Before Chocolate, Milton Hershey Took A Major Candy L

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," exhorts the popular expression about persistence and determination ultimately winning the day. It's a quote of particular relevance to a number of renowned entrepreneurs and other famously successful people who didn't always get it right the first — or even the second or third time — and had to keep returning to the drawing board.

J.K. Rowling is now a household name forever associated with the "Harry Potter" novels and subsequent films, but her first book, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," was rejected by 12 publishers before she finally found someone willing to accept it (per Access MBA). And today, you can't picture Microsoft and Windows without thinking about Bill Gates, but the billionaire's first business undertaking, Traf-O-Data, failed to boot up (via business.com).

The American chocolatier and businessman Milton Hershey bears a last name that would eventually become synonymous with chocolate, but before he struck it big in candy, Hershey experienced a series of major setbacks (per Small BusinessTrends).

Chocolatier Milton Hershey actually began his career as a printing company intern, not in the confection industry. It was an inauspicious start, as he was fired from the gig. Then, he shifted his attention to the candy-making world, where he also stumbled initially (via Small Business Trends).

His first candy business, established in 1876 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, flopped. Eager to learn from his mistakes and hone his skills, he next worked as an apprentice for another candy company in Denver, Colorado (per Mental Floss). He attempted to launch a second candy business in Chicago, Illinois, which also didn't last. In Hershey's case, the third time was not the charm either, as an endeavor to embark on a candy business in New York in 1883 also failed (via Entrepreneur's Handbook).

Hershey just kept trying to open new candy operations in different cities, and it was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that he finally hit "PayDay," partnering on the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1886. He ultimately founded the Hershey Chocolate Company in 1894 and with it, he finally achieved lasting prosperity (per The Hershey Company). Hershey joins a dedicated group of individuals who refused to let their early losses and failures define them. Imagine what would've happened to chocolate as many of us know it had he not kept digging away.