Sometimes people end up regretting the things they did but the worst kind of regret is the thing that you should have done but didn’t because the “what if” will forever be hanging above your head.
Below are some of the greatest examples of that people taking a pass at some risks that others took and reaped the benefits of it.
So for everyone out there who are thinking twice about taking a leap of faith, just as long as the consequence does not involve unwanted pregnancy and STD, do it.
10. JK Rowling
Publishing bigwigs like Penguin and HarperCollins passed at JK Rowling’s novel. Finally, she tried a small firm called Bloomsbury. They accepted after the CEO’s eight-year-old daughter read the book and went crazy for it.
Now, JK Rowling is the first billionaire author. Harry Potter is now a global brand worth an estimated £7 billion ($15 billion). It has been turned into a movie, has its own million worth merchandising business, and even has its own theme park.
More importantly, it has become the childhood of millions of children around the world.
9. Atari and H-P Rejects Steve Jobs
Jobs went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’”
Apple is not only worth more than $200 Billion, it has also sparked a cultural design revolution. It is the official “campus jock” of computers.
8. David Sarnoff s called the radio UNIMAGINABLE
The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” –David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
Now, there are more than 5.8 billion radios in the world and contributes $13.9 billion in revenue on the entertainment economy.
7. Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” –Decca Recording Co. told the Beatles in 1962.
Not only did The Beatles became the biggest band in that era, they are also the most successful band of all time both in numbers and influence (tied with Elvis). They are the most copied, most reinterpreted and most admired.
6. Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind
“I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” -Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in “Gone With The Wind.”
Gone With The Wind is ranked the best greatest film of all time by the American Film Institute.
5. Catch – 22 by Joseph Heller
‘I haven’t really the foggiest idea about what the man is trying to say… Apparently the author intends it to be funny – possibly even satire – but it is really not funny on any intellectual level … From your long publishing experience you will know that it is less disastrous to turn down a work of genius than to turn down talented mediocrities.’ – a publisher on his rejection of Catch 22.
According to J. Hoberman, Catch-22 added a concept to the American vernacular and a word to the dictionary: “a difficult situation or problem whose seemingly alternative solutions are logically invalid.” Scarcely a week goes by when the phrase is not invoked by someone somewhere in the pages of the New York Times; there were 48 such instances in 1993, a few designating the novel or its movie adaptation, far more describing government regulations, hospital procedures, and the war in Bosnia.
4. Friendster rejects Google
You probably know by now that Facebook stole its idea from many sources such as two Harvard schoolmates and Friendster, the father of modern day social network sites.
Friendster was actually more successful when it began than Facebook was but they fell faster than they rose all because J. Abrams went to the wrong investor who decided to overhaul the company in all the wrong ways.
J. Abrams, later on revealed, that Google also approached him when he was looking for investors which he rejected. Had Abrams partnered with Google, it would still be alive now.
3. Britney Spears rejected by other labels
Spears is signed with Jive Records and she shows no intention of leaving. Jive seems to not have any intentions of kicking her out and for a good reason.
According to celebritynetworth.com, Spears has an estimated net worth of $155 million dollars. She has sold over 100 million records worldwide. Billboard ranked her the 8th Artist of the 2000 – 10 decade. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lists Spears as the eighth top-selling female artist in the United States.
2. Yahoo rejected Google
Before Google dominated our lives, Sergey Brin and Larry Page were struggling to make it through the next month while they work on a friend’s garage on perfecting Google. They approached Yahoo for some investment. Yahoo rejected them.
Yahoo is so stupid.
1. Michael Jordan rejected by his High School Coach
I guess many of your heard the speech delivered by Jordan when he was inducted to the hall of fame. He told his high school coach, who rejected him when he tried out for the team, that he is probably eating his heart out. He just said it in a slightly harsher way.
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