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What do Henry Ford, Cyndi Lauper, Abraham Lincoln, and Walt Disney have in common?

They all filed bankruptcy. But what’s more interesting is that it wasn’t until after their bankruptcy that they went on to the success we know them for today.

  • Henry Ford filed bankruptcy in 1901 before organizing his third, and first successful business, Ford Motor Company. With his innovation of the moving assembly-line this business grew to make a $60,000,000 annual profit by 1916.
  • In 1981, after leaving the band Blue Angel, Cyndi Lauper filed for bankruptcy protection after being sued by her manager over a contract breach. Two years later she released, “Girl’s Just Want to Have Fun”, a song which reached Top 10 in over fifteen different countries and went Platinum in the United States once sales exceeded 2,000,000.
  • Despite his failure as a storekeeper in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln went on to become one of the best remembered presidents the United States has ever had. After filing bankruptcy in 1883 he was required to make payments to his creditors for seventeen years, far more than is not required for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
  • Mickey Mouse is easily the most recognized cartoon character in the world, but if not for Walt Disney’s ability to bankrupt his Laugh-O-Gram Films company in 1923, he may have never had the chance to start over and open Disney Brothers’ Studio.

It is people like these that epitomize the true purpose of bankruptcy, which is to allow debtors to get another bite at the apple of life. If you would like to learn what bankruptcy can do for you, please call us at 904-685-1200 to schedule a free consultation with one of our Bankruptcy Attorneys

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