learned from her failures. In a 2010 interview with SUCCESS magazine, she said raising campaign funds showed her the power of the Internet.The incredible success of The Huffington Post is proof of that. Oh, and she s now published 13 books. 5. Craig NewmarkNewmark, who founded Craigslist, had a potentially career-ruining moment while working at IBM in Detroit. He lost his temper in front of customers and created an instant perception of not playing well with others.After moving to Charles Schwab and eventually taking on direct reports, those direct reports said he wasnt a good manager. He decided to move down to customer service representative.By that point, Id internalized the big lesson that the only way I learned and moved ahead was the right kind of trauma, he said.His ability to recognize his weaknesses and learn from his mistakes is pretty admirable (and explains his later success). 6. Conan OBrienOnly a couple months after OBrien became host of The Tonight Show, NBC announced it was giving the position back to Jay Leno. OBrien cried when he told his staff the berichterstattung and said he had no idea what he was doing next.After a lot of time hanging out at his house, he decided to go o n a nationwide comedy tour. I went through some stuff. And I got very depressed at times. It was like a marriage breaking up suddenly, violently, quickly. And I was just trying to figure out what happened. When we started putting this tour together, I started to feel better almost immediately. And then there is almost no better antidote to what Ive just been through than to do this every night, he told CBS.The tour was super popular, and less than one year later, OBrien became the host of Conan on TBS.7. Brian Chesky and Joe GebbiaAirbnb is currently valued at $25.5 billion. But its co-founders probably never wouldve predicted their future success back in 2008. Despite launching multiple times (including at SXSW and the Democratic National Convention), the Airbnb site wasnt getting any traction. Chesky and Gebbia were surviving on cereal- and racking up tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt.Yet refusing to give up paid off roughly a year later, they were accepted into the prestigious startup incubator Y Combinator, which helped get them to where they are today.Whats your failure story? How did you recover? Tell me on TwitterPhoto of Anna Wintour courtesy of Debby Wong/Shutterstock.