Bankruptcy is a big deal, and the idea is more than a little intimidating. When people are facing bankruptcy, they may feel that they have failed; that it is something from which they can never recover. While bankruptcy will change your life and financial situation for a long time to come, there are some things you can learn from it. Some of the most iconic people in America faced bankruptcy proceedings at some point in their life. Here are just a few of them:
Abraham Lincoln – As a young man, Lincoln tried many occupations, including joining with a partner in buying a general store. As it turned out, Lincoln was not much of a shopkeeper and started buying other stores’ inventories on credit, but his own sales were quite low. As the debt mounted, Lincoln sold his share, but when his partner died, Lincoln was held responsible for $1,000 in back payments. The creditors took him to court where he lost his only two assets, a horse and some surveying gear. That wasn’t enough to satisfy the creditors however, and he kept making payments to them well into the 1840’s.
Henry Ford – In 1899, Ford started the Detroit Automobile Company with the backing of three politicians. Because he was such a perfectionist his plant only produced 20 cars over the next two years. The company went bankrupt and he then started the Henry Ford Company. Ford again left that company and started Ford Motor Company in 1903.
Walt Disney – Disney started out as a struggling filmmaker in 1922 when he started his own film company with a partner in Kansas. They bought a used camera and made short advertising films and cartoons. Disney’s distributor in New York cheated him out of some cash and his studio went bankrupt in 1923. He then left for Hollywood where he debuted his character Mickey Mouse.
Milton Hershey – Hershey spent four years as an apprentice in a candy shop and then broke out on his own in Philadelphia in 1876. Six years later, his business failed, as did a subsequent venture to sell candies in New York City. He returned home and pioneered the use of fresh milk in caramel production and founded the successful Lancaster Caramel Company. In 1900, he sold his caramel company for $1 million to chase his real desire of perfecting the milk chocolate formula.
H.J.Heinz – When Heinz was just 25 years old, he and two partners began a company that made horseradish. As the legend goes, the spicy root was the first of Heinz’s famed 57 varieties, but it wasn’t as lucrative as he’d hoped. A business panic in 1875 bankrupted his enterprise, but Heinz’s passion for condiments remained strong. The very next year, Heinz got together with his brother and a cousin to start a new company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The reorganized group started making ketchup, and the business took off. Last year, the H.J. Heinz Company brought in over $10 billion in revenue.
The people in these examples and countless others have one thing in common: they didn’t give up. They learned from their mistakes and tried again. In many cases they had to try many times before they eventually succeeded.