* EINSTEIN was four years old before he spoke and seven before he could read.

* SIR ISAAC NEWTON did poorly in school.

* BEETHOVEN's music teacher once said of him, "As a composer, he is hopeless."

* A magazine editor told EMILY DICKINSON he could not publish her poems because they failed to rhyme.

* Young THOMAS EDISON was told by his teachers that he was too stupid to learn anything.

* F.W. WOOLWORTH, when employed in a dry goods store, was not allowed to wait on customers because the owner didn't think he was smart enough.

* A newspaper editor fired WALT DISNEY because he had "no good ideas."

* ENRICO CARUSO was told by a voice teacher that he couldn't sing; that he had no voice at all.

* LEO TOLSTOY flunked out of college.

* TED TURNER was expelled from college.

* The father of the U.S. space program, WERNER VON BRAUN, flunked algebra as a teen-ager in Germany.

* LOUIS PASTEUR was rated as "mediocre" in chemistry by his professors at the Royal College.

* MICHAEL JORDAN was "cut" from the high school basketball team at the beginning of his sophomore year.

* ABRAHAM LINCOLN entered the Black hawk War as a captain and was demoted down to a private before he left the service.

* As a young Member of Parliament, MARGARET THATCHER was told she lacked the ability to make tough decisions.

AND

* As a young student, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., was told by a teacher that he would never be able to speak with enough emotion to inspire people to take action.