“Sylvester Stallone as well. Casting agents told him he was too stupid looking and he’d only get small roles as the thug who got beaten up. He said he literally went to every casting agent in NYC and got rejected by all of them.”

“Even after he wrote Rocky and found producers, they didn’t want him to star in it.”

– YounomsayinMawfk

“Jennifer Hudson lost American Idol and became more successful than the winner.”

– Stashdragon

“She is a recent EGOT winner and the youngest woman to do it. 7th Place looks fantastic on her.”

– jdmccoy

“The guy who invented Ring cameras went on Shark Tank and was rejected by everyone. They all thought it would fail….we’ll you know the rest.”

– Ruzzthabus

“He went back on Shark Tank after that, but this time as one of the sharks.”

– 1Land_1Keep

“Ron McNair had the police called on him when he was little because he was black and reading in a library. He grew up to be an astronaut and the library he was kicked out of was later named after him.”

– sperdush

“For those who may not be familiar with his name; he was one of the Challenger crew members on January 28, 1986.”

– This-Marsupial-6187

“When Lady GaGa was in college, some of her classmates had a Facebook group called ‘Stefani Germanotta, you’ll never be famous.'”

“Pretty sure she proved them wrong.”

– NotHisRealName

“Erin French, chef-owner of restaurant The Lost Kitchen in rural Maine.”

“Co-owned a restaurant in the town of Belfast with her husband; a very tumultuous relationship ended with him changing the locks on the building with all of her equipment inside.”

“She licked her wounds, leased space in an old mill building in her tiny hometown of Freedom, and built from the ground one of the best restaurants in the country, with a coveted reservation that is fabled for its difficulty to get a table. Has her own multi-season documentary on TV and is absolutely killing it in the culinary world now.”

– Girhinomofe

“George Lucas got the ownership of the toy rights to star wars because they don’t think it would be successful. He made an absolute killing on those.”

– Birds-aint-real-

“Not just the toy rights, he got the entire IP in exchange for waiving is salary.”

– xdert

“Italian industrialist, builder of tractors, made a mint out of it and rewarded himself with a new Ferrari.”

“Ferrari broke down. Needed a new clutch. Wealthy industrialist waited patiently for his new clutch to arrive, and after many weeks it finally showed up – same clutch he was putting in his tractors, more than twice the price.”

“A little bit annoyed at this, he rang Ferrari to complain. They told him ‘go back to building tractors, leave supercars to us.'”

“And Lamborghini was born…”

– RaffiaWorkBase

“Sony and Nintendo were working on a console together before the N64 came out, intending to utilize Nintendo’s gaming hardware combined with Sony’s sound tech to create games with more immersive sound capabilities than have been seen before. Partway through development and immediately following Sony’s announcement of their partnership, Nintendo backed out of the deal, which if you’re not aware of Japanese business etiquette, is kind of a d*ck move.”

“Nintendo backed out to work with Philips to put Nintendo games on the CDi, which resulted in the worst-received Nintendo games of all time.”

“Sony, out of spite, went on to make the PlayStation, one of the best-selling consoles in gaming history, and cement themselves as a massive player in the console wars to this day.”

– Critical-String8774

“Blockbuster laughed baby Netflix out of the room with their idea. Then later, grown-up Netflix killed blockbuster.”

– ChurroForSure-o

“Best thing for Netflix, really. Blockbuster would have driven themselves and the Netflix rent model out of business through mismanagement.”

“I don’t know about you, but I can’t live in a world without Voltron: Legendary Defender.”

– Tobias_Atwood

“Brendan Fraser getting the Oscar this year after being black listed from Hollywood for over a decade for speaking out about being sexually assaulted.” – Physical-Ant-1036

“There was a multi-millionaire, like $100s of millions-aire, from where I am from that applied for membership at a country club was turned away because of some random rich country club rule. Anyway a few years later the country club was wanting to expand its golf course and was going to buy up the neighboring properties. This guy decided to go ahead and outbid the country club and buy up the properties himself. He turned into your generic McMansion suburbia, but still. That’s the sort of passive-aggressive fuck you money I one day hope to have.” – slytherinprolly

“In the 1960s, Ford wanted to buy Ferrari. Just before they closed the deal, Ferrari slammed the door on them and let themselves be bought by Fiat. Ford, then, designed an entirely new supercar, beat Ferrari at the 24 Hours of LeMans from 1966-1969, and Ferrari hasn’t won that race since against any other car manufacturer.

And for the icing on the cake, 50 years later, Ford entered again after not competing since the 70s, and won again.” – Project_T00THL355

“David Tepper, after being passed on for partner multiple times at Goldman Sachs, decided to go work for himself. A few decades later he bought his ex boss’s house (Jon Corzine) in the Hamptons for $43 million! He then proceeded to demolish the thing and put up an even more expensive mansion.” – LettuceEfficient43

“I worked as CFO for a private company, and after 5 years of poor ownership and family-meddling I was let go with no notice or severance, while they owed me tens of thousands of dollars in back-pay, expenses, revenue share etc. I was on the verge of bankruptcy. I won my lawsuit and have a judgement against him and his company which I know I will never collect on.

7 years later I started my own company in the same competitive space. Following his most recent divorce he’s about 2.7 million in debt. My company was just valued at 100 million as we move into our 4th year.” – HighQ403

“Post Malone becoming absurdly famous for writing songs about a girl that left him.” – Lazerspewpew

“My teachers, I had several that said I would never do anything, that my learning disability was to massive of a hindrance. Im graduating from grad school.in August. With a specialty in helping special Ed kids.” – hotsizzler

“My mom. She, like the rest of her family, were all dirt poor. For them, it was traditional that they wouldn’t go to college and would instead focus on finding a decent at best job as quickly as possible while also getting married and starting families young.

My mom was different. She decided instead to go to college and while she did drink on occasion, she stayed clear of the drugs that had ruined so many of her cousins lives. She told me that her entire family looked down on her and said that she was wasting her time. Well now she is currently the only one who owns a house and has a stable, well paying career. My generation of cousins saw her success and are now following in her footsteps.” – reddit

“When I was 13 my uncle called me an ungrateful little Bi*** and said I will amount to nothing, be a little sl*t and proceeded to push me against a door that had a nail sticking out which stuck into my back. Many years later, I completed college, worked my way to a government career, bought a home, didn’t fall into the trap of having several kids and being on welfare like most of my family. He literally pushed me into success.” – RoundKaleidoscope244

“Harlan Ellison sent every writing award he received to one of his old professors that said he’d never be successful.” – DD-Form-214

“Guy in my class in middle school was always sleeping from staying up late playing Halo 2. He was really good, like travel to tournaments and win them on weekends good. The teacher said “enjoy your video games now because you’ll be flipping burgers for life”.

He bought himself and his parents houses at 19 from youtube/streaming money.” – acnickel

“My gf cheated on me, so I dumped her and found a hotter one with a better job.” – ForestCityWRX

“I used to be a forensic scientist until I had to leave because of an abusive boss. I changed careers and now I make more money than he does and I am valued by my new boss and team.” – PirateJohn75

“Sports commentators criticized Lamar Jackson for holding on the Ravens and said that he’d never be able to get a deal done without an agent. As of a few hours ago, he signed a new contract worth $260 million. He’s now the highest paid player in NFL history.” – Intelligent-Mess-145

“My ex was going to divorce me after I retired to try and get a percentage of my retirement pay. Evidently this had been a plan for a while. Her best friend sent me screenshots of her plan and I used it for my divorce. She got nothing, I’m happily married to my best friend, financially stable, with all the free time I could want.” – PanoptiDon

“Julie Andrews was very popular as Eliza Doolittle in the stage version of My Fair Lady. However, when the film version was being developed, the head of Warner Bros. Studios, Jack Warner, decided that she wasn’t well-known enough. They wanted a big-name star in the role, so Audrey Hepburn was cast instead, despite needing her singing to be dubbed over.

With the role no longer available, Andrews was instead took on the role of the titular character in Mary Poppins. The film was a huge critical and commercial success, and earned Andrews both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for her performance as the magical nanny.

In her Golden Globe acceptance speech, Andrews referenced her snub for My Fair Lady, saying: “My thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr. Jack Warner.” – reddit

“I went to a Christian college, not necessarily by choice, but whatever. Sex is a big no-no.

I got involved with a girl I shouldn’t have gotten mixed up with, wanted to end it, she told me she was pregnant and forged enough evidence to truly convince me. Turns out she wasn’t, but, whatever.

Out of stress and anxiety, I told my roommate about it. He blabbed about it too his girlfriend, who then reported me to some school counsel that ended up expelling me for “sexual immorality”, JFC.

I thought my life was over. Ha. Far from it.

I hustled my ass off, finished school online (eventually), got an awesome job, hit 6 figures pretty quickly, met my wife, had a kid, bought a home, and I’m doing better than ever.

Last time I heard, he was a struggling shift manager at a Domino’s store near the school we went to. Married that snitch of a wife too but I guess that’s punishment enough for the rest of his life.

He reached out to me for some career advice a few years ago, and I just gave him some interview tips and wished him well.

Good riddance.” – Rpark888

“In 1950, newly commissioned US Army 2nd Lt. Arthur J. Gregg was forbidden to step foot inside the whites-only officer’s club at Fort Lee. Seventy-three years later, the facility bears his name. During a short, informal ceremony April 19 of this year, retired Lt. Gen. Gregg helped to unveil the revamped marquee that now welcomes visitors to the Gregg-Adams Club.

Oh, and Fort Lee, originally named for Confederate General Robert E. Lee, was also just renamed Fort Gregg-Adams.” – dubbletime

“J.K. Rowling was rejected over and over. Eventually she got signed and made like a billion dollars. All those who passed on her missed a great opportunity.” – Brundleflyftw