Looking for famous folks that started mediocre and ended up great

[IcePickFreak]

John D Rockefeller

 

[MotionMan]

I believe you mean Custer. He was also not great by any stretch of the imagination, nor was he a real general.

Maybe he meant...

MotionMan

 

[gophins72]

joe the plumber and oprah winfrey, negro woman from the south

howard stern

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Obama

Wasn't his mom well-educated and at least middle-class?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Tom Hanks. Who thought that a character on a show called Bosom Buddies would amount to anything? Hmmm, whatever happened to the other "Buddy"?

Peter Scolari was in many other shows after that, including Newhart (remember Michael?)

 

[nanette1985]

Colonel Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken
Soichiro Honda
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Grandma Moses

 

[busydude]

Jim Carrey, Mel Gibson and Quentin Tarantino.

 

[Ichinisan]

General Custard

Who?

 

[ichy]

John McCain finished nearly last in his class at the US Naval Academy.

He also had a father and grandfather who were admirals. That certainly helps with a career in the Navy.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

larry ellison. i think he married a rich woman, and was a bum who goofed around on yachts for a good portion of his life, until oracle made him successful.

someone else already mentioned john mccain. he was a flunkie at the naval academy, a guy who crashed jets and got people killed in the navy, and he got his ass kicked in vietnam. he was a screw up at everything he did and he still got nominated as a presidential candidate

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Charles Darwin.

 

[Locut0s]

Depending on how you define it, just about all famous people could fit the bill.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

hugh hefner. he was a loser who got sand kicked in his face as the beach and whose wife left him. he started playboy and now hes balling playmates at 80 y.o.

 

[Taejin]

Julius Ceasar
Ceasar Augustus
Jesus Christ
Meriwether Lewis
Geronimo
General Custard

good list, but i'd leave out the fairy tales

 

[Locut0s]

good list, but i'd leave out the fairy tales

Well I'm a strong atheist and the biblical Jesus certainly is a fairy tale. However I believe there is historical evidence for there having been a religious "profit" of that name.

 

[chipy]

i think everyone has a right to their opinion. personally, i believe in the Biblical scriptures so i wouldn't consider Jesus as starting out as mediocre.

i'd like to contribute to the OP's thread, however, and would nominate Dolley Madison... started out as the daughter of a Quaker and died as the wife of James Madison. if memory serves me right, she accomplished a lot in Washington, DC.