Stories of comebacks are just what we need right now to get us excited and inspire some hope back into our hearts. Over the last two years, many people have been going through a difficult period. People have lost their jobs, their houses, and their loved ones due to the economic downturn.
Plus with the recent news about the war in Ukraine, things might seem to be completely dismal at times, but after reading the below stories we hope you will be inspired to turn 2022 into your finest year yet.
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling was on welfare and struggling as a single mother for five years before authoring one of the most famous books of the twenty-first century.
Rowling authored the first book in the Harry Potter series while working as a teacher at night, but the manuscript was rejected by publishers 12 times.
Rowling was encouraged not to quit her day job when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was ultimately released because her chances of success were small.
The rest is a fairy tale: We all know how that panned out, with over 450 million Harry Potter novels sold worldwide! Rowling became a billionaire in 2004 when the Film industry was still only midway through eight Harry Potter films and far before the release of another franchise, Fantastic Beasts.
And while her life appears to be idyllic from the outside, the author undoubtedly carries the burden of her years as a struggling single mother with her wherever she goes.
Ramona Pierson
Ramona Pierson was training for the marine corps in 1984. A drunk motorist crossed a red light one night while she was on the run, hitting Pierson — the collision was so powerful that her body burst.
Pierson remained in a drug-induced coma for the next 18 months. Before she recovered consciousness, she underwent almost 100 procedures. When she eventually returned to the world, she was a shell of her former self.
She was not discouraged by her circumstances, and she jumped straight back into life with both feet. Ramona participated in rock climbing, skiing, and cycling, and she qualified for the Paralympic squad and even the Olympic team in the latter sport.
Pierson did not stop there. She returned to college and completed her Master's degree in teaching, followed by a Ph.D. in neuroscience.
It took many years of rehabilitation and surgery before she could fully recover her sight. She has gone on to achieve wonderful things for the military. She made improvements to MRI equipment to assist surgeons in doing better procedures on troops who had suffered brain injuries.
Dwayne Johnson
Dwayne Johnson is well-known as the WWE hero turned actor who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but the tale of how he got there is less well-known.
Dwayne Johnson aspired to play in the NFL in 1995. He was a defensive lineman with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League, but he struggled to acquire enough playing time to showcase his abilities.
Unsurprisingly, Dwayne Johnson was released by the Stampeders after a brief time, crushing Johnson's hopes of playing in the NFL.
But, in the end, he decided to pursue pro wrestling as his next job. And through pure determination, he fashioned himself into one of the WWE's most successful wrestlers.
And the rest is history. Johnson's days of having only $7 to his name are long gone, as he now has a net worth of more than $320 million. Furthermore, by continually preaching the value of work ethic and discipline, he continues to act as an inspiration to many.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams is largely regarded as the greatest female tennis player of all time. And if you have 23 Grand Slams in singles, 14 in doubles, two in mixed doubles, and four Olympic Gold Medals, there isn't much room for conflicting opinions.
Serena's career, though, has been fraught with ups and downs. Her first serious injury occurred in 2003 when she was forced to miss eight months of the season due to the ailment. She had a series of injuries later in her career, but she recovered from them like a Phoenix, determined to achieve victory on every single occasion.
After missing the whole 2017 season, Serena was ranked 181 in the world when she returned for the 2018 season. Even though she hasn't won a Grand Slam since her pregnancy-related issues, Serena Williams reached the finals of the 2018 Wimbledon and US Open tournaments.
She is presently placed 11th in the Women's Tennis Association rankings, and she has inspired a lot of her fellow female athletes to continue competing even after becoming pregnant.
Jame Dyson
The straightforward British millionaire may have altered how people clean their homes, but his success was not without struggle. It took the entrepreneur 15 years to create his bagless vacuum cleaner and see his vision become a reality.
During the time he was working on his invention, he depended heavily on his wife's earnings to make ends meet. He also created 5,126 prototypes before creating his company's hallmark gadget, the DC40. While several of his peers derided his early attempts, Dyson's dedication never wavered and paid off in the end.
After his vacuum became a hit in Japan, he leveraged that momentum into a global success. Since then, his firm, Dyson Ltd, has generated $4.5 billion in yearly revenue and currently offers a wide range of household goods all over the world.
Moral of The Story: You Can Conquer Anything
The lesson to take away from all of these tales is that you can overcome all of the challenges you have or will endure.
Train yourself to not allow the situations you've experienced to hold you back but rather to be an opportunity for growth. Confide and believe in your ability to achieve your goals, no matter how difficult the situation seems to be at the time. After all, it is the triumph after the trials, that makes us strong. Eventually, we can look back and see that it was all worth it in the end.
