Many of our compatriots seek better opportunities in foreign lands, setting aside their own happiness for the future of their families. No wonder why 2.2 million Filipinos brave their fears and left the country in 2016, as per the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
There’s really no easy road to success, even the most successful people will tell you. And it doesn’t matter how many times or how you fall, but how high you bounce when you hit the bottom.
It should be the same attitude you should bear in mind when a huge, seemingly unbreakable wall blocks your way. Do not let your heart or knee feel weak. Break it, or if need be, climb it, because no matter how insurmountable life can be, it is the challenges that make it more fulfilling when you reap the fruits of your success.
These tales of some of the most iconic personalities in the world will remind you why you shouldn’t stop trying no matter what life fires your way:
Mark Zuckerberg
TIME Magazine’s youngest billionaire in the world and Facebook founder Mark Elliot Zuckerberg used to be just an ordinary boy with a unique interest in technology and programming.
At high school, he was offered by giant I.T. companies including Microsoft and AOL for creating an artificially intelligent media player for MP3s. With their million dollar offers, Mark’s future was already looking good. However, he humbly declined those offers because he believed he can do more, in which he actually did.
On February 04, 2004, Facebook was officially launched. His idea started from the first website he created named “FaceMash” that let Harvard students interact with each other.
Little did he know that his idea would reach this far and he was unaware of the hardship as well as problems of business life. As we all know, “with great power come greater responsibilities”, so does for Mark’s journey from ‘Facemash’ to ‘Facebook’. It had not been entirely smooth. Before Facebook hit billions, it only started with 4,000 users. This is one of the many problems he had to face. He needed to achieve a critical mass of people for the long term, but the app had to be free as well for Internet users to patronize.
Oprah Winfrey
The famous African-American talk show host, media proprietor and philanthropist seems to have it all. However, unlike Zuckerberg, Winfrey’s life had a rough start.
Orpah was born to a teenage mother. Because of her mother’s unsupportive and discouraging treatment towards her, it was Oprah’s grandmother who taught her how to read and write. Ever since she started in the industry, her life became an open book. In 1986, she revealed that when she was 9, she was molested by her cousin, uncle, and a family friend. She remained silent because of fear. In desperation to escape from abuse and molestation, she ran away from home at age 13 and got pregnant at 14. Her son died after premature birth.
Despite these challenges, Oprah remained positive towards life. She studied hard, won accolades, and finished communication degree at the Tennessee State University.
Landing a career in the media, Oprah became a successful TV personality and one of the most influential women in the world.
J.K Rowling
The life of British novelist and screenwriter Joanne Rowling also known as J.K Rowling had also been bumpy. She lived in grief after her mother died in 1990 due to multiple sclerosis. Her loneliness temporarily ended after marrying her husband in 1992 and giving birth to their first child Jessica, in 1993.
But just when everything seemed perfect, Rowling’s life came went quickly downhill when her relationship with her husband ended on the same year.
A jobless woman with a failed marriage and a dependent, Rowling had an emotional breakdown and was eventually diagnosed with clinical depression and contemplated suicide. But instead of giving up, she said that these factors actually liberated her to continue the novel she’s been writing back then. Little did she know that it would be the bestselling book series in history, “Harry Potter”.
But before she made it to the top, publishers turned it down numerous times. Instead of stopping and losing her faith, she wrote six more sequels to the book which eventually sold 400 million copies. The film adaptation of her novels was also widely acclaimed and lauded by fans around the globe. Today, Rowling is considered as one of the best-selling fiction authors of all time.
