High Five: 5 celebrities whose talents were underestimated

His exceptional intelligence is legendary. Yet as a child, Albert Einstein's talent appeared below average: he only started to talk at the age of three and to write when he was seven. He also failed the entrance examinations to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich - but that was because of his lack of French skills. After all, he became famous for being a genius in physics.

The British actress has won, among others, an Oscar and six BAFTA awards. Luckily, she didn't get discouraged at the beginning of her career in the 1960s: she was told after a casting that she'd never shine in a movie because she wasn't beautiful enough. Judi Dench never revealed the name of the director who had so severely underestimated her talent.

The expressionist painter created 2,100 artworks but only sold a single one before his death. Van Gogh suffered from delusions, depression and alcohol abuse; he was considered a crazy loser. However, he personally believed that his paintings would become valuable one day - and he was more than right. Today, van Gogh's paintings are among the most expensive in the world.

It was probably one the biggest mistakes in the history of music: in 1962, four young men from Liverpool auditioned for the record company Decca in London. The label rejected the band, claiming that "guitar groups were on the way out." The group signed with the label Parlophone instead, which became - through the Beatles' success - one of the most renowned record companies in the world.

Within just a few years, J.K. Rowling progressed from living on welfare to becoming a best-selling, multi-millionaire author. To achieve this, she not only needed discipline, but an unshakable faith in her book. Twelve publishers rejected the original manuscript for Harry Potter before one finally accepted it. The books in the series have meanwhile sold in the millions.