5 Stars Who Almost Never Made It

Hollywood is brimming with young talent dreaming of fame and fortune, but very few will reach the top of the entertainment ladder. To even have a chance at success, you must stay focused and persevere through every struggle and rejection. Some of today’s biggest stars wouldn’t have made it if they’d given up, and neither will you.

1. Lady Gaga

International pop superstar Lady Gaga is a songwriter, musician, fashion icon, and — most recently — actress, but fame didn’t come easy. You might say Lady Gaga had a “bad romance” with her early supporters.

When she first performed for L.A. Reid, the legendary record executive responsible for the success of Mariah Carey and Justin Bieber among many others, Lady Gaga was signed to Def Jam Recordings almost instantly. Months later when listening to demos for her first album, Reid had a change of heart. Speaking to Ellen Degeneres years later, Reid said he thought the music was “disgusting” and dropped her immediately.

The end of her first record contract was a hard blow for the then-19-year-old, but she didn’t give up. Three years later while Gaga was writing for The Pussycat Dolls, New Kids on the Block, and Fergie, an executive at Interscope Records gave her a second chance at a record deal. The rest is history.

2. Jim Carrey

Before his career took off with Dumb and Dumber, Jim Carrey’s life was a series of unfortunate events — pun intended. When he was 10 years old, he realized his dream of being an actor and even tried sending his résumé to The Carroll Burnett Show. Only a few years later, Carrey’s father lost his job, and the family hit hard times.

To help keep his family afloat, 14-year-old Jim Carrey took a factory job after school, adding an extra eight hours to his plate each day. He continued pursuing acting and comedy for two years, despite his shortened schedule, but his comedy routine bombed at local hot spots. Rather than lose hope, Carrey dropped out of school at age 16 to pursue acting full time. He moved to Hollywood just months later.

Carrey wouldn’t find success for another decade. To stay positive and not be deterred by hard times, he parked his car on Mulholland Drive every night and forced himself to visualize his success. One night, while staring down Mulholland, he had a crazy idea. He took out a pen and check and wrote one to himself for $10 million. He wrote on it “Acting Services Rendered” and dated it Thanksgiving 1995. Years later but still before his deadline, Carrey landed his role in Dumb and Dumber and made more than the amount he’d once hoped for. He held onto his self-given check until his father passed on. The check is now buried with his father, a symbol of Carrey’s dedication to supporting his family.

3. Tyler Perry

As a kid, Emmitt Perry Jr. had no clue what he wanted to be when he grew up. Perry and his three siblings were victims of physical abuse at the hand of their father. In an interview, Perry said his father’s “answer to everything was to beat it out of you.” He was also sexually abused by four other adults growing up, a time he calls “a living hell.” His experiences left him without a positive outlook on life. Perry attempted suicide as a preteen and, at age 16, changed his first name to Tyler and dropped out of high school.

Perry worked odd jobs for years to make money, but he wouldn’t find his passion until he saw an episode of Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. In the episode, Oprah told audiences that writing about your struggles can be therapeutic and help you reach personal breakthroughs. Tyler took her advice immediately and spent years writing letters to himself. He used his letters to write his first script, a musical based on his life called I Know I’ve Been Changed. In 1992, he spent every penny of his savings on a weekend-long run in an Atlanta theater. Only 30 people showed up, and Perry was left broke.

Over the next six years, Perry lived in his car at times while saving money to bring his play to other cities. No matter where he performed, attendance fell flat until he brought the show back to an Atlanta theater in 1998. To his surprise, the show sold out over and over again, and he soon earned critical acclaim and commercial success. He introduced his most famous character, Madea, to audiences on stage in the year 2000, and she earned Perry his first film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, five years later.

4. Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker and Jim Carrey’s stories are similar. Parker was born in a poverty-stricken town in Ohio as the youngest of four children. When she was two years old, her parents divorced, and her mother quickly remarried. By the time she was eight, Parker had four additional siblings, and her mother’s teaching income couldn’t feed the family of ten. Her stepfather was a truck driver and was often out of work for months at a time.

To help feed her family, Sarah took up singing and dancing at local venues and in surrounding areas. Despite difficult years and living on welfare during the worst of times, Parker’s mother encouraged all of her children to pursue the arts. She moved the family from Ohio to New Jersey when Sarah landed her first Broadway role at age 12. She first appeared in a film three years later.

Despite memorable TV and film appearances throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, Sarah Jessica did not catch the public’s widespread attention until she landed the role of Carrie Bradshaw in HBO’s Sex and the City in 1998. She was 33 years old and had been working as an entertainer for nearly 25 years. The lesson of this story is success and popularity come when you least expect it. Just don’t give up.

5. Oprah Winfrey

She is a totem of success, a role model for professional women around the world, and a result of an extremely dark childhood. Before she was Oprah Winfrey, she was known as Vernita’s daughter to a handful of male relatives and family friends who sexually abused her for years. At 14 years old, she gave birth to one of her abuser’s children. The baby died two weeks later.

Traumatized by her upbringing, Oprah left her mother’s small Mississippi farming community to live with her father in Nashville. She attended Tennessee State University and worked part-time in radio and television broadcasting. By the time she graduated, there was nothing that would stop Oprah Winfrey from building a better life for herself.

On her long list of accomplishments, one is often overlooked. In the early ‘90s, Oprah testified in front of the US Congress and spoke candidly about her experiences as a child. Her testimony helped enact 1993’s National Child Protection Act, the country’s most significant law for protecting children from abuse and keeping them away from known criminals.

Everyone has a backstory, even the biggest stars on the planet. Don’t let your backstory, whatever that may be, stop you from working your hardest and being your best. Who knows? You might be the next Tyler Perry or Sarah Jessica Parker. But ladies, please kick off your high heels as often as possible to avoid SJP’s foot deformity.