The Path to Success Is Not Linear

There is a story behind every glory. It is only in the dictionary that success comes before work; it is only because ‘s’ comes before ‘w’. Success does not happen overnight.  There are bumps, potholes and even gullies on the path to success. More often than not, it is the glory we celebrate, forgetting that there is usually a story behind the celebrated glory. In this piece, I have decided to share 5 fascinating stories behind the glories of some successes with you. Enjoy the following stories and pick up the inherent lessons:

1.      J.K. Rowling came up with the idea for the Harry Potter series on a train - Rowling was 25 years old when she came up with the idea for Harry Potter during a delayed four-hour train ride in 1990.

started writing the first book that evening, but it took her years to actually finish it. While working as a secretary for the London office of Amnesty International, Rowling was fired for daydreaming too much about Harry Potter, and her severance check would help her focus on writing for the next few years.

During these years, she got married, had a daughter, got divorced, and was diagnosed with clinical depression before finally finishing the book in 1995. It was published in 1997.

2.      Warren Buffett worked as an investment salesman in Omaha - In his early 20s, Buffett worked as an investment salesman for Buffett-Falk & Co. in Omaha before moving to New York to be a securities analyst at age 26. During that year, he started Buffett Partnership, Ltd., an investment partnership in Omaha.

New York just wasn't for him, Buffett told NBC. "In some places it's easy to lose perspective. But I think it's very easy to keep perspective in a place like Omaha."

3.      Ursula Burns started out as an intern, but worked her way up at Xerox throughout her 20s - Burns overcame a tough upbringing in a New York City housing project to get a degree in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of NYU and then a master's from Columbia University.

Since then she's been a Xerox lifer. She started as an intern at age 22 in 1980 and joined full time a year later after getting her master's. She rose rapidly through the ranks, working in various product development roles and was named CEO in 2009.

"When I came to work at Xerox, I just chose to work. Somebody said 'how about this?' And I said OK, and I would go do that in the lab," Burns said in an interview for the PBS documentary, "Makers." "Then somebody said how about doing some business planning. Then I started leaning more towards larger global systems problems. And systems problems are the business."

4.      Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook was cash positive for the first time and hit 300 million users: Zuckerberg had been hard at work on Facebook for five years by the time he hit age 25. In that year — 2009 — the company turned cash positive for the first time and hit 300 million users. He was excited at the time, but said it was just the start, writing on Facebook that "the way we think about this is that we're just getting started on our goal of connecting everyone." The next year, he was named "Person of the Year" by Time magazine.

5.      Richard Branson had it tough at the beginning: At age 20, Branson opened his first record shop, then a studio at 22, and launched the label at 23. By 30, his company was international.

Those early years were tough, he told Entrepreneur: "I remember them vividly. It's far more difficult being a small-business owner starting a business than it is for me with thousands of people working for us and 400 companies. Building a business from scratch is 24 hours, 7 days a week, divorces. It's difficult to hold your family life together; it's bloody hard work and only one word really matters — and that's surviving."