Not every mega-successful person started off their career with a solid vision of his or her future. Many, it turns out, are like the rest of us: they struggled and bounced around a lot before figuring out what they wanted to be when they grew up.
Business Insider recently published a slideshow of several iconic figures in business and entertainment who had a variety of different roles before they hit it big. Here are a few examples:
1. Martha Stewart was a model, a stay-at-home mom, and … a stockbroker.
“There were very few women at the time on Wall Street … and people talked about this glass ceiling, which I never even thought about,” Stewart said. “I never considered myself an unequal and I think I got a very good education being a stockbroker.”
Amazing that more late-night talk show hosts didn’t grab onto that little factoid in 2004.
2. J.K. Rowling thought about Harry Potter so much, she got fired.
Yes, that’s right, before Harry Potter made Rowling a billionaire, he got her fired from her job at Amnesty International. It seems that she daydreamed so much, she couldn’t concentrate on the work. It was another seven years before she finished the first book in her series and became a world name.
3. Tina Fey worked at the front desk of the YMCA.
Readers of Fey’s book “Bossypants” already know that fact, but it’s worth repeating to any recent college grads who are bummed out by their less-than-glamorous post-graduation gig.
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