I can think of at least two people - Henry Ford and Walt Disney whose success came after a long string of failures. And that's just the cream of the crop.
Highly recommend Neal Gabler's biography, "Walt Disney: The Triumph of The American Imagination". Fascinating and underpinned by seven years of exhaustive research.
The first fifth is about his failures. His failed animation and film companies. The entire 633 page book is about one man's obsession (with the biz ops help of his brother) with bringing reality to fantasy and fantasy to reality.
It may not seem to be your typical startup-type book but it's all about entrepreneurship, failure, and pushing the limits of technology and enthusiasm.
"But for all Walt's continuing assurances of improvement, and for all his genuine desire to make outstanding films, the Alice movies, even with Iwerks's contributions, were only slightly better than routine"
p.86
"In creating a world of his own from scratch, Walt Disney demonstrated, more fully and forcefully than ever before in his work, man's potential mastery, which has always been the inherent metaphor of animation."
p. 275
I can think of at least two people - Henry Ford and Walt Disney whose success came after a long string of failures. And that's just the cream of the crop.