There are many compilations but I found these examples in distractify.com. These are cases of rejection that should make us think twice about giving up in adversity. Some are better known that others:
Walt Disney was fired from a paper because he ‘lacked imagination and had no good ideas’.
JK Rowling suffered dozens of rejections, including Harper Collins, before somebody considered publishing Harry Potter.
Oprah Winfey was fired as an evening news reporter because she mixed too many emotions in her stories.
George Orwell was told ‘It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA’. So they did not publish Animal Farm.
Elvis Presley was told by a manager that he was better off sticking to his previous job of driving trucks in Memphis.
Steve Jobs was fired form Apple. He was asked to go back, of course!
Stephen King ‘s wife saved a manuscript of Carrie, which had been rejected thirty times and was in his trash.
Marilyn Monroe was told she should consider becoming a secretary instead of modelling.
Abraham Lincoln, I quote here the entire sentence: ‘Demoted from Captain to Private during war, failed as a businessman, and lost several times as a political candidate before becoming President’.
Madonna was also rejected, Andy Warhol was rejected by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, U2 was rejected by a record company, Sylvia Plath was requested to cut half of ‘Amnesiac’ by The New Yorker, and more…
I’ve you’ve been rejected because of your imagination, rest assured, you are in good company!
And the company is indeed stimulating. In “Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life”, Barnaby Conrad and Monte Schulz, son of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz ask 30 famous authors and entertainers to respond to a favorite Snoopy comic strip with a 500-word essay on the triumphs and tribulations of the writing life. Here — via @brainpicker from Maria Popova – is an extract from Ray Bradbury’s contribution. “Starting when I was fifteen I began to send short stories to magazines like Esquire, and they, very promptly, sent them back two days before they got them! I have several walls in several rooms of my house covered with the snowstorm of rejections, but they didn’t realize what a strong person I was”. Rejection can’t keep real passion from flowing. Morag