50+ and out of work? It’s not too late.
➔ It might seem natural to assume that if you’re past age 50 and out of work success has eluded you and you’re just stuck and all you have to look forward to is “hanging on” until you can retire. Not so and there’s plenty of evidence to prove just that.
The landscape is littered with people who found success later in life and/or are still going at it today long past what people used to consider “retirement age.”
It’s a long list
Let’s start with some of the low-hanging fruit. John Glenn was age 77 when he returned to space. Former President George H.W. Bush was 90 when he went sky diving.
OK. You’re not a former president or astronaut, you’re in the business world. Don’t fret. There are numerous examples of late-term success in the business world. Most notably, there is Ray Kroc who bought McDonald’s at age 52. Colonel Harland Sanders franchised his first Kentucky Fried Chicken at 62. A mere youngster, Donald Fisher opened the first Gap store when he was 40.
The list goes on. Henry Ford was 45 when he developed the Model T in 1908. Julia Child wrote her first cookbook when she was 50. Arianna Huffington founded The Huffington Post at age 55.
The entertainment industry has (and has had) many performers who continued working long past what many would consider “their prime.” Trumpeter Herb Alpert is still recording in his late 80s. Singer Petula Clark is still performing at age 90. Going back some years, famed character actor Sidney Greenstreet (Maltese Falcon and Casablanca) didn’t land his first movie role until he was 62.
Age is more than chronological years – stop thinking of yourself in some number of years old and start thinking of yourself as an unfinished work of art.