Having dreams, goals, and/or faith is essential. Who are we without them? What do we stand for? When we are knocked down by the trials of life, we must find the will to stand back up. However, almost always we want to sulk in the emotions emitted by the trial at hand. From deep within, there is something that no one but yourself can take from you. What ought to be our prized possessions are our dreams, goals, and faith. They have the power to lift our heads, keep them on straight, and remind us that each trial can be mere potholes along our paths to success if we allow them to be.

1. Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was thought to be mentally handicapped, having not been able to speak until four and unable to read until seven. He lived to win a Nobel prize, and is now the face of modern physics.

2. Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison failed over 10,000 times before successfully inventing an electric lightbulb. He grew up hearing his teachers claim he was "too stupid to learn anything." He is the greatest innovator of all times, having 1,093 patents plus others in the U.S. and Canada.

3. Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin lived a life in which his father even claimed to be a failure. He dropped out of college twice, only to be later (now) known for his theories on natural selection and evolution. His theory is known by almost all.

4.Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey was working eight-hour shifts in a factory after school at the age of fifteen, due to his family's poverty. His family lived in a camper until they could afford to live in a house again. At the age of seventeen Carrey dropped out of high school and moved to Los Angeles to begin his stand-up comedy career. He endured a failed marriage after five years of trying to find his niche. Not until eleven years after starting his journey, did he catch a break by ending up on TV. Four years later he found himself in his biggest role yet, Ace Ventura. Now he is known as one of the funniest comedians.

5 J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling was rejected from Oxford university at the age of seventeen. Her mother died, after fighting a life-long battle with Multiple Sclerosis, when Rowling was twenty five. Shortly after, she moved and found love. She got married, pregnant, and gave birth to her daughter in 1993. The marriage entailed domestic abuse that ultimately led to a divorce. By the age of thirty eight she had only completed three chapters of Harry Potter, and moved in with her sister. She was clinically depressed and suicidal. Finally, she thought she caught her break once completing the book; which ended up being rejected by all twelve publishers she sent it to. However she was given the assistance of a small, lesser-known publisher in 1996. By 2004 Rowling was the first person to become a billionaire through writing.

If any one of these people gave up, they wouldn't have grown to know success. They kept persevering. They had goals, dreams, faith.. Essentially they had everything, even after everything seemed lost.