Today's Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul

[Guest guest]

Consider This

After Fred Astaire's first screen test, the memo from the testing director of

MGM, dated 1933, said, " can't act! Slightly Bald! Can dance a little! " Astaire

kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.

An expert said of Vince Lombardi: " He possesses minimal football knowledge.

Lacks Motivation. "

Socrates was called, " An immoral corrupter of youth. "

When J. was in the fourth grade, his teacher, Mrs. ,

constantly said, " J. , you're no good, you're a bad apple and you're

never going to amount to anything. " was totally illiterate until he was

26. A friend stayed up with him all night and read him a copy of Think and Grow

Rich. Now he owns the street corners he used to fight on and just published his

latest book: Mrs. , You Were Wrong.

Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, was encouraged to find work as a

servant or seamstress by her family.

Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own

compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him hopeless

as a composer.

The parents of the famous opera singer Enrico Caruso wanted him to be an

engineer. His teachers said he had no voice at all and could not sing.

Darwin, father of the Theory of Evolution, gave up a medical career and

was told by his father, " You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat

catching. " In his autobiography, Darwin wrote, " I was considered by my father, a

very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard in intellect.

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. Walt Disney also

went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland.

Edison's teachers said he was too stupid to learn anything.

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn't read until

he was seven. His teacher described him as " mentally slow, unsociable and adrift

forever in his foolish dreams. " He was expelled and refused admittance to Zurich

Polytechnic School.

Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies and ranked 15

out of 22 in chemistry.

Isaac Newton did very poorly in grade school.

The sculptor Rodin's father said, " I have an idiot for a son. " Described as the

worst pupil in the school, Rodin failed three times to secure admittance to the

school of art. His uncle called him uneducable.

Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace, flunked out of college. He was described

as " both unable and unwilling to learn. "

Playwright Tennessee was enraged when his play, Me, Vasha was not

chosen in a class competition at Washington University where he was enrolled in

English XVI. The teacher recalled that denounced the judges' choices

and their intelligence.

F. W. Woolworth's employers at the dry goods store said he had not enough sense

to wait upon customers.

Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded.

Babe Ruth, considered by sports historians to be the greatest athlete of all

time and famous for setting the home run record, also holds the record for

strikeouts.

Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He did not become Prime Minister of

England until he was 62, and then only after a lifetime of defeats and setbacks.

His greatest contributions came when he was a " senior citizen. "

Eighteen publishers turned down Bach's Livingston Seagull,

before Macmillan finally published it in 1970. By 1975 it had sold more than

seven million copies in the U.S. alone.

Hooker worked for seven years on his humorous war novel, M*A*S*H, only

to have it rejected by 21 publishers before Morrow decided to publish it. It

became a runaway bestseller, spawning a blockbusting movie and highly successful

television series.

By Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hansen

from A Cup of Chicken Soup for the Soul