18 Brutal Business Failures by Wildly Successful Entrepreneurs (Infographic) Even Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates made mistakes before making it big.

By Matthew McCreary

Inga Kjer | Getty Images

Some people like to say that entrepreneurs are born, not made -- that you either have the talent to start a billion-dollar company or you don't. But some of the most famous and successful entrepreneurs in the world struggled to find their way.

For example, J.K. Rowling had difficulty finding anyone to publish the Harry Potter series, and while she worked on the books, she lived as a single mother on welfare. Tim Ferriss received 25 rejection letters for The 4-Hour Workweek. Even geniuses such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos had business failures.

This infographic from Pound Coffee breaks down 18 great examples, which you can use for inspiration in the low moments of your pursuit of entrepreneurship. Whether you've gotten rejected, faced failure or just lost a little steam, this list might remind you why you ought to keep moving forward.

Embedded from Pound Coffee
Matthew McCreary

Entrepreneur Staff

Associate Editor, Contributed Content

Matthew McCreary is the associate editor for contributed content at Entrepreneur.com.

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