“Never give up.” It’s probably one of the most cliché phrases you’ll hear as you’re building your career. But there’s a reason this saying is common—you never know when success is around the corner.
Believing that is easier to say than do, so here is a collection of the following stories of icons who definitely never gave up, including J.K. Rowling and Stephen King, for starters. These folks are now household names, but they didn’t become one easily. Read on and gain inspiration!
J.K. Rowling
After getting a divorce, being on government aid, and barely affording to feed her baby in 1994, it is safe to say that J.K. Rowling has been through a lot. This all occurring just three years before the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, was published. When she was shopping it out, she was so poor she couldn’t afford a computer or even the cost of photocopying the 90,000-word novel, so she manually typed out each version to send to publishers. After dozens of rejections, finally, Bloomsbury, a small London publisher, gave it a second chance after the CEO’s eight-year-old daughter fell in love with it.
Stephen King
King was broke and struggling while writing his first novel Carrie. He lived in a trailer with his wife—also a writer—and they both worked multiple jobs. They did this to support their family while pursuing their craft. The couple was so poor that they were borrowing clothes for their wedding. They even had to get rid of the telephone because it was too expensive.
King received so many rejection letters for his works that he developed a system for collecting them. In the end, he never gave up. In his book On Writing, he recalls: “By the time I was 14…the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a railroad spike and kept on writing.” He received 60 rejections before selling his first short story, “The Glass Floor,” for $35. Even his now best-selling book, Carrie, wasn’t a hit at first. After dozens of rejections, he finally sold it for a meager advance to Doubleday Publishing, where the hardback sold only 13,000 copies—not great. Soon after, though, Signet Books signed on for the paperback rights for $400,000, $200,000 of which went to King. The beginning of his success achieved!
Tyler Perry
Perry had a rough childhood but he did not give up. This included: enduring physical and sexual abuse growing up, his high school kicking him out, and attempting to commit suicide twice. At the ages being once as a preteen and again at 22. At 23 he moved to Atlanta and took up odd jobs as he started working on his stage career.
In 1992 he wrote, produced, and starred in his first theater production, I Know I’ve Been Changed, somewhat informed by his difficult upbringing. Perry put all his savings into the show and it failed miserably; the run lasted just one weekend and only 30 people came to watch. He kept up with the production, working more odd jobs and often sleeping in his car to get by. Six years later, Perry finally broke through when, on its seventh run, the show became a success. He’s since gone on to having an extremely successful career as a director, writer, and actor. In fact, Perry was named Forbes’ highest-paid man in entertainment in 2011.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah’s dealt with a lot throughout her public life—criticism about her weight, racism, intrusive questions about her sexuality, just to name a few; however, she never let it get in the way of her ambition and drive. When looking at her childhood, her personal triumphs cast in an even more remarkable light.
Growing up, Oprah was reportedly a victim of sexual abuse and was repeatedly molested by her cousin, an uncle, and a family friend. Later, she became pregnant and gave birth to a child at age 14, who passed away just two weeks later. But Oprah persevered, going on to finish high school as an honors student. She earned a full scholarship to college and working her way up through the ranks of television. Then from a local network anchor in Nashville to an international superstar. Finally, she became the creator of her OWN network (we couldn’t help ourselves.)
Jim Carrey
At 14 years old, Carrey was dealing with his father losing his job. This led his family to hit rough times. They even had to move into a VW van on a relative’s lawn. At age 10 he was dedicating all his time to his craft. He then mailed his resume to The Carroll Burnett Show just a few years earlier. The young aspiring comedian took an eight-hours-per-day factory job after school to help make ends meet.
At age 15, Carrey performed his comedy routine onstage for the first time—in a suit his mom made him—and totally bombed, but he was undeterred. The next year, at 16, he quit school to focus on comedy full time. He moved to LA shortly after, where he would park on Mulholland Drive every night and visualize his success. One of these nights he wrote himself a check for $10,000,000 for “Acting Services Rendered,” which he dated for Thanksgiving 1995. Just before that date, he hit his payday with Dumb and Dumber. He put the deteriorated check, which he’d kept in his wallet the whole time, in his father’s casket.
Remember, never give up.
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