Over the years, after talking with tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, artists and creatives, almost every success story we’ve heard has been filled with stories of failure. Unfortunately, in our view the media rarely covers these parts of the story – instead we often read summaries that make it seem like success happened “overnight.” However, what we’ve learned in our conversations with so many successful folks is that failure is core ingredient in the recipe for future success. Below, we’ve shared some fascinating stories of failure from folks who have ultimately found great success.

LaDray Gilbert

It’s no coincidence that I can speak directly to this topic. At the age of 40, I lost everything material that I owned including my career and money. In addition, my father, the man that had been my anchor my entire life, passed away from cancer. If a person had approached me ten years prior and told me that this would be how I would be approaching the beginning of the fifth decade of my life, I would have cursed them to be mad. However, as I approached this milestone age of my life, everything I had built had been toppled and I was left, disheveled, in the ruins. Read more>>

Richy Leafs

As an artist, so many people only see the good things you do in life and most likely disregard the struggles and obstacles you might have to over come. For an example my ultimate goal was to completely be free from my employer and support myself in my dreams. I worked so hard and gave every ounce of myself for many years to finally push my small photography business and for years it was amazing but with tough times and losing a family member Read more>>

Christopher Sinclair McCalla

I’ve been cooking professionally for about 10 years now and one of the things I’ve learnt on my journey to success is that failure is a big part of the journey. You have to be able to overcome failure and learn that it’s not the end but the beginning of the next page in your life. Read more>>

Quentin Johnson

I’n the DJ industry there are so many pipelines you can go through. Like you can you be a wedding DJ , corporate DJ, private gig DJ , and most popular club/bar DJ. In such a popular career there are at least 100 new Djs popping up a year with the new age technology it makes it’s easier to catch up to speed. The one thing that can set most apart is the musical knowledge and as well as reading your crowd. I have been blessed to be able to hold down several different club residencies for over 10 years, Read more>>