16 Great People Who Once Lost Their Jobs Due to Professional Incompetence

Great people were not always great. And here are 16 of the most striking proofs of this. Now the heroes of our review have gained worldwide fame, but once they were literally shown the door due to professional incompetence.

Once upon a time, J.K. Rowling was a secretary at the London office of Amnesty International, but she was fired for secretly writing a book while working. As you may have guessed, this book was about a boy wizard and it was this book that later brought the writer worldwide fame.

Steve Jobs was fired from his own company when he was 30. And that event became a huge boost for his further development. During that period, Jobs founded the computer company NeXT and the animation studio Pixar. And when he returned to Apple a decade later, he brought with him the innovative ideas that made him a legend - the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

The famous inventor Thomas Edison once worked at Western Union. In his free time, he conducted physical and chemical experiments right in the office. Once, during one of these experiments, acid spilled on the floor and burned through the coating. For this, Edison lost his stable income, but later found his calling in science.

When Oprah Winfrey was a news anchor, she was repeatedly criticized for her overly emotional delivery of information. It got to the point that the anchor simply had to be replaced, and Oprah was transferred to a worthless daytime show. It was this show that soon made her a star.

In his youth, Michael Bloomberg (pictured left) was fired from a financial company. But the man did not despair, and founded his own company with the money he received when he was fired. Perhaps, if not for this, he would never have become the richest man in the world and the 108th mayor of New York City.

In order to get a job at a company that dealt with instruments and tools, young Presley had to resort to trickery. He lied to his employer about his age, but soon this lie was revealed and the young man lost his job. So Elvis began to earn extra money on stage. What happened next, you know for yourself.

In his youth, Mickey Rourke had a rather eccentric character. Once, while working as a ticket taker at a movie theater, the future actor made a scandal with a colleague. For this, he was fired from his prestigious position at that time, and Mickey had to look for himself in another field.

Madonna once seriously planned to work in a donut fast food in New York. And at first, things were going pretty well for her, but one day the girl lost her temper and doused a rude customer with jam from a tube. Naturally, after that she was fired.

In 1919, the editor of a Kansas newspaper where young Walt came to apply for a job threw him out, saying that the budding artist lacked imagination. Over time, Disney opened his own animation studio, Laugh-O-Gram, in Kansas City, but it soon went bankrupt. His next "brainchild" was The Walt Disney Company in Hollywood.

The famous British musician and drummer of The Beatles once worked as a bartender on a charter ship. But one grandiose shipboard drinking session led to Ringo becoming too frank and saying too much to his boss, for which he was fired.

In his youth, Dustin Hoffman worked the cash register at Ridley's in New York City, but was fired for his excessive love of food. Hoffman could easily finish six "official" steaks in one sitting. Naturally, the restaurant couldn't help but notice such losses.

Harland David Sanders, whose image now graces the KFC logo, tried unsuccessfully to sell the recipe for his legendary chicken to restaurants for ten years. In 1964, a group of Kentucky businessmen agreed to buy his franchise. For this, Sanders received $2 million and worldwide fame.

Marilyn Monroe's first contract with Columbia Pictures was terminated by the producers, who said that the girl was not beautiful or talented enough to become an actress. But the future star continued to make her way into the world of show business, until she eventually became one of the most iconic images of American cinema and the entire world culture.

When Ford starred in the first film, the producers said he was a "terrible actor" and would never make it. Harrison Ford is now the third highest-grossing actor in history, and Star Wars, in which he played the title role, will forever remain a legend.