5 Powerful Steps to Turn Epic Failure into an Unstoppable Comeback

Proven Strategies for Entrepreneurs to Bounce Back Stronger and Achieve Success

Ah, the epic fail—a familiar friend for the ADHD entrepreneur. One minute, you’re riding the dopamine high of your latest genius idea; the next, you’re staring at a pile of unmet deadlines and wondering if it’s too late to move to a remote island and raise goats. The good news? Some of the most successful people in history not only survived epic fails but used them as rocket fuel.

Here’s a lineup of legendary comebacks (I am NOT claiming any of these people have or had ADHD):

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1. Steve Jobs: The King of Shiny Objects and Epic Comebacks

The Fail: In 1985, Steve Jobs got fired from Apple—the very company he co-founded. Imagine getting kicked out of your own startup because your vision was a little too intense. Classic ADHD move: all vision, no brakes.

The Comeback: Did Jobs spiral into a TikTok binge? Nope. He founded NeXT and bought Pixar, which eventually transformed animated movies forever. When Apple was floundering, they bought NeXT, and Jobs returned to lead the company to create the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and other dopamine-inducing gadgets.

ADHD Hack: Jobs didn’t see failure as the end—just as a pivot point. He followed the shiny object (in this case, NeXT and Pixar) and turned it into a multibillion-dollar comeback.

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2. Walt Disney: The King of Hyperfocus and Too Many Ideas

The Fail: Walt Disney was fired for “lacking imagination and having no good ideas.” His first animation company went bankrupt. For someone with ADHD, this is basically a Tuesday.

The Comeback: Refusing to take the hint, Disney hyperfocused on creating a little character named Mickey Mouse. Fast forward to an empire that owns half of everything you watch.

ADHD Hack: Lean into your hyperfocus and let people underestimate you. Sometimes, “too many ideas” is just code for “an empire in progress.”

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3. Oprah Winfrey: Emotional Overwhelm Turned Superpower

The Fail: Oprah was fired from her first TV job for being “too emotionally invested” in her stories. For someone with rejection-sensitive dysphoria (hello, ADHD), this could’ve been game over.

The Comeback: Instead of numbing her emotions, Oprah doubled down on them. She built The Oprah Winfrey Show, turning raw empathy into a billion-dollar brand.

ADHD Hack: The things that make you “too much” are exactly what make you stand out. Go ahead and feel all the feelings—just monetize them strategically.

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4. J.K. Rowling: The Rejection Collection Queen

The Fail: Before Harry Potter made her richer than the Queen, J.K. Rowling was living on welfare and got rejected by 12 publishers. ADHD rejection sensitivity? Yeah, she had to battle that, too.

The Comeback: Finally, a publisher took a chance because his 8-year-old daughter loved the book. Cue a 500-million-copy empire and a generation of kids pretending to do magic in their bedrooms. Rowling even turned her rejection letters into framed wall art—because why not?

ADHD Hack: Rejection is just feedback from people who can’t see your vision yet. Treat it like XP in a video game and level up.

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5. Thomas Edison: Hyperfocus Overload

The Fail: Edison didn’t fail at making the light bulb—he just found 1,000 ways not to do it. That’s peak ADHD: try a thousand variations because you refuse to do things the boring way.

The Comeback: Eventually, one of those attempts lit up the world—literally. His hyperfocus on solving problems changed everything from lighting to how many times you can hit the snooze button.

ADHD Hack: Embrace your tendency to try things 99 different ways. Iteration is your superpower. Keep tweaking until something clicks (or lights up).

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Here are the five steps for an epic comeback, with some Yiddish wisdom sprinkled in—parenthetically defined, of course: