Before They Were Titans, Moguls and Newsmakers, These People Were...Rejected

From the WSJ article linked above: "Both Warren Buffett and "Today" show host Meredith Vieira say that while being rejected by the school of their dreams was devastating, it launched them on a path to meeting life-changing mentors. Harold Varmus, winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, says getting rejected twice by Harvard Medical School, where a dean advised him to enlist in the military, was soon forgotten as he plunged into his studies at Columbia University's med school. For other college rejects, from Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy and entrepreneur Ted Turner to broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw, the turndowns were minor footnotes, just ones they still remember and will talk about."

In short, if you've got the ambition, the talent, and the perseverance, keep chugging along because the setbacks won't define you if you don't let them.  Use them as fuel, keep a positive attitude and glue your eyes open.

In the words of Lee Bollinger, Columbia University President, to "allow other people's assessment of you to determine your own self-assessment is a very big mistake."