Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Share Examples Of 'The Best Revenge Is Massive Success'

A businessman looking up with outstretched arms
Razvan Chisu/Unsplash

When people feel as if they've been wronged, their initial instinct is to retaliate.

Getting revenge is a negative impulse in which the victim feels they can only move on from the situation only after inflicting a similar level of emotional or physical pain or embarassment.

That's not everyone's style, however, and it's not up to us to stoop to the lowest common denominator and give in to our darkest urges to seek justice.

But if you take a moment and consider other alternatives, certain forms of revenge can be sweet.


These were explored when Redditor Fronzie7 quoted a famous music icon to ask:

"Frank Sinatra said, 'The best revenge is massive success' What's a real-life example of this?"

Everyone loves a good Hollywood ending.

You Know You've Made It When You're On A Lunchbox​

"Michael J.Fox has a great story about when he started out. Some big wheel at the network didn't like him for the role of Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. He was too short, not cute, not heart throb enough, you're never going to see his face on a lunch box. But the producer cast him anyway and the show shot to number one and stayed there."

"Fox sent him a Family Ties lunch box with his face on it and then Back to the Future 1,2,3 lunch boxes."

– Hazelsmom64

A Rocky Start To An Amazing Career

"Sylvester Stallone as well. Casting agents told him he was too stupid looking and he'd only get small roles as the thug who got beaten up. He said he literally went to every casting agent in NYC and got rejected by all of them."

"Even after he wrote Rocky and found producers, they didn't want him to star in it."

– YounomsayinMawfk

The Dreamgirl Who Never Stopped Dreaming

"Jennifer Hudson lost American Idol and became more successful than the winner."

– Stashdragon

"She is a recent EGOT winner and the youngest woman to do it. 7th Place looks fantastic on her."

– jdmccoy

Against all odds, the end result was a victory for these accomplished individuals.

Home Surveillance Home Run

"The guy who invented Ring cameras went on Shark Tank and was rejected by everyone. They all thought it would fail….we’ll you know the rest."

– Ruzzthabus

"He went back on Shark Tank after that, but this time as one of the sharks."

– 1Land_1Keep

The Skies The Limit

"Ron McNair had the police called on him when he was little because he was black and reading in a library. He grew up to be an astronaut and the library he was kicked out of was later named after him."

– sperdush

"For those who may not be familiar with his name; he was one of the Challenger crew members on January 28, 1986."

– This-Marsupial-6187

Emerged From The Shallow

"When Lady GaGa was in college, some of her classmates had a Facebook group called 'Stefani Germanotta, you'll never be famous.'"

"Pretty sure she proved them wrong."

– NotHisRealName

Now these are smart business moves.

Recipe For Success

"Erin French, chef-owner of restaurant The Lost Kitchen in rural Maine."

"Co-owned a restaurant in the town of Belfast with her husband; a very tumultuous relationship ended with him changing the locks on the building with all of her equipment inside."

"She licked her wounds, leased space in an old mill building in her tiny hometown of Freedom, and built from the ground one of the best restaurants in the country, with a coveted reservation that is fabled for its difficulty to get a table. Has her own multi-season documentary on TV and is absolutely killing it in the culinary world now."

– Girhinomofe

A Toy Story

"George Lucas got the ownership of the toy rights to star wars because they don’t think it would be successful. He made an absolute killing on those."

– Birds-aint-real-

"Not just the toy rights, he got the entire IP in exchange for waiving is salary."

– xdert

Lamborghini Origin Story

"Italian industrialist, builder of tractors, made a mint out of it and rewarded himself with a new Ferrari."

"Ferrari broke down. Needed a new clutch. Wealthy industrialist waited patiently for his new clutch to arrive, and after many weeks it finally showed up - same clutch he was putting in his tractors, more than twice the price."

"A little bit annoyed at this, he rang Ferrari to complain. They told him 'go back to building tractors, leave supercars to us.'"

"And Lamborghini was born..."

– RaffiaWorkBase

Gaming Victory

"Sony and Nintendo were working on a console together before the N64 came out, intending to utilize Nintendo's gaming hardware combined with Sony's sound tech to create games with more immersive sound capabilities than have been seen before. Partway through development and immediately following Sony's announcement of their partnership, Nintendo backed out of the deal, which if you're not aware of Japanese business etiquette, is kind of a d*ck move."

"Nintendo backed out to work with Philips to put Nintendo games on the CDi, which resulted in the worst-received Nintendo games of all time."

"Sony, out of spite, went on to make the PlayStation, one of the best-selling consoles in gaming history, and cement themselves as a massive player in the console wars to this day."

– Critical-String8774

Be Kind And Rewind

"Blockbuster laughed baby Netflix out of the room with their idea. Then later, grown-up Netflix killed blockbuster."

– ChurroForSure-o

"Best thing for Netflix, really. Blockbuster would have driven themselves and the Netflix rent model out of business through mismanagement."

"I don't know about you, but I can't live in a world without Voltron: Legendary Defender."

– Tobias_Atwood

So what's the moral of the story?

Basically, always be kind and never make anyone feel less than they deserve. You never know what the future brings, and you putting down someone for your own fleeting gain will come back to haunt you.

Also, remember that karma works in mysterious ways.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Stefan Molyneux; Charlie Kirk
@StefanMolyneux/X; Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

Far-Right Podcaster Gets Epic Fact-Check After Claiming Charlie Kirk Never Called Anyone A 'Fascist'

Stefan Molyneux, an Irish-born Canadian White nationalist podcaster who promotes conspiracy theories, White supremacy, scientific racism, and the men's rights movement, jumped to MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's and his fellow hatemonger Charlie Kirk's defense on X.

Writer Peter Rothpletz (Peter Twinklage) shared Trump's widely criticized Truth Social post about Rob Reiner after the actor, writer, director, philanthropist, and activist and his wife were murdered.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tucker Carlson; Donald Trump
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images

Tucker Carlson Dragged After His Conspiracy Theory Prediction About Trump's Speech Is Way Off

Former Fox News personality turned far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson was widely mocked after he made a bold prediction about what President Donald Trump would announce during his primetime address to the nation on Wednesday—namely that the U.S. would go to war with Venezuela.

But it turns out Carlson was very, very wrong. The speech was nowhere near that consequential and Trump spent the majority of it complaining about former President Joe Biden.

Keep ReadingShow less
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; JD Vance
Andres Kudacki/Getty Images; Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/Getty Images

AOC Has Iconic Reaction After She's Asked If She Could Beat JD Vance In 2028 Presidential Election

New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had quite the response to recent polling that suggested she could beat Vice President JD Vance in a hypothetical 2028 presidential election.

A new poll from The Argument/Verasight shows Ocasio-Cortez narrowly edging out Vance in a hypothetical 2028 presidential matchup, with 51 percent of respondents backing her and 49 percent supporting him.

Keep ReadingShow less
marathon runner on starting block
Braden Collum on Unsplash

People Break Down The Greatest Comeback Stories They've Ever Heard

At the 1964 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, runner Billy Mills won the 10k meter race—the first and still only runner from the United States to win Olympic gold in the 10k.

Mills is a member of the Oglala Lakȟóta tribe of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux Nation) from Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Mills' Mother Grace died when he was 8 years old and his Father Sidney died when he was 12.

Keep ReadingShow less

People Who Work In Someone Else's Home Share The Most Revealing Things They've Noticed

Going into strangers' homes isn't the most fun thing to do.

I always get nervous.

Keep ReadingShow less