Peter Dinklage

What failed

He moved to New York to build a theatre company with a friend, and they had to move out of their apartment when they could not pay the rent. He then spent six years at a data-processing company. He struggled to find acting work partly because he refused the roles typically offered to actors with dwarfism, such as elves and leprechauns. Even after a well-received film debut, no agent would take him on.

What happened next

A recommendation from a former co-star led to a film, and then a writer created a lead role for him specifically — romantic, angry and flawed rather than comic. It brought major award nominations, and in 2004 he played the title role in Richard III at the Public Theater.

The point

Part of this failure was a decision. He could not get an agent even after good reviews, but he also turned down the elf and leprechaun work that paid, and kept a data-entry job for six years rather than take it. Iterating sometimes means waiting for the brief to change rather than lowering the bar.