NOT TOO LATE
1. Charles Darwin:
Darwin was one of those introverts who kept only to himself. He was that way until his age 50. At his age 50, he came up with his work "On The Origin Of Species" that changed the scientific community forever, essentially providing a huge breakthrough, in the year 1859.
Refer:
AboutDarwin.com - Who was Darwin
Charles Darwin Facts, Quotes, Theory of Evolution, Natural Selection, Origin of Species
2. Chris Gardner
We all know Gardner's story. Will Smith's movie Pursuit of Happyness was an account of his life. He got by as a homeless guy raising his son. He did everything he could to give his son a good life, and he also held a high pressure job at EF Hutton. He worked his way up from the bottom as a trainee and he didn't make his first million until he was 40. Whatever you saw in the movie was for real - happened for real.
3. Samuel Jackson
Samuel Jackson has been a Hollywood staple for years now, but he’d had only bit parts before landing an award-winning role at age 43 in Spike Lee’s film “Jungle Fever” in 1991.
Born in Washington D.C., the actor grew up an only child in Chattanooga, Tennessee and was raised by his mother and maternal grandparents. Jackson only met his father, who died from alcoholism, twice during his life.
In 1969, Jackson was suspended for two years from Morehouse College and convicted of a second-degree felony when he and several other students held members of the college board of trustees hostage in exchange for school reform. In 1972, the actor earned his Bachelor's Degree from the college.
For three years, Jackson worked as a camera stand-in for Bill Cosby on "The Cosby Show."
Early in his career, Jackson struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction to the extent that he was replaced in two plays when the productions transitioned to the Broadway stage.
Days after completing rehab for cocaine, the actor starred in Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" (1991) as a crack-cocaine addict. Jackson acknowledged the role was cathartic for him as he recovered from his addiction and, subsequently, won the Supporting Actor award at Cannes -- an award created just for him.
It wasn't until Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (1994) -- when he was 46 years old -- that Jackson broke out as a star. The actor was nominated for his iconic role as Jules Winnfield in what was his 30th film role.
Source:
Samuel L. Jackson Facts: 19 Things You (Probably) Don't Know About the 'Captain America' Star
4. Jack Weil:
Jack Weil here was the CEO of the popular cowboy wear brand "Rockmount Ranch Wear".
Guess what his age was, when he founded the cowboy-wear brand? 45. He went on to remain the CEO of the brand until he died at the age of 107.
Much as he loved them, Mr Weil had not begun in shirts. The farm boy had started off, at $25 a week, inspecting navy dungarees, and had moved on eventually to be a travelling rep for Paris Garters (“Not once, but many times”, the advert ran, “she had noticed his ungartered socks crumpling down around his shoe tops.”) His territory ran from the Mexican border to the Canadian. He supposed, diffidently, that he might need a car; though something better than the Model-T Ford he first drove, with wire wheels attached so loosely that if you backed up the street too far, they fell off.
He arrived in Denver in 1928 to find a rough-and-rumble cow-town of 200,000 people, famous mostly for the gold that had been discovered there. By his 107th year, as he noted with wonder, it was a city of 2m; and there was a Jack A. Weil Way in it, besides his own face looking down from the billboards of the Denver Visitors Bureau. And he, his grandson liked to say, had become the Henry Ford of the western look, snap-fasteners and all.
Source:
Jack Weil biography - obituory note - The Economist.
5. Stan Lee:
Stan Lee created his first hit comic title, “The Fantastic Four,” just shy of his 39th birthday. In the next few years, he created the legendary Marvel Universe, whose characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men became American cultural icons.
He created the first issue of The Fantastic Four in 1961. He further developed the Marvel Universe over the course of his next ten years in his 40s. He explored and gave much detail to Thor, Spider Man, The Incredible Hulk, the X-Men after his 40th birthday.
Lee’s entry into the Timely Comics in 1939 proved to be a big step in his career. He started out by doing menial jobs but soon made his comic-book debut with the text filler ‘Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge’.Source:
In 1941, Lee started getting opportunities to do actual comics with a backup feature. He created the ‘Destroyer in Mystic Comics No. 6’, ‘Jack Frost in USA Comic No. 1’ and ‘Father Time in Captain America Comics No.6’
When he was only 19 years old, owing to a conflict in the company and his escalating creativity, Lee was made interim editor of the company and worked with the company for a good 31 years, mostly as editor-in-chief.
In 1942, he joined the United States Army and served stateside in the Signal Corps. He continued his creative streak there by writing manuals, training films and slogans, which is why he was classified in the military as ‘playwright’.
After finishing his stint with the army, Lee joined back the company in 1950s, which was now known as the ‘Atlas Comics’. He started experimenting with various genres––writing romantic, sci-fi, horror, humorous stories, etc.
Around the same time, he produced a newspaper strip with his colleague Dan DeCarlo, titled ‘My Friend Irma’, which was essentially based on a radio comedy that starred Marie Wilson. Lee was getting increasingly discontented with his career.
In the late 1950, in competition with DC Comics, Lee’s publisher, Goodman, asked him to create a new superhero team. Lee thought to work on the stories that he believed in since he was getting disgruntled with his monotonous career.
For this assignment, Lee, in association with his colleague Jack Kirby, created a team of superheroes called ‘Fantastic Four’ with superheroes like, ‘Hulk’, ‘Iron Man’, ‘Thor’, ‘Spider-Man, ‘X-Men’, ‘Doctor Strange’, etc.
Stan Lee Biography
Success Doesn't Always Favor The Young; Stan Lee Didn't Get His Break Until He Was 39!
6. Julia Child:
Her first cookbook was published when she was 49; she made her television debut in The French Chef at age 51.
She's none other than Julia Child.
7. Taikichiro Mori:
Taikichiro Mori was an academic who became a real estate investor at age 51 when he founded Mori Building Company. His brilliant investments made him the richest man in the world in 1992, when he had a net worth of $13 billion.
8. Steve Carrell:
America’s favorite 40 year old virgin got his big break in his 40’s.
Earlier in his career he was a mail carrier, but fired cause he wasn’t efficient enough. He planned on applying to law school, but was unable to write an explanation why he wanted to be a lawyer on his application form.
He then turned to acting. He did some children’s theater and a commercial.
He got a minor role in a movie. He had some small roles in short lived television shows.
Some fans will remember him as a correspondent on the Daily Show starting at the age of 37. That lasted for six years.
I first remember him as a hilarious news anchor in Bruce Almighty. He was 41 years old. Then things started to get better. The next year, he had a memorable supporting role in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
In 2005, Carrell signed a deal with NBC to star in The Office. Though the first season’s ratings were mediocre, they renewed the show due to the anticipate success of his first starring role, The 40 Year Old Virgin. Their guess was correct.
That movie established Carrell as a leading man at 43. It was a huge hit!
That translated to The Office becoming a hit on television. In his third year on The Office, he was paid approximately $175,000 per episode! There were 25 episodes that season, so you do the math.
Since leaving The Office in 2011, he has focused on his movie career playing comedic and dramatic roles.
Hard to imagine Steve Carrel not making audiences laugh, but it took him awhile to let people know his true comedic abilities. For him, it took a series of small roles, till he got his first starring role inThe 40 Year Old Virgin that changed his career forever.
Source:
It's Never Too Late For Success Even in Your 40's
9. Kathryn Joosten:
Kathryn Joosten started out as a nurse and then was a stay-at-home mum. When her marriage failed, she thought she would chase her own dreams for once and become an actress – even though many would have considered her too old to start an acting career. It took her several years and she was almost 60, when she finally had the success she deserved for her never-tiring persistence.
She was 42 when she left her profession as a psychiatric nurse and started acting full-time. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream at the age of 55. Ten years later, at 65, she won the first of her two Emmy Awards.
Kathryn appeared in countless TV shows, such as Family Matters, My Name is Earl, Scrubs, and of course Desperate Housewives, winning two Emmy Awards for her performance as Karen McCluskey.
Kathryn Joosten and the myth that youth is always kingKathryn Joosten and the myth that youth is always king
10 Successful People Who Proved That Age is Nothing But A Number
10. Frank McCourt:
Everyone knows ‘Angela’s Ashes’, the story of Frank McCourt’s dire childhood, for which he received both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Books Critics Circle Award. A movie was made from his book, which became rather successful and thus also gave the novel another boost. What most people don’t know, however, is thatFrank McCourt didn’t take up writing until he was 65. Before that, he was a teacher and led a rather ordinary life. Now, he has museums named after him.
Frank McCourt shows that no matter how dire your circumstances, you can turn them into something good.
11. Peter Roget:
Peter Roget showed us that it is never too late to make earth-shattering inventions, such as the Thesaurus, which he invented at age 73. He actually used what most people would see as character flaws or issues to his success. Suffering from OCD, the only thing that would calm him down was making random lists. In the end, he simply started on the infinite project of creating a list of synonymous words.
Peter Roget’s ‘Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases’ has never been out of print since its initial appearance.
12. Vera Wang:
Vera Wang was a figure skater and journalist before entering the fashion industry at age 40. Today she’s one of the world’s premier women’s designers.
Wang was a figure skater and competed in competitions throughout her teens. She quit skating when she graduated and started working for Vogue. At the age of 23, she got promoted to senior fashion editor and held the title for 15 years. At age 39, she started working as design director for accessories at Ralph Lauren. At age 41, she started her own bridal boutique.
Source:
Vera Wang Biography
Further Reference:
Never too old: Achieving great things when supposedly 'past it'
And there's a whole bunch of such people who got their breaks or started off with their career after age 40, most of them after age 50.
Martha Stewart, Joy Behar, Tim and Nina Zagat, Robin Chase, Harland Sanders, Rodney Dangerfield, Duncan Hines, Donald Fisher, Ray Kroc, Sam Walton, Barack Obama, Wally Amos, Gary Heavin, Khanyia Dhlomo, John Paul DeJoria, Mark Pincus, Darrell Hammond, etc.
Now, to answer your question.
Let's look at what you have.
1. Age.
You're not thirrrrrttttttyyyyyy faaaiiiiiiiiiivvvvveeeeee
You're just 35.
And oh well, age is just a number that people give as an excuse for the magnitude of freaking out.
2. A working internet connection.
There are atleast a billion people who have no access to a computer or a phone, let alone internet.
Which means, you probably have
3. A roof above your head.
Right now, you probably stay in a place with a roof above your head that protects you from heat and cold, rain and shine.
4. A place to call home.
Not many people are privileged to have one.
5. At least one person to call a friend/family.
You probably have at least one person to call on, discuss about anything in your life, or at least to talk to.
6. Ability to read and write in English.
Since you asked this question on Quora obviously typing out the question, I am just going to assume that you have the ability to read and write English which is like the unofficial national language of more than 100 countries right now.
and you probably have much more than just this.
Now, an essential thing to accomplish anything new is to actually be gratefulfor whatever you have already accomplished, whatever you were already given, and whatever you already have.
Are you?
If you are not, then be. The first step in going on to accomplishing something is to be grateful for whatever you have already accomplished, and whatever you are already blessed with.
Now that that question is cleared, let me tell you the answer.
It isn't too late.
It's not like those people I have mentioned above were born with two extra kgs of brain and grey matter. It's not like those people had any competitive advantage compared to what you had/have. It's not like you are a person who is challenged intellectually (Even Forrest Gump went on to achieve so much!).
If you're like a normal person (which you are, or you're probably better), you have all the mental faculties required to learn and master something.
1. Read the following books:
a. Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else: Geoff Colvin: 9781591842941: Amazon.com: Books
b. Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment: George Leonard: 8601400956076: Amazon.com: Books
If you read them properly, you will know that you are too young to be worrying about whether it is too late in life, unless you are going to die tomorrow, in which case ....
...it's still not late coz you probably got 12 more hours.
2. On Mastering something:
Basically, you're just 35. You can take a few years, take a skill and master it from scratch. The 10000 hours works well, but you can probably hack proper focus and concentration and get it done in 7000 hours. These days, you don't have to be a master at something. You just have to be really good at a combination of few things that complement each other.
It takes the following things to actually do something with the rest of your life.
3. Not Taking Your Time For Granted:
You realize you have got lesser time left. So, don't waste it doing something that you're not in love with. Whatever excites you, whatever thrills you, whatever keeps you awake a little bit late every night, whatever awakens you a little bit earlier every morning - go do it. Even if you're going to be learning from scratch, you can master it and who knows? You could probably become a virtuoso in that craft!
4. Self Discipline:
It requires a lot of self discipline, giving up everything that is even remotely not going to contribute to the process of your mastery.
You see, there is an adage that says winners never quit. But, in reality, winners do quit. They quit everything that doesn't directly or indirectly contribute to what they want to accomplish.
5. On Leading A Normal Life:
You can live your normal life and try to pull all of this into making it possible. But it either requires you to give up your vision of normalcy, or settle for whatever you get with the current version of normal life that you have.
Some people don't think about the value of their time, return on investment of their time, etc. Some do. Some just want to enjoy life while it lasts. The rest of them want to enjoy life while it lasts too. While the former some focus on immediate gratification, the latter some focus on delaying gratification for long term happiness and gratification.
Sure, you can go party during weekends, travel and have fun with your friends. Or you can sit, slog and build your blog. You will be seen as a workaholic. But if you enjoy building your blog and working on providing value to other people, who's to say you're someone who doesn't know how to enjoy?
People will always judge you and your lifestyle. Everyone views life through their own looking glass.
People's opinions and judgments are like watches. Everyone's watch shows time. But everyone thinks only their watch shows the right time. Very rarely are people ready to change their watch's time based on someone else's time.
So, no matter what you do, there will always be someone or a group of people that will think you aren't normal, that your life ain't normal. If people around you think so, they will criticize you, sometimes even try to pull you back to what they think is normalcy. You are going to have to let go of such notions and adopt a different mindset that helps you focus on your journey rather than on pleasing people. The more you achieve, the more people will be pissed off at/with you for no reason at all.
Remember, if people have a problem with you, it's their problem, not yours.
So, adjust your version of a normal life according to what you want to accomplish. The bigger the dream, the bigger the accomplishment you wanna make, the wider the difference between your version of lifestyle and people's general version of accepted lifestyle will be. That's okay. We are all gonna be stardust someday, anyway. So, you just gotta do your thing and keep going.
6. Not giving up:
Every single person who dared to dream big and had taken up the journey to march towards that dream have, at one point or the other, thought of giving up. I started my blog and the Highterate Media few many months back and I haven't seen much results even after putting efforts day in and day out, holding on to my day job. I haven't put in my 100% coz I also have a day job as a software engineer. Sure, quitting my day job would give me the freedom to pursue what I want. But, I have no money as of now. There isn't a single day that the thought of giving up doesn't cross my mind. But, I don't give up that easily once I take up something. I give myself one year to see results. Do something similar for yourself. Give yourself one year. Take something up with passion. If you don't enjoy the process or if you don't find the results that you seek, persist for a while if your intuition asks you to. Otherwise, move on. Life is too short to be spending your time on things you don't enjoy or things that don't motivate you enough.
You can see results in as little as 30 days if you consistently work hard without giving up.
7. Finding Balance:
Tommy Emmanuel slept for a maximum of 3 hours every day from somewhere around age 18 to age 23. He played guitar for the rest of the time.
Chet Atkins used to play guitar to sleep. Since he had a trouble sleeping in bed, he usually slept on an easy long chair, playing to sleep.
It is said that most CEOs on Wall Street and Silicon Valley sleep 4 hours a day and run on caffeine.
These things may be true. They maybe false too. But, the essence here is to find balance.
Think about it. Our life in the history of human beings is going to be so irrelevant. It won't matter what we accomplish now. It can even leave lasting legacy for few hundred years. But at the end of the day, oblivion is inevitable and everything we do is pointless.
The only thing is - we don't know what we are going to do or where we go after our body dies. So, find a balance between the pursuit of this achieving something worth your while, and also doing things that fulfill your soul (which includes love, relationships, doing what you love, even taking time to just simply go fish).
Final words:
I kinda understand where your question comes from.
Society and hence most people these days weigh you based on what you have accomplished, what your status in the society is, what profession you're in, what kind of possessions you have, what you own, how good your reputation is, how good a name you have around amongst people, etc. The respect for you is also based on these things.
There are equal number of people in the world who weigh you based on how kind you are, how loving you are, how empathetic you are, how much unconditional you are in giving love, how patient you are in dealing with people that get to you, how understanding you are with people who aren't like you, etc. They weigh you based on the person you are deep down.
The first one is superficial - materialistic.
The second one is for the person that you are.
It's often so easy to get lost being so concerned about the opinion of people of the first kind. Sometimes it goes to a level where you think you haven't achieved much in life even if you are just 35. Mostly where does such a thought crop up from? From the way we experience how the society sees us, how people treat us, etc.
We always have a choice - between proving ourselves to such people who judge us and weigh us based on the materialistic category of success, achievements, accomplishments, status, etc., and being the best we can be, as a human being, and bettering ourselves everyday, finding happiness in every little thing, every silly thing, passing that happiness along, doing what we love, being around who we love/those who love us.
Most of us are compelled to go with the first choice - societal pressure, social conditioning, etc., which is exactly from where this question arises - the question you asked - "I am 35 and I haven't achieved much in life. Is it too late?"
It comes from a place of insecurity. It comes from a place of lack. You basically think you haven't achieved much in life. Guess what? So does the rest of the world. So does Elon Musk.
No matter how much we achieve, as human beings, we are wired to think that it's not enough.
I am not asking you to be content with what you have and settle for less than the best you can do in/for this world.
I am just asking you to stop looking at you from a perspective of, from the place of a lack, and rather you start looking at yourself from a place of self-acceptance and love.
First accept that whatever has happened has happened. The things you go on to do from now will decide who you will be, who you will have around, what you will accomplish.
So, instead of going ahead and doing something just for the sake of being an accomplished person materialistically, in front of the society's eye, in front of your family, etc.,
take up something that interests you, that keeps you awake every night, that awakens you a little bit early every morning, that makes you so happy that you feel like crying happy tears doing what you do.
When you do that, then and only then, you will realize that true accomplishment in life is more in finding happiness and holding on to it while you are in pursuit, in the journey, and less so about reaching the destination.
Goodluck!
Stan Lee got his major break only during the 1960s only after which he created most of his acclaimed works.
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