With over 350 million novels sold, Stephen King is a real success story. It is more of a rags-to-riches success story for a man who was raised by a struggling single mother. For a time, this master storyteller his brother, and mother had to live off handouts from neighbors. As he says:
“My mother was a single parent. Her husband deserted her when I was 2, and she went through a lot of menial jobs. We were the little people. We were dragged from pillar to post, and there was none of this equal opportunity stuff going on at that time. We were latchkey kids before there were latchkey kids, and she was a female wage earner when, basically, women did scut work and cleaned up other people's messes.”
 

Stephen King was far from an overnight success. Although he started writing early in his life he had a long way to go before becoming the multi-million dollar writer that he is today. Early on, he was a struggling author, and as the earnings from his writings were not enough, he had to work as an industrial laundromat, a janitor, and an English teacher in a public school. He struggled to pay his bills and wrote whenever he could.
 

Stephen King’s success story took a turn for the better when he finished writing the manuscript for Carrie. For this, he received a $2500 advance. The book did not disappoint when it got published. In fact, it was so successful that it ended up being adapted into a movie in 1976. That was not the best part though. The phone call that informed him of the sale of the rights to the New American Library was. King was to get half of the $400,000 sale price!
 

What followed was a rollercoaster ride that saw Stephen King write over 50 novels. The novels have earned Stephen King both money and awards. He has over the years received: Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, British Fantasy Society Awards, an O. Henry Award, a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Canadian Booksellers Association Lifetime Achievement Award and the Grand Master Award. His is an inspiring success story for aspiring writers.
 

"We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell." Those were the words of one publisher who passed over the manuscript for "Carrie," which King submitted when he was 20. In fact, before becoming an iconic thriller, "Carrie" was rejected by 30 publishers, finally causing King to give up and throw it in the trash. His wife retrieved it and urged him to resubmit it. The rest is history. King has since published more than 50 books, all worldwide bestsellers, according to Amazon.com
 

Stephen was a struggling author without a proper job and faced depression because of his early failures but he has gone on to be successful only by believing in his skills even when everyone around him left his side.
 

Stephen King’s life is a lesson that teaches us that believing in yourself is the only way possible to become the most successful person you can ever be. It is through failure that we are able to learn, grow, and ultimately succeed.