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Looking for famous folks that started mediocre and ended up great

C

Caveman

Platinum Member
For a speech...

Was thinking Albert Einstein did poorly in school at a young age before his work as a scientist...

Seems that may have been a bit of urban legend though so looking for other examples...
 
What do you mean by "started mediocre?"

One of my heroes is former astronaut Story Musgrave. He came from a dysfunctional, abusive family and never finished high school, but ended up with five or six college degrees (including an MD), trained as a surgeon, flew on six space shuttle missions and led the first repair of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Edit: He's the guy riding the robot arm in this famous photo http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Hoffman_and_Musgrave_EVA5.jpg
 
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Tom Hanks. Who thought that a character on a show called Bosom Buddies would amount to anything? Hmmm, whatever happened to the other "Buddy"?
 
Whoever you pick, pick someone that most people haven't heard of. If there is anything that makes me stop listening to a speech its when they tell a story everyone has already heard. We all know who Bill Gates is, but how many people have heard of Story Musgrave? (which I think is the best example so far in this thread)
 
Einstein definitely didn't do bad in school even though they tell little kids that to encourage them to learn. In my opinion, I don't think somebody that struggled with math would be able to formulate general relativity that easily like he did.
 
Dr. Ben Carson. Born to a poor single mother, screwed around as a young teenager, went on to become a world-famous pediatric neurosurgeon.
 
de8212 said:
Tom Hanks. Who thought that a character on a show called Bosom Buddies would amount to anything? Hmmm, whatever happened to the other "Buddy"?
Click to expand...

Peter Scolari didn't do so bad after BB. He just didn't do as well as Tom.

Tom was my first choice too.

What about Abraham Lincoln? Failed business owner, lost numerous elections and wound up being one of the most beloved presidents in American history.

St Peter? Kind of a loser... living with his mother in law... Changed his name to ditch his past. He's now considered to be the first pope!
 
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amdhunter

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Lincoln is commonly cited in these types of things but I think the case for his early failure is somewhat overstated. John McCain finished nearly last in his class at the US Naval Academy.
 
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