Square One Trivia Quiz

Answer: Albert Einstein

Born in the German Empire in 1879, Albert Einstein was not initially the success we remember him as. He was unable to speak fluently until he was around 9 years old, and he was generally considered unintelligent at school during his younger years. Although he later excelled in maths and music, he was expelled from school at age 16 for his bad attitude to learning and education in general. As a result, he was refused entry to the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland to study maths.

Luckily, he went back to square one and completed a diploma at the Cantonal School in Aarau, Switzerland and was later admitted to the university. It was there that he decided to pursue physics and wrote the first of his revolutionary science papers.

Answer: Walt Disney

Although he was hired to work at the "Kansas City Star" newspaper in the early 1910s, Walt Disney was later fired for his "lack of creativity". He later became interested in cel animation and set up "Laugh-o-gram studios" with a co-worker from an animation studio he was working in at the time, producing short cartoon animations for a local theatre. Unfortunately, the income generated from these wasn't enough to keep the company solvent and it eventually went bankrupt.

Later, Walt Disney went back to square one. He moved to California in 1923 and, after further set backs, developed Mickey Mouse (originally called Mortimer Mouse) in 1928. He used synchronized sound on a short film called "Steamboat Willie" later that year and, as a result, was catapulted to fame.

Answer: Michael Jordan

Standing at just 5 feet 11 inches, Michael Jordan was not chosen for his high school's sophomore varsity basketball team as he did not meet the minimum height requirement. Luckily, he grew around 4 inches shortly thereafter, and was chosen for the junior varsity team, but he had a lot of catching up to do.

He went back to square one and put in hours of hard practice in order to ensure that he was good enough to be chosen during his senior year for the McDonald's All-American Team before being accepted on a basketball scholarship in North Carolina.

Answer: Elizabeth Arden

Born "Florence Nightingale Graham", Elizabeth Arden had initially expected to become a nurse. Having spent hours in a pharmaceuticals lab with her brother learning about skincare, however, she decided to pursue a career as a beauty culturist. However, her initial business venture, a partnership with Elizabeth Hubbard (another culturist) ended in bankruptcy.

Later, she went back to square one. She created the trade name "Elizabeth Arden" and opened the "Red Door" salon in 1910. After spending some time in France learning about skincare and, in particular, rouges, she opened the first destination beauty spa in the United States in the 1930s and thereafter launched her beauty empire.

Answer: Elvis Presley

Having lived in relative poverty for much of his childhood, an eighteen year old Elvis Presley walked into Sun Records' offices in 1953 and recorded a demo disc. Although his name was held by the record company, nothing came of the original record. He recorded a second demo in 1954 and auditioned for the "Songfellows", but nothing came from either. In fact, Elvis later stated that he was turned down for the group because "they told me I couldn't sing".

After working as a truck driver, he went back to square one and later re-demoed at Sun Records later in 1954. After a singing a blues number, he was signed to the label.

Answer: Henry Ford

Having decided to become an engineer only in his late 20s, Henry Ford's first attempt at invention and entrepreneurialism culminated in his setting up the "Detroit Automobile Company" in 1899 to sell his "Ford Quadricycle". Unfortunately, low quality products and delays meant that the company was unsuccessful. Later, he entered a partnership with a coal dealer to manufacture automobiles, but this failed as a result of inefficiencies in the products' designs and the subsequent inability of the partnership to repay a loan from the Dodge brothers.

Later, Ford went back to square one and reincorporated the partnership, with backing from the Dodge brothers as the "Ford Motor Company Limited" in 1903. The famous "Model T" was launched in 1908.

Answer: JK Rowling

Having come up with the idea for her "Harry Potter" novels on a delayed train in 1990, J.K. Rowling completed the manuscript for "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in 1995 and sent it to twelve publishers, all of whom rejected it.

Later, she went back to square one and found a small publishing house, Bloomsbury, who agreed to publish the novel in 1997, though they only provided a small advance sum and produced a limited initial print run. Five months' later, the novel won the first of its awards, the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.

Answer: Jay-Z

Jay-Z has claimed in his lyrics and in various interviews that, during his younger years, he sold cocaine, was shot in gang disputes and even shot his own brother for stealing. He appeared briefly on recordings by Big Daddy Kane and Jaz-O, his rap mentors, in the 1990s but failed to find a recording company who would sign him. He resorted to selling CDs from his car to make a living.

Later, he went back to square one and decided, instead of looking to record companies to sign him, he would set up his own. In 1995, Jay-Z, Damon Dash and Kareem Biggs created independent label "Roc-A-Fella Records". He released his debut album "Reasonable Doubt" in 1996 on the label.

Answer: Colonel Sanders

Colonel Sanders had a varied younger life; he owned a ferry boat service, enlisted in the US army, sold tires and even sold life insurance. He later ran a service station in the 1920s which was closed due to the Great Depression.

Later, he went back to square one and developed his famous fried chicken recipe. In the early 1930s he opened his first restaurant in a Shell gas station in North Corbin, Kentucky. Although this was destroyed in a fire in 1940, Sanders bought a motel, which he repurposed as a restaurant. In 1952, whilst in his 60s, he franchised his secret recipe for the first time to a Utah restaurant, after famously being rejected over 1,000 times.

Answer: Bill Gates

When he was 17, Bill Gates set up "Traf-O-Data" with his friend Paul Allen. The company created reports for traffic engineers based on road counters. Unfortunately, due to a lack of market research and few customers, the company folded shortly thereafter. Gates attended Harvard in 1973, but later dropped out.

Gates and Allen started back at square one and launched "Microsoft" in the late 1970s, which partnered with IBM in 1980. In the mid-1980s, the first retail computer processor (Microsoft Windows) was developed and marketed by Microsoft, catapulting Gates and his company to fame and fortune.