Did you know that bankruptcies in the United States are at an all-time high?
After all, it increased at a steady pace since 1980, peaking in 2005 at about 2 million cases. That meant about one in 55 households got bankrupt.
There are a lot of things that can contribute to a loss. But the more important part is how to bounce back from failure.
If you want to know how to deal with a lost loved one, here is a great guide. But what about financial loss?
Even the biggest companies fail but they still rise up to the challenge. Their stories could inspire you to keep pushing forward.
Read these motivating stories to learn how to bounce back:
1. Apple
The most famous success story is how the tech company Apple used its failure as a stepping stone towards their current rise. The company went on a decade-long decline after its CEO, Steve Jobs, left the company back in 1985. Another contributing factor is the fact that its competitors took over their market with lower-priced products.
The company almost filed for bankruptcy after its popularity and sales continued to go on a downward spiral. It changed after Jobs rejoined them back in 1997. Apple turned itself around and rebranded itself to become what it is today.
Apple released new technology with the first iMac. Today, it’s one of the most famous and valuable companies in the world. It earns about $300 billion every year.
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2. FedEx
Frederick Smith founded FedEx back in 1971 using $4 million of inheritance money as well as $80 million in loans and other investments. The company got a lot of debt during its first two years in the business due to rising fuel prices. By then, it was already at the verge of bankruptcy.
Smith flew to Las Vegas after his funds dwindled down to $5,000. He gambled the last of his money in a desperate attempt to double it. In a stroke of luck, he managed to turn his $5,000 into $27,000, saving the company after raising another $11 million.
It’s only after five years that FedEx got its first profit of $3.6 million. It only got better seven years later, when FedEx rose to the top as the first United States-based company to reach $1 billion in profits within a decade. They did this without mergers or acquisitions, and they continue to thrive to this day.
3. Reddit
This popular website dedicated to news and discussion had zero visitors when it first launched back in 2005. The founders, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, made several fake accounts. They held fake discussions before visitors started pouring in.
Before long, Reddit reached its popularity. It attracted the attention of Conde Nast, owner of 20 other brands like Vogue and The New Yorker. He bought Reddit and from then, the rest is history.
At present, Reddit has almost 550 million active users online. It’s the fourth most visited website in the United State. It ranks as the sixth around the world.
4. Airbnb
When Airbnb initially came out in 2008, it had a hard time trying to find investors. This forced their founders, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, to make custom cereal boxes as their means of raising funds. They used Barack Obama and his Presidential competitor John McCain as their inspiration to make Obama-Os and Cap’n McCains.
Within the span of two months, they gathered about $30,000. This got them an invitation to a training session for a startup incubator. This gave them the training they needed, as well as $20,000 to fund their upcoming business.
After bouncing back from failure, the company grew exponentially. On the succeeding year, Airbnb had 10,000 users as well as 2,500 listings. Today, it now has 4 million listings around the world, raking in about $2.5 billion profit each year.
5. General Motors
This story is one of the most dramatic turnaround success stories around. It’s founded back in 1908 as a holding company. Within two years, the founder, William C. Durant, lost control of General Motors due to debts and a car sale collapse.
It took half of a decade for Durant to regain control of the company, only to lose it again for good within three years. This happened since the new vehicle market experienced another collapse. Alfred P. Sloan took over afterward, leading the company into global market dominance.
Sloan made the success last well into the 1980s. But in 2009, GM went bankrupt, which stripped its stockholders almost all the funds they invested. They had to close down some brands like the Saturn, Pontiac, and Hummer.
A month later, the United States Treasury itself invested about $50 billion in the company. The bailout saved around 1.2 million people’s jobs. This helped the government preserve around $34.9 billion worth of tax revenues.
Today, GM remains as one of the top vehicle companies in the world. It makes around 9 million vehicles each year. It has about 200,000 people while bringing in about $150 billion in revenue.
6. Marvel
Martin Goodman founded this company back in 1939, seeing instant success with its American audience. Fan favorites include Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. Within two years, its sales skyrocketed to almost $1 million.
The company continued to rise as decades went by, rising until the 1980s. Their first attempt at a film, Howard the Duck, was a huge blunder. It cost them about $30 million and it only made about half that.
It became harder due to some of its greatest writers leaving during the early 1990s. They’re forced to file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996. But they bounced back since they started producing more successful films like Spider-Man and X-Men.
Now, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has about 18 films, 10 TV series, and planned movies until 2020.
Learn How to Bounce Back from Failure Today!
Failing is part of living. It isn’t the end of everything, but rather a start of something new. Learn from your failures and emerge as a better person.
If you’re not sure how to bounce back from failure, use these success stories as inspiration.
Don’t end your journey here! There are other kinds of loss and difficulties. That said, we’ve got your back.
Feel free to read our other guides to help you recover. You can read this post to recover from identity theft.