You’re never too old to succeed. I know that personally, I sometimes think, “well, If I haven’t made it big by now, I guess I never will.” Rubbish! I have to stop thinking like that, and you do too. You’re never too old to make your dreams come true.
Regardless of how old (or young) you are, if you can dream it, you can still do it. Age is just a number and one should never be discouraged by that number.
Let’s take a look at some of the people who realized their dreams at a young or older age, as proof that if they could do it, so can you!
In no particular order:
1) Shirley Temple was just 6 years-old when she became a movie star
2) Mozart could read music by age 4 and composed his first piece at age 5
3) Tenzin Gyatso became the 14th Dalai Lama in 1950, at the age of 15.
4) Albert Einstein was just 26 when he wrote the theory of relativity
5) Beethoven was only 23 when he was recognized as a piano virtuoso
6) Alexander the Great created his powerful empire by the age of 29
7) Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook in 2004 at the age of 19
8) David Karp launched Tumblr at the age of 21
9) Matt Mullenweg started WordPress when he was just shy of 20
10) Laura Ingalls Wilder published “Little House on the Prairie” when she was in her 60’s
11) Stan Lee created his first successful comic, “The Fantastic Four,” just shy of his 39th birthday
12) Vera Wang didn’t become successful in the fashion world until age 40
13) Henry Ford was 45 when he created the innovative Model T car
14) Ray Kroc was a salesman before buying McDonald’s at age 52 in 1954
15) Harland Sanders, better known as Colonel Sanders, was 62 when he franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken
16) Reid Hoffman, was 35 when he founded LinkedIn and he was 43 went the company went public
17) Nelson Mandela was elected President of South African when he was 76
18) J.K. Rowling was 30 when she finished the first manuscript of Harry Potter
19) Martha Stewart didn’t start her first catering business until she was 35
20) John Pemberton didn’t invent Coca-Cola until he was 55
21) Amelia Earhart was 31 when she flew solo across the Atlantic
22) Donald Fisher was 40 when he opened the first Gap store in 1969
23) Sam Walton was 44 when he founded his first Walmart store
24) Gary Heavin was 40 when he opened the first Curves fitness center in 1992
25) Tim and Nina Zagat were both 51 when they created the “Zagat’s Guide”
26) Oprah Winfrey was 32 when she started her wildly successful talk show
27) Edmund Hillary was 33 when he became the first man to reach the summit of Mount Everest
28) Martin Luther King Jr. was 34 when he wrote his “I Have a Dream” speech
29) The Wright brothers invented and built the world’s first successful airplane when Orville was 32 and Wilbur 36
30) Mark Twain was 40 when he wrote “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, and was 49 when he wrote the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
31) Christopher Columbus was 41 when he first ‘discovered’ the Americas
32) Rosa Parks was 42 when she refused to obey the order to give up her seat
33) Charles Darwin was 50 when he published “On the Origin of Species”
34) Leonardo Da Vinci was 51 when he painted the Mona Lisa
35 ) Peter Roget created the now famous “Roget’s Thesaurus” when he was 73
So no matter what age you are, your dreams are still very much alive and you have all the power and motivation you need to make them all come true!