21 highly successful people who prove getting fired doesn't mean your career is over

Seth Wenig / ReutersApple cofounder Steve Jobs.

In 1985 Apple, the company Steve Jobs cofounded, sent the executive packing.

Getting kicked to the curb by your employer can certainly be demoralizing.

As Jobs said in a 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, "What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating."

But Jobs and many more successful people prove that what may initially feel like failure may just be the launching pad you need for success.

Here are 21 people who turned their termination into huge success.