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 Peter J. Daniel was in the fourth grade, his teacher, Mrs.
Phillips, constantly said, “Peter J. Daniel, you’re no good,
you’re a bad apple and you’re never going to amount to
anything.” Peter 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. Phillips, 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.
Charles Darwin, the 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.
Thomas 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, the author of War and Peace, flunked out of college.
He was described as “both unable and unwilling to learn.”
Playwright Tennessee Williams was enraged when his play, Me,
Vasha was not chosen in class competition at Washington
University where he was enrolled in English XVI. The teacher recalled that Williams 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.”