Could getting fired be the wakeup call you need to start a business?

ArticleJuly 2, 2020

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Have you recently lost your job or been demoted? Why not use it as the force to propel you into starting a business? Maybe it’s the wakeup call you need to start the next great company.

Most people are not born entrepreneurs but forced to start a business as a solution to lost income or job dissatisfaction.

Before you beat yourself up, you should know that you’re not alone. Some of the world’s most successful people built the world’s most successful businesses after losing their jobs, and so can you.

Here ten most notable people who didn’t let getting fired get in the way of success. We hope they inspire you to put that business idea you’ve been sitting on into action.

Steve Jobs

Jobs got fired from a company he started just a year after creating the first Macintosh following a long power struggle with the board and its then CEO.

After that, he founded Pixar Animations Studios, which produced the first 3D computer-animated film, Toy Story, which grossed more than $3 billion worldwide. Disney later Acquired Pixar in a $7.4 Billion Deal. As part of the deal, Jobs became a non-independent director and the largest individual shareholder of Disney.

He then founded NeXT, which was later acquired by Apply and saw Jobs return to be the CEO within a few months. He was responsible for helping revive Apple and bringing the company unprecedented profits and recognition, which at the time, was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Investopedia reports that “When he died, Jobs’ stake in Apple was worth about $2.1 billion, in the form of 5.5 million shares. However, more of his $10 billion net worth at the time of his death came from Disney than from Apple.

Walt Disney

Before you accept your recent setback as an accurate assessment of your abilities, keep in mind that they fired Walt Disney for not being creative enough.

After being fired in his early 20s, he started a business, Laugh-o-gram Studios, which went bankrupt in 1923. After that, Disney and his brother, Roy, founded The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, which found success with a new character, Mickey Mouse.

Today, The Walt Disney Company is a $59 billion business that includes theme parks, publishing, film, and cable television. The company also holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, with 59 Oscar nominations, 22 wins, two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards, and an Emmy Award, among other honors.

Oprah Winfrey

Shortly after graduation, Winfrey was fired just seven and a half months in being unfit for television news.

Oprah Winfrey later started her show, which she built to a $2.6m business earning various coveted titles. These include the greatest black philanthropist in American history and the richest African American of the 20th century. She is also the founder of the cable channel OWN with a net worth of about $75 million.

Mark Cuban

Before Mark Cuban became a billionaire, he experienced many failures. He started a bar while in college, which failed. He was fired or quit from 3 straight jobs after graduating college. After, he quite a bank job because he did not like the CEO and later started powdered milk business, which also failed.

Getting fired from a sales job at a computer company for closing a deal without the CEO’s approval led Cuban to start his own computer systems company, which he later sold for $6 million. Nine years later, he also sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion. Today, he is worth about $4.1 billion.

“All that matters is one success. It doesn’t matter how many times you strike out,” Mark Cuban said in his book, “To be a success, you only have to be right once,”

JK Rowling

She was once a secretary until she was fired for writing fiction on company time.

Rowling lived a “rags to riches” life. It was not until she published her first book, that she progressed from living on benefits to being named the world’s first billionaire author by Forbes. “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” sold for $4,000 in 1997. By 2000, the first three books in the Potter series had sold 35 million copies in 35 languages and earned $480 million worldwide.

Abraham Lincoln

He was the 16th US president but was previously fired from his job as a captain in the army and reduced to the rank of private.

Isaac Newton

His mother fired Newton from being an overseer of his family farm after his mother realized he hated it.

Jerry Seinfeld

Seinfield, who starred in the most-watched sitcom on American television, was initially fired from his first TV acting job on the TV sitcom Benson.

Lady Gaga

Gaga was fired from her ever first record deal before creating her debut album.

Madonna

She was fired from Dunkin’ Donuts on her first day at work, for allegedly squirting jelly on a rude customer.

Do you see yourself in one or more of these legends?

Getting laid off should not mark the end of success. You can use it as the force to propels you into finally starting your dream company.