Sometimes, life can throw the kitchen sink at you, and you’ve got no option but to break down into pieces. While some of us like to escape from our problems, true strength comes from facing them head on, because the only way out of a rut is through it. A lot of inspiration can be taken from autobiographies of successful men, who didn’t get rattled by their mistakes and failures, but instead used them as stepping stones to grow in their respective fields. 

Instead of describing these men, we’ve included a quote from their autobiographies to give you a glimpse of their life and their thoughts. 

Rafa: My Story by Rafael Nadal

“If he (Toni Nadal) hadn’t made me play without water that day, if he hadn’t singled me out for especially harsh treatment when I was in that group of little kids learning the game, if I hadn’t cried as I did at the injustice and abuse he heaped on me, maybe I would not be the player I am today. He always stressed the importance of endurance. “Endure, put up with whatever comes your way, learn to overcome weakness and pain, push yourself to breaking point but never cave in. If you don’t learn that lesson, you’ll never succeed as an elite athlete”: that was what he taught me.”

And Then One Day by Naseeruddin Shah

“The marvellous Stellan Skarsgard with whom I once acted, in an utterly unmemorable film, had remarked to me at the time, ‘Isn’t being an actor wonderful? You are paid to stay a child.” 

I Think Therefore I Play by Andrea Pirlo

“To most people’s minds, the reason we lost (the Miracle in Istanbul) was Jerzy Dudek – that jackass of a dancer who took the mickey out of us by swaying about on his line and then rubbed salt into the wound by saving our spot kicks. But in time the truly painful sentence was realizing that we were entirely to blame.”

Chronicles, Vol. 1 by Bob Dylan

“Some people seem to fade away but then when they are truly gone, it’s like they didn’t fade away at all.|

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

“But sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.’ So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there.”