Failure isn’t the end of the road, it’s often the beginning of greatness. History’s most celebrated entrepreneurs once faced rejection, shutdowns, and bankruptcy before building billion-dollar companies.

Reid Hoffman, before founding LinkedIn, created SocialNet in 1997, a social site ahead of its time that failed to gain traction. But the lessons from that venture paved the way for his later success.

Steve Jobs was famously fired from Apple in 1985, the company he co-founded. His next venture, NeXT, flopped, but its acquisition brought him back to Apple, where he led its transformation into a global tech titan.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen’s first project, Traf-O-Data, aimed to automate traffic data processing but failed commercially. Still, it gave them the technical insight to launch Microsoft, a defining force in computing.

Travis Kalanick, the controversial co-founder of Uber, saw his first two startups, Scour and Red Swoosh collapse under lawsuits and financial strain. Yet, each setback sharpened his entrepreneurial instincts, leading to Uber’s eventual disruption of global transport.

From each story, one truth stands out: failure can be the fuel that ignites success, if you’re willing to learn, adapt, and keep moving forward.