Every leader has struggled, each in their own way, to get to where they are. So, here are just some examples of famous people who overcame adversity and rose to fame anyway.

1. Amazing Examples of Successful
People Overcoming Adversity
By David Kiger
Image courtesy of Róbert
Kiss
at Flickr.com

2. Everyone talks about famous historical and modern day
inventors, scientists, creators and actors and their success
stories. But the reality is that to get to where they are today,
they have had to overcome be it personal or professional
adversities. Most would argue that they are actually great
because of the things that they have been able to
overcome and bounce back from. You could read more
about the most inspirational leaders in history on the David
Kiger SlideShare page, and see for yourself that almost
every leader has struggled, each in their own way, to get to
where they are. So, here are just some examples of
famous people who overcame adversity and rose to fame
anyway.

3. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United
States of America. Commonly known as FDR, he was president
from 1933 to 1945, and in those years became one of the most
memorable presidents of the country. His political career was not
sidetracked due to the fact he was left paralyzed after being
diagnosed with polio in 1921. He was vacationing in Canada and
fell ill, which unfortunately left him permanently paralyzed from
the waist down. Even though he stayed off the path of politics for
a few years, he decided to start a resort at Warm Springs, which
was founded to help polio patients with hydrotherapy. It actually
still operates today. He tried in previous years to continuing with
his political career to convince people he had improved and
trained himself to stand or even walk a little. He later on became
the Governor of New York and then president. He had the harsh
task to overcome World War II and make some hard decisions in
his fight with Japan.

4. Van Gogh is a clear example of someone who despite only
selling one painting in his lifetime, painted over 2100
pieces. He is definitely proof that if you truly believe in
yourself, sometimes it goes beyond external validation.
Vincent Van Gogh born in 1853, passed away in 1890 at 37
years. He unfortunately went through years of poverty and
mental illness, but continued painting until he decided to
take his own life. Some say his art was too much for him to
handle, but after his suicide his paintings began to get the
recognition they deserved.

5. Stephen King is one of the most famous and recognized
contemporary suspense and horror authors of our time.
Although most may not know that King had a rocky start, he
didn’t initially sell thousands of copies, in fact his first
manuscript didn’t even get in the door of many publishers.
He was actually rejected by more than 30 publishers. King
literally got to the point of throwing out his manuscript in the
garbage, but his wife helped him with a boost and took it
out of the trash and convinced to give it one more go. The
book that got him his first four million copies in paperback
was Carrie in 1974.

6. Jim Carrey, the famous comedian, made it big. But before
he did, he went through a lot of personal issues that built
his character. When he was 15, he saw himself in the need
to support his family and dropped out of school to do it. It
even got to the point of them living in a van, but Carrey was
convinced that he could make it as a comedian and after
fighting for his dreams, and going to comedy clubs in
Toronto, he finally made it. He is now recognized as one of
the biggest comedic sensations of our time.

7. Bill Gates is yet another example of a truly successful
person who was faced with certain business decisions and
made the wrong call initially. Even though, Gates’ net worth
is approximately $78.3 billion, his initial business ventures
were not that successful. His first company, Traf-O-Data,
was dedicated to reading and processing information from
traffic tapes. It failed miserably to the point that when they
tried to sell it, it wouldn’t even work. Despite this, Gates and
his partner did not give up, and instead used this as a
springboard to motivate them to launching Microsoft’s first
product a few years later.

8. Some may know Bethany Hamilton from the movie that
was based on her life story, Soul Surfer. Hamilton was an
up and coming surfer with big dream, when at the age of 13
she suffered a deadly shark attack, which left her without
her left arm. Despite the loss of her limb, she was surfing
again one month later and even went on to win first place in
the Explorer Women’s Division of the NSSA national
Championships. This young woman has truly inspired
thousands of young athletes and girls to push through
adversity and continue to believe and eventually
accomplish their dreams. She still competes to this day and
even won 1st place in the Surf ‘n’ Sea Pipeline Women’s
Pro in 2014, and the 3rd place in the Fiji Women’s Pro in
2016. She truly is inspirational and is a clear example of
overcoming adversity in life and professionally.