“It is never too late to become what you might have been.”
–George Elliot
Regrets about missed opportunities from the past accomplish nothing. It is only in the present and the future that we can make new accomplishments. And we’re never too old to try something new. History is full of examples of people who began careers late in life and went on to become phenomenally successful.
Harland Sanders, who was born in 1890, had a hard early life. His father died when he was only 6 years old, and his mother had to go to work. This left young Harland with the responsibility of taking care of his 3-year-old brother and his baby sister. At age 10 he got his first job outside the home working on a farm for $2 a month. At age 16, he was a soldier for six months in Cuba. At age 40, Sanders began cooking for hungry travelers who stopped at his service station in Corbin, Ky. At age 65, Colonel Sanders began franchising his chicken business. He started the business with his first Social Security check.
Anna Mary Robertson was born in 1860 on a farm in upstate New York, one of a family of 10 children. At the age of 12, she was sent to work as a hired girl on a neighboring farm. She spent the next 15 years in this manner, until marrying a “hired man,” Thomas Salmon Moses, and moving to Virginia, where they spent nearly two decades farming. Anna Mary gave birth to 10 children during this period, five of whom died in infancy. In 1905, the Moses family returned to New York and settled not far from Anna Mary’s birthplace. Although she never had an art lesson, Grandma Moses started painting when she was in her seventies and continued until her death at age 101. Over the years, Grandma Moses gradually developed an enormous following, and every president from Truman through Kennedy paid her homage.
Colonel Sanders and Grandma Moses are just two examples of people who became extraordinarily successful late in life. There are many other such examples throughout history, and there will be many more in the future. How can anyone who is aware of such success stories become despondent just because they have reached retirement age? I officially retired as a college professor in 1998, but I did so because I wanted to launch a new career as a full-time writer. Retirement can be the time when life really begins for some of us, because it affords us the opportunity to pursue interests that we didn’t have time for before.
Think about it.
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Copyright 2024
Allen W. Smith
