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Indeed it can be the beginning of one.
Some highly successful and extraordinarily wealthy businesspersons have seriously flubbed on their journeys to prosperity and esteem.
Lets take a look at four business legends whofailed before achieving fame, fortune and massive respect.
Never heard of it?
Thats because it tanked.
Traf-O-Data was a business partnership between Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Paul Gilbert back in the 1970s.
It was designed to read the raw data fromroadway traffic countersand produce reports for traffic engineers.
Traf-O-Data was a good idea with a flawed business model, Allen wrote.
Between 1974 and 1980, Traf-O-Data totaled net losses of $3,494.
We closed shop shortly thereafter.
Some analysts estimate hed be worth around $7 billion today.
The main reason Jobs isnt worth more is because of a wrong move he made.
After butting heads with Apples then CEO John Sculley, Jobs was ousted from Apple.
He proceeded to sell all but one of his Apple shares.
Had he held onto everything, his estate would be about $66 billion bigger.
Losing a leadership position from the company he co-founded was quite a fail, but Jobs bounced back.
He returned to Apple in 1997 as interim CEO.
The iMac was launched in 1998, and the rest is glittering tech history.
Jobs embraced failure and encouraged others to do the same.
Thomas Edison
Most of us think of Thomas Edison as an inventor and not as a businessperson.
In fact, he was both.
He also helped promote the use of cement and formed the Edison Portland Cement Co. in 1899.
But Edison had his setbacks.
Political leaders abhorred the mere idea of it.
Walt Disney
Walt Disneys road to success was anything but smooth.
His first commercial art studio, Laugh-O-Gram Studios, went bankrupt.
Disney was broke and out of luck but not out of ideas.
He moved to Los Angeles from Kansas City to build a career as an actor.
He created the hit cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Was this finally his big break?
His contract with the animation studio he worked for owned the legal rights to Oswald.
Disney continued to weathersome serious misfortunesbefore he broke out as a superstar businessperson and creator.
But he took all the bad luck and big mistakes with gratitude.
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