10 celebrity bankruptcy stories you can learn from
 

Top 10 Celebrity bankruptcy stories you can learn from - How they made their wealth, how they lost it, how some of them gained it back, and how you can learn from their stories.

Word....

Come to think of it, many successful people experience many failures, some including filing for bankruptcy, on their way to their lives' biggest success.

very interesting stories. great way to market your site too. :-)

yeah but i think theres a big diffference between some average guy who loses his home and goes into foreclosure and bankruptcy vs some Celebrity millionaire who loses only her 2nd, 3rd, and 4th home and then does a 30 mil movie and bounces back.

average guy usually dont bounce back

In 1989, Basinger and a few other investors put up $20 million dollars to buy a small town in Georgia called Braselton. --> How do you make money off owning a town? I didn't know that people could own them.

The average guy will also never be a millionaire unless they hit the lotto or are born a spoiled trust fund baby.

A lot of those celebrities have probably already had numerous failures getting to the celeb point but their determination, drive and self love keeps them going and striving to get up again.

Just like any other real estate venture.

Given the current economic downturn, many of these stories have added resonance.

Notice how mismanagement by managers is a fairly common thread to these stories?

you're more likely to lose your fortune if you didnt earn it with hard work.

Best way to avoid bankruptcy - DONT MARRY !!

Interesting read about the rich and famous

Yeah seriously... if your rich, why marry at all? What is the point other than losing half of your wealth...

Ok then forget Gene's list, and look at this one.

Walt Disney
William C. Durant (founder of GM)
PT Barnum (before he started the circus)
Ulysses S. Grant
Milton Snavely Hershey (his first 4 candy companies failed)
Abraham Lincoln
Thomas Paine
Rembrandt
Donald Trump
Mark Twain
Oscar Wilde
Henry Ford (First two car companies failed)
HJ Heinz

All of them were "average guys" before they became what they ultimately were, and all of them, at some point in their lives before that, filed for bankruptcy.

Exactly, Lenny. The key is to keep learning from the past and keep trying. Andy Grove of Intel once said (paraphrasing)--in my life, I've built 99 companies, all of them eventually failed, my 100th was Intel.

Failures and setbacks are just lessons on the way to success.

Also, add to your list: George Washington. Washington LOST most of his battles but WON the crucial ones. By some estimates, he only won TWO major battles but that's open to debate re significance. What's important was that he hung on despite many retreats and an increasingly demoralized revolutionary army.

Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor and expert on bankruptcy and contract law, says that one of the reasons the entrepreneurial spirit is so strong in America is because of our liberal bankruptcy laws.

People are more willing to take a risk if they're not afraid of having a debt hanging over their head for the rest of their lives, or passed on to their children etc.
You can take a risk and if it doesn't work out, you go back to zero and start over.

The list of people I posted are people who did exactly that. Eventually most of them got it right.

I heard somewhere once that the average millionaire has filed bankruptcy 1.7 or 2.7 times in their life, but I tried researching that when I put that list together and wasn't able to verify it. :2 cents:

Oh well the list of people who were monumental failures many times before they succeeded could fill volumes. Thomas Edison and his 1000 failed attempts at making a light bulb come to mind.

I was limiting my list to people who had filed bankruptcy.

One of my favorite quotes, is from Albert Gray, who wrote "The Common Denominator of Success" (I haven't read the book, it was quoted in another book I read)
One thing that failures don't like to do is take risks. Risk being humiliated if they fail. Risk going broke if the business doesn't work out. Give up that safe job and pension to start a new company on a shoestring. Have the balls to look for investors for a new business the day after you file bankruptcy on the previous one. (see Donald Trump)

I think you missed his Fletch's point entirely.

If by 'failure' you mean average joes who aren't millionaires, I agree. They're average because they don't take risks. There are no rewards without risks. I don't consider them failures though, unless one believes 90% of people are failures. Most people don't have the skill (intelligence, temperament) to make it big. I think you're only a failure if you have ability and you don't do anything with it (trying is not failing).

If Andy Grove of Intel died after having built his first 99 companies, all of them which eventually failed according to him, he would have died a financial failure, but not a true failure, because he was always trying. Fortunately for us and him he lived to build his 100th company which was Intel.

Trump was the son of a millionaire which hardly makes him average. The beauty of that is starting out your life with the best education, millions in the bank, bailout if needed, and friends in high places when the chips are down.

The key is to just keep trying. Most don't have what it takes to make it (genetically), others do have the intelligence but never try because they lack the temperament (determination etc). Still, others try but never hit it (they never get their 100th company - right time, idea, opportunity), and still others have the ability and are able to make a go out of it after trying very hard.

You can't get success without failures, you learn 10 times more from a failure than you do from having success :thumbsup

The story that really sucked was the guy that bounced back and got shot by his father, talk about bad irony :upsidedow

True. But Marvin Gaye's legacy lives on. Probably one of the best songwriters ever.:thumbsup

You know, I entered this thread, looked at the link, glanced over the celebs, closed it, and was gonna reply with "10 Celebrity bankruptcy stories that nobody gives a shit about", but luckly I continued reading the thread and to be honest... This thread was a great read.

:thumbsup to $5 Submissions and Snake Doctor.

I think I hit it spot on.

He was referring to celebrities who go bankrupt, and then get a $30M movie deal, and BAM they're back.....and how that's meaningless to the average Joe who loses his job.

I put out a list of people, most of whom were average Joes at one time, most of whom built something from nothing and became successful. How can the average Joe not relate to that?

There were a couple of average Joes who were cartoonists for Disney. They got fired. At the time Disney was the only company in the country really that employed cartoonists.
Their names were Hanna and Barbera.

I'm pretty sure you can figure out the rest of that story.

I'm just saying that average joe or celebrity, anyone can start over. That's what America is all about. :thumbsup

This I'm going to have to disagree with.

Short of having an IQ so low that you'd be in special ed, just about anyone can be the next self made millionaire.

There are advantages to being good looking, having a high IQ, etc....but the world is full of successful people who don't have any of that.

I'm sure that most successful people like to think that they were born with "what it takes" and most other people weren't, but that's just narcissism. We're talking about starting a business and making sound investment choices, not pitching in the major leagues. :2 cents:

Again, that misses Fletch's point entirely.

He's talking about average joes who never became financially successful and probably never will because they're average. It's different for them losing everything than it is for somebody with average means but above average skill who becomes successful, loses money, and is able to recoup. Apples and oranges.

I would wager that the vast majority of 'self-made' millionaires have above average IQ because they typically need to comprehend and synthesize information efficiently. Now as simple as it may seem to just 'start a business and make sound investments' you have to realize that most people are not entrepreneurs. Why? Because being an entrepreneur requires certain skill sets like the ones you eluded to earlier - risk taking, dedication, opportunistic. Again, the vast majority of self-made millionaires will display these characteristics, but most ordinary folks won't. If it were so simple, why aren't most people setting up shops instead of a small few? We should all be treated equally under the law, but individuals are not biologically equal. It's the smallest individual differences in things like temperament that can make a world of difference.

I'm not a millionaire and I don't know any millionaires personally, so I don't know what they think of themselves. I think there are some like Donald Trump, who was born rich, who may feel they're a cut above the rest of us, but I think there are lots of self-made successful people who believe their success resulted from inborn ability plus opportunity and a are grateful for both and don't look down on others but use their money to help the less fortunate.

Damn good post buddy. :thumbsup

The OP was about celebrity bankruptcies, and Fletch was comparing average Joe to them.

I compared average Joe to other people who were at one time average Joes (most of them) and eventually became wealthy or otherwise successful after a bankruptcy.

I didn't miss his point, it's not as if I have a reading comprehension problem. The reason you think I missed his point, is because you assume that average Joe stands almost no chance of becoming Henry Ford, HJ Heinz, or Walt Disney.

I disagree.

Neither of us can definitively prove our point of view on this is right, so we'll just have to agree to disagree. I prefer my point of view simply because it is a more empowering belief.

Yes I suppose we have a philosophical difference with no right or wrong answers. But I believe my perspective is just as empowering as yours. I think my perspective says 'keep trying because you may have what it takes and only after testing yourself you will find out and the only failure is somebody who never tries' while your view says essentially that 'you may be the next lucky lottery winner'. Everybody who plays the lotto knows they have a chance of winning, but most people don't bank on it because they know how small that chance is. I think the same thing happens when you tell everybody that they can do anything because they're all the same. It's so unrealistic and it only takes a a few years of life when we come to know that it's not true. I think this false promise may actually cause many to never try as hard as they might have. I also think the 'if you're rich then you're successful and if not you're a failure' mentality also takes the dignity out of 'honest work' [and necessary work] that ordinary folks do and creates the kind of indulgent culture we find ourselves in.

Would it be fair to encapsulate your position as "Those who are better at learning and keeping their motivation/determination up despite many setbacks have a better shot at succeeding"?

Yes:winkwink:

That's totally untrue and I don't know how you could have drawn that conclusion from what I said.

I never said or implied that successful people were merely lucky.

You said that most people don't "have what it takes", be that the intellect or whatever....and I disagreed and said that most people do have what it takes, they're just not willing to make the necessary sacrifices or take the necessary risks.

I really don't know why you have it in for me but you've been busting my balls since your first post in this thread and it's totally unwarranted.

Why don't you stop putting words in my mouth and making assumptions about what I do and don't understand about what other people say, and stick to the facts....or in this case, the words that I have written.

FWIW, I don't think that a belief that says "Most don't have what it takes to make it (genetically)" is empowering, but if you do, then more power to you.
Just stop misquoting me and putting words in my mouth.

kthxbai

Didn't learn too much from the article besides "dont make bad investments" or "dont sign a bad contract deal", kind of common sense type of things or impossible to avoid in some cases (a risky investment where you don't necessarily know the outcome). But this thread was a good read.

Snake, I'm sorry if I've misinterpreted you. It's not my intention to bust your balls. If you feel I'm digging at you, it's because I know you'll respond with interesting insights. Anyway, thanks for another interesting thread $5 submissions.

Cool.:thumbsup

This reminded me of the Rocky Balboa - Son talk in the latest movie :)

No problem mang. It's all good. :winkwink: