You've Never Heard Ed Sheeran's Story

This man began singing and playing the guitar at age 4. His parents didn't want him to watch too much television. He was banned from playing video games. But, he had a lot of books about art. He didn't enjoy school and he was bullied at age 15. A year later, he decided to quit school and follow his dreams of making it in the music industry.

Now things didn't go as planned. He ended up homeless, sleeping often on trains just to get by. This lasted around three years where he had nowhere to live. He spent multiple nights and days performing to small groups, often without even eating.

To his surprise, some of his tracks went viral on iTunes, even reaching the #2 spot on the iTunes chart. By the end of the year, his album had sold 801,000 copies, making it the 8^th best-selling album of the year. His latest song was one of the most listened to worldwide.

His name?
Ed Sheeran.

Today he's mentored by Elton John, Paul McCartney says he’s a fan. He's even written songs for Taylor Swift, One Direction, and many many more.

Ed's story teaches us that there's no such thing as an overnight success. He was so shocked and surprised when his album went viral online. But when you look at the struggle before that, you see the pain he had to go through. Often we only view people’s success as what we see in their highlight reel. And we forget what they actually had to go through to get to that stage. And that's why the next time you see someone that you think is successful, don't focus on what they're doing now. Focus on what they did to get there.

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