10 Success Stories

It’s Never Too Late To Do Anything!

“My father used to say that it’s never too late to do anything you wanted to do. And he said, ‘You never know what you can accomplish until you try.” — Michael Jordan

When we think of success we imagine a young youthful gifted individual that was just born lucky. We think of young entrepreneurs such as Zuckerberg, Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk who became successful in their younger years, and that’s all there is to it, right? However most entrepreneurs were not successful straight out of the gate, most became successes from their years of wisdom.

This is a list to disprove the myth of being young and inexperienced equates to success, but most times it takes experience, intelligence, perseverance, and above all age.

As a golden rule of the Never Too Late To Succeed Club, no one younger than 39 years old will be accepted to this list,

NO Youngsters Allowed! Old People Only!!! #Ageisms

John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola at 55

John Pemberton was a biochemist and American Civil War veteran best known for inventing Coca-Cola in 1886 when he was 55. He died two years later at the age of 57. Shortly before his death, John sold the formula to Asa Candler, who made Coca-Cola a household classic brand. Even though John Unfortunately Pemberton didn’t get to live to see how much of a success his formula was, but he still left his stamp on American history and culture.

Ray Kroc bought McDonald’s when he was 59

In 1961 Ray Kroc bought 1,000 McDonalds restaurants right out from the original owners, the McDonalds brothers. Under Ray Kroc‘s leadership, the franchise was able to expand tremendously up until the time of his death in the ’80s. Today it is still expanding and is a multi-billion dollar industry with 30,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries on 6 continents.

Fun fact: Ray Kroc left the McDonald brothers with only one restaurant, their original one in San Bernardino. Ray Kroc then opened a McDonalds right across the street from them to make them go out of business, to put it short Kroc was an asshole.

Colonel Sanders began franchising KFC at 62

Sanders is a classic example of it never too late to succeed. Sanders had a lifetime of experience with other businesses, but many of them failed. Sanders was fired from many other jobs and had previous unsuccessful startups before KFC.

It wasn’t until Sanders started cooking chicken that success began. The major problem was finding a distributor to sell his chicken. He went to over 1,000 distributors with his secret recipe just to get rejected. When all was seeming lost the 1010 distributor finally said yes, he was 62. At 73 he sold KFC for 2 million dollars.

Today KFC’s net worth is 15 billion. It is the second-largest fast-food industry right behind McDonald’s with 22,621 locations globally in 150 countries.

Nelson Mandela — Prisoner To President, 76

A lot of people heard of Mandela and his story and for good reason, it’s inspirational. As a young man, Mandela fought endlessly against the apartheid system in South Africa which was known for its racial discrimination and segregation between whites and blacks.

When Mandela was arrested and sentenced for life as a Political Prisoner in 1962, no one would ever imagine that he would ever see the outside of a cell ever again and be released, let alone become the country’s first black president. Well, that’s exactly what happened at the age of 76 after a change in South African government, Mandela was released and replaced by the old regime that put him there.

Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species” at 50

Charles Darwin is renowned as the father of evolution, it wasn’t until he was 50 when he published his theories on evolution in his book, “On the Origin of Species” he transformed the way we see the natural world with the belief that all species characteristic change over time due to their environment. He also popularized the term survival of the fittest where the weak will die out and only the strong will survive.

Julia Child was 51 years old when she made her television debut

Julia Child was a Chef who wrote her first cookbook at 39 and more than 10 years later made her first television Debüt in The French Chef.

She was the first woman to host a cooking show, through it she brought French cuisine to American households.

Henry Ford was 45 years old when he created the Model T car.

The Ford Company was actually his third company which later became a success. The first two companies failed and his third one was a struggle until they made the Model T. The Model T was not their first try either. The 19 earlier Ford models; A through S, all had major problems, engines overheating and exploding. It wasn’t until the Model T was released which changed the future of transportation forever, Henry Ford was 45 at the time the car made it out of the assembly line.

Stan Lee’s First Hit Comic at 39

Although he wasn’t as old as some of the other entries, he wasn’t any young spring chicken either. In 1960 at the age of 39, Stan Lee was ready to give up comics after 20 years of being in the business, his wife urged him to write something he likes the result was his first of many mainstream successes, Fantastic Four. It became relatable with each character with its human flaws. This was the beginning of a collaborative partnership with Jack Kirby, where the two would go on to make more iconic Marvel characters.

The moral of the story here is to write with passion, find allies with similar goals, and sometimes it takes a lifetime to hit it big.

Samuel L. Jackson was 43 years old before he had his first hit film

Today Samuel L Jackson is a cultural icon, his movie’s total gross estimate over 27 billion dollars, but back then in 1990, he was a nobody. It wasn’t until his first-star role in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever (1991) that he became a success at the age of 43. Jungle Fever was his first Oscar-nominated film which led to more nominated and award-winning films.

His next leading roles in Director Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction would become another box office hit. which would result in a beautiful partnership between the two where they would make much more successful box office hits such as Jackie Brown (1997), Django Unchained (2012), and The Hateful Eight (2015).

Alan Rickman star at 46

If the name doesn’t sound familiar you’ve definitely seen him as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter film series. Although Rickman wasn’t too interested in playing Snape, it wasn’t until JK Rowling spoiled a secret to him that he decided to stay to the end.

Many people may not know this but his first career path was in graphic design, however, acting was always in the back of his head. So at the age of 26, he left his graphic design job to pursue a career in acting. Although he did do well in the theater he did not do film until 18 years later of acting.

Takeaway/ Final Thoughts

Our society tends to constrict our goals and limits us by forcing us to lock down our career path while we are still very young and unsure of what it is we exactly want. We may have an idea while we are in school, but once we get out there, sometimes things don’t go as planned.

Just because someone had a rough start doesn’t mean they’ll have a tragic end. It’s really hard to know what you want to do what the rest of your life while growing up. Goals are always changing constantly depending on where you are in life. Don’t compare your first mile to someone’s twenty, go at your own pace. It takes time, education, and commitment to find your true passions and make your dreams a reality.

“It’s never too late, for with a purpose, a worthy goal and a motivation to reach those upper layers on the pyramid, a person can travel further in a few years than he might otherwise travel in a lifetime.” — Earl Nightingale