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  Yvon Chouinard started making climbing gear in the 1960s but factory-made pitons were damaging rock faces. He faced backlash from climbers and an identity crisis over whether to keep selling or stop environmental damage.

  

  Reid Hoffman launched LinkedIn in 2003 after several career stints in PayPal and social tech. But users were scarce early growth was painfully slow, and quality connections were a struggle.

  

  Eric Yuan emigrated from China after nine visa rejections, landing in Silicon Valley in 1997 with little English and fewer connections. He helped build WebEx at Cisco, ultimately managing 800 engineers but felt increasingly disillusioned as customers remained unhappy with the product. At age 41, he faced a life?up?setting decision: stay in a cushy corporate role or strike out on his own in a crowded video-conferencing space.

  

  In 2008, Airbnb founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nate Blecharczyk were deep in debt roughly $40,000 and desperate for traction. They had built a platform for hosting guests on air mattresses, but bookings were rare. They had no cash, no momentum, and the global financial crisis was starting to cut down whatever hope they had.

  

  After the first three Falcon 1 rocket launches failed (2006, 2008), SpaceX was on the brink of collapse capital nearly exhausted, employees demoralized, and NASA contracts beyond reach.

  

  Sara Blakely had $5,000 in savings when she decided to invent footless pantyhose for smooth invisibility under clothes. She faced rejection at every turn manufacturers laughed her out of meetings, banks refused to lend.

  

  QBTS (D-Wave) is a pioneer in building and selling practical quantum annealing computers focused on solving complex optimization problems for businesses, using a hybrid quantum-classical approach.