Shah Rukh Khan lived in a rented apartment in India with his parents and older sister. He was excellent in studies and amazing in sports like hockey and football.
When asked by his school teacher about his career goals, he said that he wanted to be a Bollywood actor. His classmates laughed at him and his teacher tried to explain to him that his dream is unrealistic and hardly possible and that it was better to give up on such ridiculous idea. But that was not an option.
So when he was studying for a master’s degree, he left his studies to pursue his dream to become an actor. But unfortunately, his parents died and his older sister fell into a deep depression. So Khan took on the responsibility of taking care of her. He had a really hard time supporting himself and his sister especially when he moved to Mumbai and tried to make it as an actor.
One of the toughest periods of his life began when he was struggling with poverty and failures. He was even homeless. “I’ve slept on the roads there have been times I have been thrown out of my house because we couldn’t pay the rent,” Khan said.
He started taking movie roles that were rejected by other stars and one time in the early days of his career, one director told him that he was extremely ugly and not the hero type. But nothing could discourage him.
In 1992, he got the role of the second male lead in the movie ‘Davana.’ He was cast as a replacement and agreed to do the role for a small amount of money. He even took the job of selling tickets for the movie at the movie theater. That year, his patience, hardships and struggles finally paid off when he won his first Filmfare Award for the Best Male Debut.
His attitude, hard work and dedication made him one of the best actors and most successful superstar in Bollywood. He started to build his success from zero and today Shah Rukh Khan is the richest Bollywood actor and second richest actor in the world. He is also a humanitarian with amazing heart and was honoured by UNESCO for his charity.
Shah Rukh Khan has one of the best motivational success stories out there. The inspiring story of how the boy who struggled with poverty and slept on the streets became one of the wealthiest and most successful people in the world will motivate us to never give up.
Related: How Maria Carey overcame discrimination and failure to become a music legend.
A moment will come when there isn’t anything that is going right, but don’t panic, you will survive it. All you have to do is make a move and move on a bit. Whatever it is that is pulling you back is not going away unless you stand up and start forging your path in the opposite direction.
Don’t let your fears become boxes that enclose you. Open them out, fill them and turn them into your greatest courage and nothing will go wrong. But if you live by your fears, everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong.
