People often will say to you Never give up almost everyday. Sometimes this phrase is frustrating because you are tired of trying and now it seems like you cannot do it all, but that ain’t true. We have compiled the stories of 10 famous people that will inspire you to never give up.

1. J.K. Rowling

Rowling, the famous author of Harry Potter series had a tough life. She got a divorce, was on government aid, and could barely afford to feed her baby back in 1994.

This was just 3 years before the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, was published. When she was shopping it out, she was so poor she couldn’t afford a computer or even the cost of photocopying the 90,000-word novel, so she manually typed out each version to send to publishers. It was rejected dozens of times until finally Bloomsbury, a small London publisher, gave it a second chance after the CEO’s eight year-old daughter fell in love with it.

2. Sarah Jessica Parker

Parker is a well known American actress, producer and a designer. She was born in a poor coal-mining town in rural Ohio. Her parents divorced when she was only 2 years old. Parker’s stepfather, a truck driver, was often out of work, so the future starlet took up singing and dancing at a very young age to help supplement her mom’s teaching income and feed their 10-person family.

Her mother remained supportive throughout and they moved to Cincinnati, where Parker was enrolled in a ballet, music, and theater school on scholarship. When she was 11 years old, the family took a trip to New York City so Parker could audition for a Broadway play. The trip was a success. She and her brother were both cast. They moved to New York where Parker continued to work hard and land roles, eventually becoming the title character of TV juggernaut Sex and the City.

3. Jim Carrey

Carrey was 14 years old when his father lost his job. They became homeless. However Carrey was passionate about comedy since start at age 10 he mailed his resume to The Carroll Burnett Show.

At age 15, Carrey performed his comedy routine onstage for the first time—in a suit his mom made him—and totally bombed, but he was undeterred. The next year, at 16, he quit school to focus on comedy full time. He moved to LA shortly after, where he would park on Mulholland Drive every night and visualize his success. One of these nights he wrote himself a check for $10,000,000 for “Acting Services Rendered,” which he dated for Thanksgiving 1995. Just before that date, he hit his payday with Dumb and Dumber. He put the deteriorated check, which he’d kept in his wallet the whole time, in his father’s casket.

4. Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey is the true inspiration. As a child she was sexually abused and was repeatedly molested by her uncle, cousin and a family friend. She became pregnant as a result and gave birth to a child at the age of 14, but the child died after few weeks. Even after such traumatic childhood she didn’t give up. She finished high school as an honors student, earning a full scholarship to college, and working her way up through the ranks of television. From a local network anchor in Nashville to an international superstar and creator of her OWN network she made her worth.

However Oprah’s dealt with a lot of issues in her public life as well. She faced criticism about her weight, racism, intrusive questions about her sexuality, just to name a few—but she never let it get in the way of her ambition and drive.

5. Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry had a very traumatizing childhood. He was physically and sexually abused growing up, got kicked out of high school, and tried to commit suicide twice.At 23 he moved to Atlanta and took up odd jobs as he started working on his stage career.

In 1992 Perry finally wrote, produced and starred in his first production which was a theater. The play was called I Know I’ve Been Changed, which reflected on his difficult upbringing.

Perry put all his savings into the show and it failed miserably; the run lasted just one weekend and only 30 people came to watch. He kept up with the production, working more odd jobs and often slept in his car to get by. Six years later, Perry finally broke through when, on its seventh run, the show became a success. He’s since gone on to have an extremely successful career as a director, writer, and actor. In fact, Perry was named Forbes’ highest paid man in entertainment in 2011. in entertainment, earning $130 million.