10 Examples of people who chose themself

I've loved the concept of choosing yourself ever since I read about it just under 10 years ago. It is such a strong, powerful message that everyone needs to hear. You dont need permission from all the gatekeepers in your life. Go ahead and choose yourself today. Here is a list of 10 famous people that have already done it.

1. Richard Branson

Richard started a student magazine when he was in school. The he started selling records, then he opened up a record store, then he started signing musical talent. Then he started an airline, a railway, a bank, a brand of cola, a radio station, a cell phone company, a brand of condoms (Virgin Condoms anyone??), a hotel company, a space travel company and about 300 others. There were plenty of people who said he couldnt do it, especially given he is dyslexic, but it didnt stop him.

2. Orville and Wilbur Wright

At the turn of the 20th Century governments were spending millions to develop a way for humans to take flight. But it was two brothers, that ran a bicycle shop that decided to give it a go, and around October 1900, their plane Kitty Hawk took flight. What made these small businessmen think they could beat the Government, nobody knows, but somehow they managed to do it and etch themselves in history.

3. Elon Musk

In the late nineties Musk sold his first two companies Zip2 and X.com for a total of approximately $200M. He could have quite easily lived off that for the rest of his life. Butthen he launched a rocket company, and a solar power company, and an electric car company. It didnt matter that he didnt have the domain knowledge at first, he broke it down to first principles and started building from there.

4. Rodney Dangerfield

During his 20's Rodney tried stand up comedy and failed. So he started selling aluminium slidings for the next 20 years before trying comedy again. He bought a comedy club, THE comedy club "Dangerfields", which every great stand up comic performed at. He could have given up, continued to make a living as a salesman, but he decided to choose himself, and went on to have a successful career as a comedian.

5. Heston Blumenthal

Heston is a celebrity chef, that can actually cook. Having receive three Michelin stars and his pub The Fat Duck, winning the worlds best restaurant in 2005 it may suprise you Heston is completely self taught. When he was 18 he started a chefs apprenticeship but only lasted a week, before spending the next 10 years doing odd jobs but stil had a love of cooking. So when he was 30 he bought a pub, and opened the restaurant, taking a new multi-sensory and scientific approach to cooking, inspiring many others to do the same over the years.

6. Donald Trump

I'm not going to get into an argument about his politics. I dont live in the USA, hell I dont even live in the Northern Hemisphere so who the President is has absolutely no bearing on my life. But love him or hate him, it's hard to deny that he chose himself and did it his way when he ran for office.

7. Sylvester Stallone

Stallone was a struggling actor doing bit parts and extras work while struggling to make ends meet. Rumor has it he even sold his own dog at one point. Then he wrote the script for Rocky in three days. He was originally offered $350,000 for the rights, but the studio wanted someone else to star in it. Despite being more money than he had seen in his life he turned it down, because he wanted to star in it. He could have sold it, thinking "I'll star in the next one" but didnt want to be ruled by the studio, so he chose himself, and took a much lower amount in return for starring in the movie The movie was a huge success and launched his career.

8. Robert W Pittman

On 1st August 1981 MTV was launched and, fittingly, showed The Buggles "Video Killed the Radio Star". There was no channel dedicated solely to music video as no one thought it would work. Pittman, was training to be a pilot, but has also been a radio DJ. His idea was shopped around and no one was interested, so instead he decided to choose himself and create an entire new channel.

9. Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks

Even since the invention of film it has been common for studios to lock away talent on multi year. multi film deals. Ever wonder why your favorite actor appears in an awful film, its usually because they signed a contract when they were starting out and need to fulfill it. In the 1920, Chaplin, Pickford and Fairbanks were all trapped working for studios they hated, so they started their own and called it United Artists which is still around today.

10. James Altucher

Programmer, web developer, hedge fund manager, podcaster and a bunch of other things. I wont go into everything as I feel I wont do it justice, but I'm sure you all know the story by know.