Even the biggest names had small starts
Lessons from celebrity success stories
By Kate Lorenz
CareerBuilder.com
Editor's Note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com.
Do you remember what your career dreams were when you were a kid?
Chances are, you had high aspirations to become a doctor, an astronaut, a ballet dancer, the head of a company, and so on.
But did those dreams ever include starting as an assistant to learn the ropes or working as a bartender to pay for school or cover the rent? Probably not.
The truth is, most people start at the top when it comes to dreaming about the future, but have to begin at the bottom when it comes to making the dream a reality.
The good news is that if you are paying your dues in order to get to the top, you're in very good company. In fact, many of the biographies of the now rich and famous include some not-so-fantastic experiences.
Before he was a multimillion-dollar movie star and household name, Brad Pitt's work involved dressing up in a chicken costume and trying to convince customers to visit a fast food restaurant.
Comedian Jack Black pushed cereal in commercials before he was in charge of the "School of Rock," and Sheryl Crow used to sing ad jingles before making it big as a rock star.
Sometimes you have to do the unglamorous to help you get where you need to go. Countless notable people took jobs just to pay the bills while waiting for their big break.
For example, Willie Brown, the former longtime mayor of San Francisco, shined shoes for quarters in high school and worked as a janitor to make ends meet while enrolled in San Francisco State University.
While you might not need to go as far as opening a shoe shine stand, you might just need to take on a job out of your field to help make money while you are finishing school, looking for a great opportunity or completing an internship to help you in the future.
Usually, starting at the bottom means working your way up the ladder in your industry, taking any entry-level job you can get just to gain enough experience to move on to bigger and better things.
Before Oprah Winfrey was the queen of daytime television, she was a regular reporter at a radio station in Nashville.
But starting as the office "runt" doesn't mean you will never move on to being top dog. The trick is to treat each and every job like it is the most important position in the world and dedicate yourself to excellence.
Jill Barad started her career with toymaker Mattel in the marketing department, but was so successful in turning around the declining sales of the company's Barbie line that she moved up in the company and is now the CEO of the world's largest toymaker.
Many companies today follow the same pattern as Mattel and see the value of having employees start at the bottom and work their way up.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car, for example, says it looks to the company training grounds for the leaders of tomorrow. Nearly all of the company's senior executives started as trainees in a rental car branch, including the company's president and chief executive officer.
Sometimes, big names teach us that you have to take chances in order to be successful.
After graduating from law school, Willie Brown was shut out of most of the law firms in the city because of his race and therefore decided to start his own practice.
Designer Donna Karan lied about her age to get her first job working in a boutique. It was there that she learned the basics of the fashion industry.
Julia Roberts left her small Georgia hometown at the age of 17 to move to New York and pursue an acting career.
Famous success stories can also show that one of the most important lessons to learn is to never give up on your dreams.
J.K. Rowling, author of the famous "Harry Potter" series, had the idea for a series of wizard books for years, but had to pay the bills and support her daughter.
She worked for a long time as a secretary and teacher, but never gave up on her idea. She is now one of the world's most famous -- and wealthiest -- authors.
Bottom line: It's not just your experiences, but how you use them and learn from them that makes all the difference. While it can be difficult to wait for your big opportunity to come along, sometimes it just takes a little hard work, patience and persistence to get where you need to go.
Kate Lorenz is the article and advice editor for CareerBuilder.com. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues.
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