Fact: Robert Goddard was rejected by other scientists on the grounds that rocket propulsion would not work in the rarefied atmosphere of outer space.
Today: Rocket propulsion has made its mark on history as numerous space missions have been accomplished.
Fact: During his first season with the Dallas Cowboys, Troy Aikman threw twice as many interceptions (18) as touchdowns (9) and did not win a single game.
Today: Troy went on to be selected to 6 pro bowl teams, win 3 Super Bowl Championships, win the Super Bowl XXVII MVP award,
and become inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame.
Fact: Sigmund Freud was booed from the podium the first time he presented his ideas to the scientific community.
Today: He continued to write and study and today he is a known as a world famous neurologist and psychologist. He is best known for his theories of the unconcious mind, his theory of transference in the therapeutic relationship, and the interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires.
Fact: Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies and ranked 15th out of 22 students in chemistry.
Today: Louis became a chemist and microbiologist and is best known for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of disease. He was best known to the general public for inventing a method to stop milk and wine from causing sickness – this process came to be called Pasteurization.
Fact: Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4-years-old and did not read until he was 7. His parents thought he was “sub-normal,” and one of his teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams.” He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.
Today: In 1921 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics and in 1999 Time magazine named him the “Person of the Century”. One biographer went on to say “to the scientifically literate and the public at large, Einstein is synonymous with genius”.
Fact: Stan Smith tried to be a ball boy for a Davis Cup tennis match but was rejected because he was “too awkward and clumsy.”
Today: Stan went on to win Wimbeldon, the U.S. Open, and eight Davis Cups. He also held the ranking as the number one tennis player in the world in 1972-1973.
Fact: When Lucille Ball began studying to be an actress, she was told by the head instructor that she “had no future at all as a performer”.
Today: Lucy starred in the popular show I Love Lucy and TV Guide voted her as the Greatest TV Star of All Time for her role in the show.
