Zero to Hero: 5 Business Leaders Who Mastered Their Failures

There is simply no hiding that failing to achieve one’s ambitions can, at first, be hugely demoralizing. Putting in the hours, trying your absolute best, and not seeing the fruits of your hard effort is a discouraging experience. The truth is, though, that failure should not be viewed as an irrefutable verdict. Instead, failure is an opportunity, and it offers you the chance to reshape your plans and keep going with better reasoning. This is particularly true in the world of business.

Many business leaders have witnessed their fair share of rejections and setbacks. But if your ideas are promising, and your projects are valid, success could soon be knocking on the door. Ultimately, failures can set the ground for a true leadership transformation. Here, we uncover the stories of five business leaders that overcame knockbacks and went on to build incredibly successful careers.

Sir James Dyson

If there is someone who knows a great deal about hard blows and how to pick themselves up again, that is Sir James Dyson, the undisputed sovereign of vacuum cleaners. Today, Sir James is one of the richest men in the UK, but his journey to creating a millionaire business was not always straightforward. Quite the opposite, in fact.

In the late 1970s, Sir James realized that an industrial dust extractor—if scaled down—would make housekeeping duties much more efficient. The machine used a cyclone to get rid of wood dust and therefore sparked plans on the design of a bag-free vacuum cleaner. Sir James’ intuition was ground-breaking, but the product took time to perfect.

Four years, 5,127 prototypes, and—at one stage—a million-pound debt later, he finally had a machine that worked to his satisfaction. Was it worth the time and hard work? No doubt about it. In 2019, Dyson as a company showed a net profit of £711m, and Sir James has become a very wealthy man.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey has dominated daytime TV for many years, building an impressive following from her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her talent and determination led her to become the successful owner of her own media empire, and she is currently valued at $2.7b. However, the path to success has not been a linear one.

In her early twenties and at the start of her career, Winfrey worked as a reporter and co-anchor at a Baltimore news station. Things did not go to plan for her, and she was dismissed after a few months. That said, the lessons she learned from her failure were invaluable. Winfrey identified what her true qualities and strengths were, shifting her focus towards human-interest stories as opposed to hard-news bulletins.

Equipped with great empathy and outstanding communication skills, she gradually gained the respect and appreciation of her audiences, turning her into the high-performing businesswoman she is today.

Walt Disney

Could anyone imagine a world without iconic Disney movies and cartoons, the staple of our childhoods? If Walt Disney had let his several failures and setbacks repress his ambitions, we may never have seen cinematographic pearls such as Mary Poppins and 101 Dalmatians on our screens.

Disney started his first business in 1921 and called it ‘Laugh-O-Gram Studio’, but he struggled to make any profit. From showering at the train station to sleeping on the floor of his office studio, he tried all he could to save money and keep the company afloat. Two years after its foundation, Laugh-O-Gram Studio went bankrupt. Disney later travelled to Hollywood in search of film director roles, and after months of job hunting, he had to concede defeat once more.

However, his motivation and determination paid off when reaching out to film distributors to exhibit his Alice’s Wonderland animation. Disney’s work was well received, and orders slowly began to flow in. The rest is history. Ultimately, Walt Disney is an inspiring example of how persevering and building on failures can catapult you to success.

Vera Wang

Sometimes, failure is a redirection and gives you the possibility to spot what your real vocation is. In this respect, world-famous fashion designer Vera Wang is a perfect model.

Wang had a love for figure skating and competed at a professional level during her teenage years. Although extremely talented, with hopes to clinch a place in the 1986 Olympics figure-skating team, she fell short of her sporting dreams. While disappointed at first, Wang regathered her thoughts and embraced a fashion-related career. From senior editor at Vogue at the age of 23 to design director at Ralph Lauren, she then opened her own bridal boutique that caters mainly to socialites and celebrities.

With signature collections to her name and internationally acclaimed bridalwear, Wang’s net worth is a remarkable $500m.

Akio Morita

Akio Morita, the co-founder of Japanese multinational Sony, had to navigate through uncertain waters too. As the oldest son, he was expected to take over the family’s fourteen-generation business that brewed sake and soy sauce. However, Morita was driven by other aspirations, and he delved into the world of electronics instead.

When he founded Sony alongside Masaru Ibaku, the two businessmen first worked on the development of a rice cooker. The result was disastrous: rather than cooking the rice, the appliance would burn the grains. Despite this initial failure, Morita swerved his attention towards the creation of a tape recorder, and he soon started selling portable cassette recorders (the so-called ‘Walkman’) in the United States.

From launching the first CD player to developing a futuristic robotic toy dog in 1999, Sony has come on leaps and bounds. It is fair to say that it is all thanks to the persistence and resolve of Akio Morita.

It is only natural for failures and setbacks to occur from time to time. However, the secret to success is to be able to identify what has gone wrong and find alternative solutions to master your goals. We hope that these positive stories from influential businesspeople will inspire you to always accept knockbacks and strive to conquer your leadership ambitions.