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In the early days of Apple, Steve Jobs was well known for his intense perfectionism. Apple spent nearly three years developing the original Macintosh computer, as Jobs demanded final approval of every single detail. This pursuit of what he perceived to be perfection infamously led him to fire talented employees without hesitation for not conforming to his design aesthetics, and to scrap nearly-finished projects that didn't meet his standards for elegance.

While it's certainly true that his attention to detail and relentless drive led the company to create some of the most beautiful (and best) technology products the world has ever seen, his style of leadership was less than admirable in the beginning and had adverse effects on those working at the company. Eventually, Jobs' demeanor and an internal power struggle over disagreements on philosophies between him and CEO, John Sculley, led to his ousting from the company. In Jobs' eyes, this event was devastating.

Jobs saw his ousting from Apple as an incredible personal failure. He had been pushed out of the company he had worked so hard to grow into a recognizable brand. Before eventually returning to Apple in 1997, Jobs went on to found NeXT and spin Pixar off into its own entity after purchasing the animated division of Lucas Films.

By the time he returned to Apple, Jobs had learned the importance of tempering his obsession with control, and he was much better at empowering his talented employees to do what they do best. Without a doubt, this change in his leadership style is a very significant contributing factor in Apple's return to the spotlight after suffering through some major setbacks during his absence from the company.

Once he returned, he led the charge on Apple's new OS, which redefined how personal computers function, the iPod, which completely revolutionized the music industry, and the iPhone, which has been equally as important in the evolution of personal technological devices.

Although Steve Jobs is no longer with us, he truly changed the world with the products he helped shape, and lessons he imparted along the way. As an entrepreneur, Jobs taught us that it is challenging for a leader to be successful if they're too reckless or unshakable in their way of thinking.

This intense drive for perfection often leads to the failure of young technology companies, that should be focusing much more seriously on validating their core product offerings, as opposed to perfecting them straight out the gates. Leaders do need to take risks along the way, pushing for the results they want to see in business while also accepting that there will be failures at times.

In the case of Jobs, he didn't allow his initial failure at Apple to define his life. He went on to learn from his experiences, create more businesses, and eventually return to help make Apple great again. Embracing his failure gave him the motivation to move further forward.

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How Steve Jobs Saved Apple By Embracing Failure

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In the early days of Apple, Steve Jobs was well known for his intense perfectionism. Apple spent nearly three years developing the original Macintosh computer, as Jobs demanded final approval of every single detail.

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A version of this article previously appeared on Inc.

The words "failure" and "the Beatles" seldom appear in the same sentence. However, the Beatles' early career was a series of failures, culminating in their unsuccessful audition with the leading record company of their era, Decca Records. This particular failure nearly caused the band to breakup.

At the time of Decca's rebuff, the Beatles had been performing under various monikers for nearly five years. Most groups would have returned to Liverpool and continued to play occasional gigs while beginning their working class careers. Fortunately, the Beatles were not "most groups."

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Failure Wasn't In Their Songbook
Entrepreneurs can draw a number of startup lessons from the manner in which the Beatles' addressed Decca's devastating rejection.

Wrong Product - The material for the audition was selected by the group's manager, Brian Epstein. Brian's musical "qualifications" were derived solely from the fact that he curated the record section within his father's furniture store. Of the thirteen songs, ten were uninspiring covers of American tunes, which the Beatles sang with exaggerated American accents.

Brian's intent was to showcase the group's multi-generational appeal by drawing upon mainstream songs, including Broadway show tunes. Brian only selected three Lennon and McCartney songs for inclusion in the audition. Notably, the Beatles subsequently never released these original compositions, as they were deemed inferior.

Lesson - Advisor input should not be unequivocally treated with reverence. Entrepreneurs must know when to listen to their advisors and when to reject errant advice. Suggestions drawn from an advisor's expertise should be valued more highly than uniformed opinions masquerading as sage recommendations.

Wrong Audience - Per George Harrison, "It was unusual at that time to have a group where everybody did the singing. In those days, it was... one guy out front who sang." John's recollection is similar: "They were so dumb. When they listened to these audition tapes, they were listening for The Shadows. So they were not listening at all."

Lesson - Understand a potential investor's point of view (POV) and do not try to change it. Focus your time and attention wooing investors whose POV is aligned with your venture's value prop and ignore those with a contrary POV.

Wrong Team - The Beatles' ultimate lineup was incomplete at the time of their Decca audition. The affable, yet musically mediocre, Pete Best was the Beatles' drummer, rather than Ringo Starr.

Lesson - As described in Be The Beatles, one of the keys to the Beatles' ultimate success was the creative tension and balance they achieved once Ringo joined the group. A startup can likewise ill afford to compromise when establishing its core team.

Wrong Time - Timing is everything in comedy and business. The Beatles were simply not ready at the time of their Decca tryout. According to Paul McCartney, "Listening to the tapes, I can understand why we failed the Decca audition. We weren't that good, though there were some quite interesting and original things."

Lesson - Startups have limited opportunities to secure key customers, investors and employees. It is very difficult (usually impossible) to recover from a negative first impression. As such, entrepreneurs must balance their desire to accelerate their path to success with their startup's capabilities.

Wrong Motives - Brian paid Decca £15 to record the session (equal to $42 at the time, and equivalent to $317 in 2013). Thus, it is unclear whether Decca's motivation was a sincere desire to evaluate the band or an opportunity to score a small payday by utilizing an otherwise empty studio.

Lesson - An entrepreneur's two most limited resources, time and money, must be strictly guarded. Thus, when a customer, investor or partner makes a request, their motives must be dispassionately explored. If their motives are not congruent with your goals, the opportunity should be ignored.

Wrong Expectations - According to John Lennon, "I think Decca expected us to be all polished, we were just doing a demo."

Lesson - Establishing appropriate expectations among a startup's stakeholders is imperative, as over-promising and under-delivering can be its death knell. For instance, if you deliver a prototype to a potential partner who is expecting a commercialized solution, the potential partnership may be irreparably damaged.

Wrong Critics - After the group achieved success, John Lennon recounted the numerous failed auditions of their early career, recalling that, "They used to keep telling us, 'It's too much like rock and roll and that's all over now,' because they all thought rock and roll was dead, but they were wrong."

Years later the Beatles recalled their rejection by Decca with bitter satisfaction.

George: "... they (Decca) signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead. The head of Decca, Dick Rowe made a canny prediction: 'Guitar groups are on the way out...'"

Paul: "He must be kicking himself now."

John: "I hope he kicks himself to death."

Fortunately, the Beatles handled their failures like successful entrepreneurs. They ignored the alleged musical experts, internalized their failures and improved their value prop by working their asses off.

Entrepreneurs can take solace in the reality that everyone, including immensely successful people, suffer soul-searching failures. Setbacks on the path to success are inevitable. What matters is whether you allow them to build you up or tear you down.
Follow my startup-oriented Twitter feed here: @johngreathouse. I promise I will never tweet about the Tremeloes' latest reunion tour or that killer burrito I just ate.

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Startup Lessons From The Beatles' Biggest Failure | John Greathouse

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A version of this article previously appeared on Inc. The words "failure" and "the Beatles" seldom appear in the same sentence. However, the Beatles' early career was a series of failures, culminating in their unsuccessful audition with the leading record company of their era, Decca Records.

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Imagine being born in rural 1950s Mississippi to an impoverished teenage mother. Imagine suffering abuse from the age of 9, then running away from home at 13, only to become pregnant at 14 and lose your first child. Now imagine you're Oprah.

Sound implausible? It's actually true. Oprah was able to turn the tables on this disastrous upbringing, but it took guts and grit. She moved to Tennessee to live with her father, and began to excel in school. She did well in speech and debate. She even won a state beauty pageant. All while working part-time reading news for a local radio station until she could earn a scholarship to college at Tennessee State.

In college, this wounded girl became a powerhouse of a woman. She majored in communications, and landed her first post-graduation job at a Nashville station. That turned into a bigger gig with an ABC affiliate in Baltimore. Soon after that, she was hired as a primetime news co-anchor, an incredible feat considering she was a young, black woman in an era where old, white men made and enforced all the rules.

There was a publicity campaign before her debut. The network wanted to broaden their viewership. Suddenly, Oprah Winfrey was thrust into the spotlight with high expectations. She was set up for failure. When the show failed, she was blamed-and not her old, white, male co-host. She was demoted to a writing and reporting gig, but was a slow writer and too caring for the kind of hard-nosed reporting required. (On one notable occasion, she was so moved by the plight of a family who had lost their things in a fire, that she donated some of her blankets and supplies to them, drawing flack from her boss.)

Even Oprah herself looks back on these years as a failure. But she did not give up. Instead, she took stock of the situation, realized that, while she loved television, she preferred human interest stories to hard news. And while she loved hosting, she had to have significant chemistry with a co-host to make that relationship worthwhile.

Eventually, all of this soul-searching paid off. She took a job co-hosting a show called People are Talking with Richard Sher. To anyone else, this would have been considered a step down. But Oprah made lemonade. The show was successful enough to run for five years, after which Oprah was recruited to host a morning talk show in Chicago. That show became a household name. And Oprah became an international sensation.

What Oprah had was a unique combination of empathy, determination, and the ability to keep moving forward when all else had fallen apart. Her ability to excel in business while not being business-oriented is a marvel. Moral of the story? Have passion, believe in your dreams, believe in yourself even when no one else does, and keep going when hope is lost. Don't be afraid to fail.
Oprah Winfrey: A Profile in Failure
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Imagine being born in rural 1950s Mississippi to an impoverished teenage mother. Imagine suffering abuse from the age of 9, then running away from home at 13, only to become pregnant at 14 and lose your first child. Now imagine you're Oprah. Sound implausible? It's actually true.

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In 1964, at the premier of Mary Poppins, Walt Disney reached the pinnacle of his career.

A year after his death, in 1966 alone, 240 million people watched a Disney movie, over 100 million watched a Disney television show each week, 80 million read a Disney book, another 80 million bought Disney merchandise, and about 7 million visited Disneyland. 1

During his lifetime, Disney pioneered the animation industry, changed the shape of American recreation with Disneyland park, introduced motion picture to television, and built the first "modern multimedia corporation."

Till date, Disney holds the record for the most Academy Awards won by an individual: a total of 22 Oscars.

His greatest legacy, however, is the impact on culture: no single figure has shaped American popular culture as much as Walt Disney.

Disney created the iconic characters that shaped the childhood of generations, including Mickey Mouse, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Cinderella and Bambi.

But long before Disney's success, and the fairy-tale, 'happily ever after' Disney films, Disney lived a much less privileged life.

A life of poverty, adversity and failure.

Robbed Off A Childhood

At the tender age of nine years old, Disney was working seven days a week as a newspaper delivery boy for his father's newspaper business. 2

Unlike other kids his age, Disney would wake up at 3.30 a.m. each day, deliver newspapers before heading to school and return back to work before the end of the school day.

The work was especially grueling during the winter. Oftentimes, Disney would fall asleep and curl up inside a sack of newspapers for warmth, wake up at daylight, and rush to finish his route.

To add salt to injury, Walt received no compensation, as his father, Elias, took all of the money earned.

For the next six years, Disney would rinse and repeat this tedious routine.

In Disney's biography, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, historian, Neal Gabler, notes an interview where Walt Disney said, "I was working all the time... I never had any real play time."

Whilst other normal kids spent their free time playing sports and socializing, Disney's only playtime was playing with toys he saw on the porches where he delivered newspapers.

Worst of all, Walt had rocky relationship with his father, Elias.

Elias Disney was a hard, cold man, who never drank or swore, and took pride in imposing his authority as head of home, and the fear of God into his children.

Most notably, Elias had a volcanic temper, and as Walt grew older and Elias failed one business venture after another, Walt became the primary target of Elias's increasing anger and physical abuse.

Walt Disney's childhood experience was so traumatic, that forty years later, he often woke up to nightmares during which he'd fail to deliver newspapers to customers and his father would await his report. 3

And later in his life, Walt's relationship with his father had been so damaged to the point that Walt refused to cut short a business trip and attend his father's funeral.

Despite his rough childhood, Disney continued to hold unto his dream of building a cartoon and animation company.

Back to Back Failure

In early 1921, Disney built his first company, called Laugh-O-Gram Studio, and secured a contract for six animations.

Shortly after, however, the business struggled to generate enough money to stay afloat. And so, Disney tried to rescue his company through the production of Alice's Wonderland‍ -‌a short film displaying live human action with animation.

Each day, Disney slept on the floor of the studio office, showered at the train station, and ate cold beans from a can. Despite his efforts, in 1923, Laugh-O-Gram went bankrupt and Disney was back to living in relative poverty.

Disney was crushed and heartbroken. He felt like a failure for disappointing friends, family and investors who had put their faith in him.

He swore to make amends, and traveled to Hollywood to become a film director.

But after several months of looking for work, Disney conceded defeat. It was another blow to his ego. Another failure on his resume.

The curse of his father's life of failure seemed to be reliving itself in Walt's life.

Disney however, refused to give up. He got back on this feet and once again, reached out to film distributors to showcase his animation, Alice's Wonderland.

Disney was third time lucky.

Margaret Winkler, a New York film distributor, got back to Disney and offered 1,500 dollars for six Alice comedies. The animation was well received, and the distributor ordered more animations.

Shortly after, Disney and his brother, Roy, created the Disney Brothers Studio‍-‌which later became The Walt Disney Company‍.

The rest is history.

Disney's story is an inspiring example of someone who grew up in less than ideal conditions, faced adversity and failure, and yet, turned their fortunes around to achieve extraordinary success.

Here are five lessons from Disney on how to stay motivated and bounce back from failure in life and work.

5 Lessons on Staying Motivated and Bouncing Back From Failure
1. Follow your heart
The journey to success is hard enough by itself, but it's much harder when you go down a path that doesn't resonate with you.

Too often, we attempt to garner energy and motivation to pursue a goal that we know deep down inside, isn't right for us. And so, when adversity strikes, we lose motivation and give up.

Unlike most people at the time, Disney passed on working for his father's factory and followed his heart to pursue his dream of a career in animation, even though the industry was very young and nowhere near as profitable as it is today.

His father would often criticize his dreams and say that he wouldn't succeed, but that didn't sway Walt. It drove him even further, to the extent that whenever he faced adversity and failure, he had the capacity to bounce back and keep going.

Trust your gut, pursue the goals that suit your natural skill set and inclination, and quit those that don't.
2. Be grateful for failure and move forward

"All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you." - Walt Disney

We live in a world that's obsessed with success and the secrets of successful people.

We do everything we can to avoid failure in life and work. And yet, behind each success story is a mountain of failures.

Instead of running away from failure, Disney ran towards it and turned adversity from foe to ally.

He forgave himself for making mistakes, learned from each failure and used failure as a solid foundation for success:

"Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
3. Go all in
In the game of poker, when a player goes "all in," it means the player has committed their entire stack of money, and risks losing it all.

Likewise, Disney took the risk and committed his life to achieving his dreams.

In an interview, Disney said:

"A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive." 4

It's easy to half-arse our efforts and give up when there's a plan B. But when our backs are against the wall and there are no other options available, our survival instincts kick in and we follow through on our plans.

If you have one foot out of the door, you're already setting yourself up for failure.

Make your final decision: are you all in, or all out?

4. Invest in knowledge

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island and at the bottom of the Spanish Main... and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life." - Walt Disney

Disney was an avid learner, and often spent his evenings after working hours, watching animations and studying films.

As he read more books and learned from his failures, his self-confidence grew, and his incidents of failure diminished.

This is no coincidence. Confidence and knowledge go hand in hand.

The more knowledgeable you are at something, the more competent you will be at doing it. The more competent you are, the more confidence you will have. And the more confidence you have, the more likely you'll succeed.

And when you enjoy the rewards of success, you'll gain more self-confidence and motivation to keep going. And then the cycle repeats itself.
5. Embrace self-delusion
At some point in their journey, successful people were labelled as "delusional." But once their crazy dreams turned to reality, they were quickly labelled a "success."

Delusion and extraordinary success are two sides of the same coin. In order to achieve something that has never been done before, you'd have to believe in something that nobody else does.

Disney was delusional. He believed that his crazy dreams would come true, even when his current reality said otherwise.

Yet, today we are enjoying the by-product of his self-delusion, with the legacy of Disney characters, Disney world, Disney movies and much more.

The morale of the story is this: if you feel like you're the only person who believes in your crazy dream, you're probably on the right track.

Because contrary to popular opinion, there isn't any safety in numbers: if everyone else believes it's possible, it's already be done.

Carve your path, embrace your self-delusion and in the parting words of Disney:

"When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably."

Read Next
FOOTNOTES

1. Richard Schickel, The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney, 3rd ed. (1968; reprint Chicago: Elephant Paperbacks, 1997).

2. Gabler, Neal (2006). Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination.

3. Walt Disney interview by Martin, Reel 11.

4. As quoted in Walt Disney, Magician of the Movies (1966) by Bob Thomas p. 116.

Mayo Oshin writes at Originally published on mayooshin.com. MayoOshin.com, where he shares practical self-improvement ideas backed by proven science, philosophy and art, for better habits. To get these ideas to think and live better, you can join his free weekly newsletter .
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How to Bounce Back From Failure, According to Walt Disney

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In 1964, at the premier of Mary Poppins, Walt Disney reached the pinnacle of his career. A year after his death, in 1966 alone, 240 million people watched a Disney movie, over 100 million watched a Disney television show each week, 80 million read a Disney book, another 80 million bought Disney merchandise, and about 7 million visited Disneyland.

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Celebs who went from failures to success stories

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Today the word "Einstein" is synonymous with genius, but young Albert didn't speak fluently until he was nine-years-old, causing teachers to think he was slow. He was expelled from school for his rebellious nature and...

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Michael Jordan "Failure" Commercial HD 1080p