3 Examples of Why You Should Never Give Up On Doing What You Love

If your job search is getting you down, let me give you three very good examples of why you should never give up pursuing your dream job.

1. Stephen King

Who hasn’t heard of Stephen King? Can you ever imagine him struggling with rejection? Believe it or not, he did. In fact, before he sold his first short story, he received 50 rejections. He and his wife Tabitha were so poor they had to disconnect their telephone to save money—and they even went to their wedding in borrowed clothes.

King’s best-selling book, Carrie, was rejected the first time he tried to shop it around. And the second time. And the third. In fact, he received literally dozens of rejections before Carrie finally sold to Doubleday.

The thing is, all Stephen King ever wanted to do was write. So, he kept at it. And today, he is the author of 55 novels, six nonfiction books, and a number of screenplays.

2. Colonel Harland Sanders

Colonel Sanders, the founder of the now ubiquitous KFC chain, was fired more times than he could count. Since he couldn’t seem to hold down a job, he opened up a Shell Service Station in 1930, and then the 40-year-old entrepreneur opened up a restaurant of sorts in part of the gas station. Space was limited, so he was actually serving diners out of his living quarters.

Over the following 10 years, the Colonel worked on his “secret recipe,” and developed the pressure-fryer method of cooking. It worked out pretty well for a while, but then the interstate came through his town, and he lost a lot of traffic. He had to close the business, and he was thinking about going into his retirement years with precious little. He knew he couldn’t survive on his old age pension, so he began looking for restaurants that might be interested in his secret recipe. He drove around, slept in his car, and offered restaurants his secret in exchange for just five cents for each piece of chicken they sold.

Would you believe that Colonel Sanders was rejected more than a thousand times before he finally found his first partner? It’s true. And the rest is history.

3. Elvis

There aren’t too many people who are so famous that they can go by just one name. And if Elvis—as in Presley—had believed all the people who told him he was doomed to failure, he wouldn’t have become one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. And his name wouldn’t be a household word today.

Back in 1954, Jimmy Denny was the manager of the Grand Ole Opry. After one performance, Denny told Elvis, “You ain’t going nowhere.” He suggested Elvis go back to his former profession as a truck driver. Millions of music fans worldwide are glad that Elvis didn’t take Denny’s words to heart.

So there you have it. Three people who couldn’t get a job, couldn’t hold a job, and had no hope. But they kept on, believed in themselves, and achieved phenomenal success. Maybe you’re not going to be Stephen King, or Elvis, or the Colonel—but don’t ever give up on being the best you can be, and following your dream, and doing what you love.