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Are you one of the 100 million Americans who made or will make a New Year's Resolution for this coming year? If so, best of luck to you in making them come true. But, even if you make mistakes in pursuing your goals, all may not be lost. As they say, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

This kind of determination can help you go in life, even if you have some failures along the way. Here are examples of famous people who were discouraged, but didn't give up on their dreams.

• Beethoven is thought by many to be the greatest music writer of all time. But, when he was young, he had a music teacher who didn't give him much hope. In fact, the teacher told him, "As a composer, you're hopeless." Ouch!


• Who became the greatest basketball player of all time? Many would say Michael Jordan. Did you know that before Michael became a Superstar, he was actually kicked off his high school basketball team for not being good enough?


• Thomas Edison, who many consider the greatest inventor ever, had a teacher who told him he was too dumb to learn anything. Later in life, Thomas made 2,000 unsuccessful tries to invent the light bulb before he got it right. Did he feel bad about all those false steps along the way? Not at all. He praised himself for being a smart learner and said, "I learned 2,000 ways not to make a light bulb."


• Did you know some of the greatest scientists were considered slow learners? Isaac Newton who discovered the law of gravity was a terrible student in elementary school. And Albert Einstein didn't learn how to speak until he was four years old.


• Have you read any Harry Potter books or seen the movies? Can you believe that the author had a rough time getting her first Harry Potter book published? R.K. Rowling was turned down by 12 publishers who thought the book was not good enough to sell copies. But, 13 was this writer's lucky number. The 13th publisher decided her book was certainly good enough and he was right. More than 450 million Harry Potter books have been sold so far.


• F.W. Woolworth, who became one of the most successful store owners of all time, began as an assistant in another person's store. But, his boss wouldn't let him wait on customers because he thought Woolworth "didn't have enough sense."


• Firm director Steven Spielberg dropped out of high school in 10th grade. The school talked him into coming back and to enter a learning disability class. Steven hated it and stayed only a month before dropping out of school forever. We went to make hugely popular films, like E.T., Jaws and Jurassic Park.

So is the lesson here that you to fail in a big way before you can become successful? No, not at all. However, as the stories of these famous people suggest, even if you fail, you can resolve to get back on track and continue until you are successful.

From the upcoming issue of Kidz Klub News. Follow us on Scribd for an update on when it is available for download.

Sources: CNN.com, MotivateUs.com, EssentialLifeSkills.net and Wikipedia.org