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Eight Successful People Grateful That They Got Canned

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124147696228084981.html

 

"Reprinted from Mental Floss magazine." apologizes if this has been posted b4 ...

 

Eight Successful People Grateful That They Got Canned

By Ethan Trex

 

In our tough economic climate, it's worth reminding ourselves that losing a job might not be the end of the world. Sure, it never feels good, but for these well-known folks, getting the boot from their gigs provided the impetus for them to reach even greater successes.

1. Jerry Seinfeld

2. Michael Bloomberg

3. Robert Redford

4. Wilco

 

In 2000 and 2001, the Chicago rock band Wilco recorded an artsy album that departed from the band's previous folk-inflected work. The record, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, didn't sound quite like what the band's label, Reprise Records, was hoping for. Although the album isn't aggressively grating, it wasn't full of the radio-friendly rock that the cash-strapped imprint needed to churn out a few hit singles. Reprise refused to release the album and dropped Wilco from its roster. As part of their severance from the label, the band got to take the master tapes of the record with them.

 

Without a label to release the album, Wilco decided to simply stream it on their website for free. As critical buzz for the record built, Nonesuch Records (like Reprise, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers) bought Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and gave it a commercial release in 2002. The record was a critical smash; it topped many critics' best-albums list for the year. It was also a commercial success, selling close to 600,000 copies.

More from Mental Floss

 

5. Annabelle Gurwitch

6. Rainn Wilson

7. Howard Stern

8. Bill Bellichick

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