He tried to enter a class in surgery, but was rejected.

He was driven to literature.

Goldsmith found himself totally unfit for the duties of a physician; but who else could have written the "Vicar of Wakefield" or the "Deserted Village"?
Dr.Johnson found him very poor and about to be arrested for debt.

He made Goldsmith give him the manuscript of the "Vicar of Wakefield," sold it to the publishers, and paid the debt.
This manuscript made its author famous.
Robert Clive bore the name of "dunce" and "reprobate" at school, but at thirty-two, with three thousand men, he defeated fifty thousand at Plassey and laid the foundation of the British Empire in India.

Sir Walter Scott was called a blockhead by his teacher.