Accepting rejection

Warren Buffett is a believer of bashert - that is, being turned down at Harvard was not only meant to be, but led him to enroll at Columbia's graduate school of business, where he had two mentors who taught him about investing. "The truth is, everything that has happened in my life ... that I thought was a crushing event at the time, has turned out for the better," Buffett told the WSJ. Except for health, he says, "you learn that a temporary defeat is not a permanent one." It's a valuable lesson during these anxious few weeks when college admissions departments send out their yeas and nays. Among others who faced early rejection and wound up making something of their lives: "Today" host Meredith Vieira, Nobel Prize winner Harold Varmus, and director Steven Spielberg (USC's film school turned him down).