BY KATIE O’MALLEY
From being fired, rejected and falling into depression, we look back at the female stars whose work is testament to the fact there’s beauty in failure
Ellen DeGeneres once said: ‘It’s failure that gives you the proper perspective on success.’
In a society so fixated on winning, achieving and earning, we often forget that success inextricably linked with failure. Without failure, how boring, easy and meaningless would the joy of triumph and reward be?
Of course, when you’re feeling rubbish about yourself or think you’ve failed at getting your dream job, earning a bonus or just received a horrible telling off at work, it’s hard to see the positive amid the darkness.
Someone who knows a little thing or two about this feeling is Ronda Rousey, who recently got beaten in her first fight in more than a year by Amanda Nunes.
While Rousey might be a multi-millionaire, an advocate for women in sport, a film star and writer, her achievements don’t make up for the fact she thinks she’s failed in her second straight defeat, having previously held an undefeated record.
Yesterday, the fighter took to Instagram to break her post-fight silence to post a JK Rowling quote to describe how she’s currently feeling.
The quote reads: ‘And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life’.
A photo posted by rondarousey (@rondarousey) on
Jan 9, 2017 at 1:37pm PST
Now, it might not sound like the most empowering and inspirational message we’ve ever heard but it’s a frank perspective on the importance of failure.
In aiming for success, so often we forget the need to fail sometimes and the opportunity that comes from knowing what it’s like to lose. More often than not, the times we fail lead to greater success than consecutive wins would.
As a result, we’ve rounded up a list of our favorite celebrities who have hit rock bottom but proved that failure can be one of the greatest gifts, even though it might not seem it at the time.
Oprah Winfrey
The chatshow host and business woman was publicly fired from her first job as a TV anchor in Baltimore because she was ‘too emotionally invested in her stories’.
Winfrey then went onto create a media empire and become one of the most acclaimed experts in television. Oh, and she’s worth an estimated cool £2.4 billion, according to Forbes.
Not bad for an emotional presenter.
J.K. Rowling
The author was a divorced, single mum living on benefits in Edinburgh when she began writing the first ‘Harry Potter’ novel on a train travelling from Manchester to London King’s Cross in 1990.
Once describing herself to The New Yorker as ‘as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless’, during her time of need she was also diagnosed with clinical depression and contemplated suicide.
If Rowling’s journey to success and courage doesn’t inspire you, nothing will.
Lucille Ball
The American actress and comedian was reportedly known as ‘The Queen of B Movies’ given her long string of low-rate films at the start of career.
Of course, this was before her big break on her and her husband Desi Arnaz’s act that evolved into little sitcom you might know – I Love Lucy.
Lady Gaga
After signing her first record deal with Island Def Jam for £700,000, she was given the boot just three months later when producer L.A. Reid played the track in a meeting and reportedly made a slitting motion across his throat, according to The New Yorker.
In author Hugh Fielder’s biography of the star titled Lady Gaga: A Monster Romance, following news of her cancelled record deal she ‘couldn’t even talk when she told me because she was crying so hard’.
We bet L.A. Reid regrets that one.
Katy Perry
The Firework singer was dropped from not one but three major record labels before she bagged a contract with newly-formed Capitol Music Group in 2006, seven years after dropping out of school in her freshman year to pursue singing.
It was at Capitol where she wrote and released ‘I Kissed a Girl’, and the rest is history.
Louisa May Alcott
She might be famed for her award-winning novel, Little Women, but her road to success wasn’t easy.
Before finding success in the 1860s, the author was forced to work as a teacher, seamstress, governess and servant to help make ends meet.
From this, she was inspired to become more creative in her letters and writing, using the page and pen as tools for an emotional outlet.
Anna Wintour
While she might stand at the helm of US Vogue now, it wasn’t long ago that Wintour was fired from a career in journalism.
In 1975, she was fired from Harper’s Bazaar after just nine months. Fast forward 13 years and she became editor-in-chief of Vogue.
In an interview for Alistair Campbell’s book Winners: And How They Succeed, Wintour revealed: ‘Everyone should be sacked at least once in their career, because perfection doesn’t exist.’
Note taken, Anna.
Beyoncé
She might be the Queen of pop music nowadays but back in the early years, a 12 year-old Beyoncé and her Girls Tyme bandmates (her first pop group) were booted out of a talent TV show called Star Search, losing to a rock band.
Madonna
Famed for her outspoken views on women and ageism and being the 80s pop icon we all wanted to be, Madonna started on her path to fame and success after dropping out of college and working at Dunkin’ Donuts in Times Square.
Unfortunately, she was reportedly fired on her first day after squirting jelly on a customer.
In 2013, Forbes magazine named Madonna the top-earning celebrity of the year so we think she’s doing just fine.
Stephanie Meyer
Before her sell-out book franchise, Twilight author Stephanie Meyer received 14 out of 15 letters of rejection from literary agencies.
Fortunately for Meyer, one publisher recognised her talent and resulted in her first of four books in the saga being copied 100m times, translated into 37 languages and adapted into a huge film franchise.
Ariana Huffington
The Greek-American author’s second book was rejected by a whopping 36 publishers. Now, that’s got to hurt.
Now, with 13 books under her belt and a reputation as the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, the businesswoman once admitted to CNN: ‘You can recognize very often that out of these projects that may not have succeeded themselves that other successes are built.’
Failure isn’t the end, it’s only the beginning.
This article originally appeared on www.elleuk.com
The post 11 Female Celebrities Who Prove You Need To Fail In Order To Achieve appeared first on Elle South Africa.