Many of the people we consider successful were not people with some particular talent, luck or privilege, but were hard workers who succeeded thru persistence.

Examples:

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln entered the Black Hawk War as a captain and finished as a private.
Lincoln began his political career in 1832, at age 23, with an unsuccessful campaign for the Illinois General Assembly.

Lincoln was elected to a term in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846.
Lincoln later damaged his political reputation with a speech against the Mexican-American War.
Warned by his law partner, William Herndon, that the damage was mounting and irreparable, Lincoln decided not to run for reelection.

Lincoln said: "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing."

Lincoln is ranked as one of the top 3 presidents in history.

Thomas Edison

Invented the light bulb after failing over 1000 times.

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Milton Hershey

Came up with a recipe for a Chocolate bar after having gone bankrupt 4 times trying to manufacture hard candy.

Henry Ford

Ford failed first as a farmer in the 1880's. He went to Detroit to work as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company.
In 1896 he build a petrol-driven motor car in a shed in his garden. In 1899 he raised enough money to start his own company. His first group of investors withdrew after Ford had spent $86,000 without producing a car that could be sold. His second attempt with some more investors ended in failure. In 1903 he found some more investors and eventually produced the Model A and by 1907 the profits reached $1,100,000. He decided to manufacture one type of car, the Model T. Initially it took 14 hours to assemble a Model T car. By improving his mass production methods, Ford reduced this to 1 hour 33 minutes, allowing him to lower the price from $1,000 to $360.

F.W. Woolworth

While working at a dry goods store, was not allowed to wait on customers because he "didn't have enough sense."

Walt Disney

A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney. Disney had, as the editor said, "no good ideas."

Eleanor Roosevelt

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway."

Scott Hamilton

When Scott was two years old he contracted a mysterious illness that caused him to stop growing. After numerous tests and several wrong diagnoses (including a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis that gave him just six months to live), the disease began to correct itself.

It is said that a special diet and exercise cured the problem. However, he grew to only 5-foot-2 and he weighed only 108 pounds during his peak skating years.
He won the men's singles ice skating gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics.

Lance Armstrong

In October 1996 he was diagnosed as having testicular cancer, with a tumor that had metastasized to his brain and lungs.
His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy, and his prognosis was originally poor. He went on to win the Tour de France each year from 1999 to 2005, and is the only person to win seven times.

Christopher Morley (1890-1957) once said, "There is only one success -to be able to spend your life in your own way."

...this thing we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down. -- Mary Pickford

"Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity." - Earl Nightingale

"Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning." - Mohandas Gandhi

Think not on what you lack as much as on what you have. Greek Proverb

Remember happiness doesn't depend on who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think. Dale Carnegie

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough. Oprah Winfrey

Links:
Good People
Character vs Performance
The Secret to Success
Quotes on Success