Angry Birds, the incredibly popular casual game, was software maker Rovio’s 52nd attempt. They spent eight years and nearly went bankrupt before finally creating their massive hit.

Pinterest is one of the fastest-growing websites in history, but struggled for a long time. Pinterest’s CEO recently said that it had “catastrophically small numbers” in its first year after launch and that if he had listened to popular startup advice he probably would have quit.

James Dyson failed in 5,126 prototypes before perfecting his revolutionary vacuum cleaner.

Groupon was put on life support and nearly shut down at one point in its meteoric rise.

These words are from a new article in Fast Company titled “The Dirty Little Secret Of Overnight Success”.

I applied for 411 jobs before I got an offer for the position I now hold.

The old saw tells us “Every no gets you one step closer to a yes”.  It’s still true.

Keep going. Keep trying. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy.

But won’t it feel so good when you hit one out of the park?