1. Madonna

When the Queen of Pop finally signed with Sire Records in 1982, her debut album sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. She used this early rejection as motivation, as this respected producer didn’t believe she was “ready yet.” She’s now the best selling female artist of all time.

2. Tim Burton

This Disney editor didn’t consider Burton’s first children’s book, “The Giant Zlig”, marketable enough. He took the feedback to heart, feverishly honed his skills and was hired as an animator’s apprentice at the company just a few years later. He went on to become involved in films like “Edward Scissorhands”, and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

3. Andy Warhol

In 1956, Warhol gave one of his pieces to the Museum of Modern Art – for free – but was quickly rejected. Obviously, his luck turned around pretty fast. On top of having his own museum in Pittsburgh, the very museum that rejected him now features 168 of his original works.

4. U2

When U2 debuted in 1979, RSO Records was thoroughly unimpressed. Within months, the band signed with Island Records and released their first international single, “11 O’Clock Tick Tock.” They went on to sell 150 million records, win 22 Grammy Awards (most of any band ever), and performed in the highest grossing concert tour in history .

5. Kurt Vonnegut

Three writing samples sent to The Atlantic Monthly in 1949 were deemed commendable, but “not compelling enough for final acceptance.” Rather than giving up, Kurt framed the letter, which now hangs in his Memorial Library in Indianapolis. His most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five , is rumored to have developed out of one of the samples.

6. Sylvia Plath

Although this wasn’t a complete rejection, the New Yorker requested the entire first half of “Amnesiac” to be cut. It’s hard to believe that the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet would have her work torn apart, but it shows how even the greatest writers start from humble beginnings.

7. Gertrude Stein

In possibly the snarkiest letter of all time, Arthur C. Fifield turned down Gertrude Stein’s manuscript for “The Making of Americans” without reading all of it, then mocked her. The celebrated novelist and poet later mentored the likes of Ernest Hemingway.

8. Jim Lee

Today, Jim is the co-publisher of DC comics and one of the most famous figures in the comic book industry. But in this letter from Marvel (one of many rejection letters he’d received throughout his life), he was told to reapply “when he had learned to draw hands.”

9. Stieg Larsson

This Swedish letter the man behind the award-winning “Millennium” trilogy told him he wasn’t good enough to be a journalist. Although he didn’t live long enough to experience his own success, those in charge at the JCCJ in Stockholm must be kicking themselves.

10. Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar’s claim to fame, “Tarzan of the Apes”, has spawned 25 sequels and countless reproductions. But before everyone knew about the famous ape man, his story was unceremoniously rejected from a magazine in 1912. Luckily, a wiser publication accepted his piece later that year, launching a legacy that is now over a hundred year old.

11. Others didn’t save their letters, but they’ll never forget the words that fueled their success…