Often, my clients who are recovering from narcissistic abuse tell me that they don’t even know who they are anymore – and even if they do, they all think they’re too old to start something new.
Still, sometimes life forces you to start over – and that’s especially true when you leave a toxic relationship. So lemme ask you….
Do you feel like it’s too late to achieve a significant amount of success? Many of the most successful people did start at a young age. It can be disheartening for the late bloomers among us. But many of the most successful people you know didn’t get started until much later in life. If you think you missed the boat because you’re middle-aged, you couldn’t be more wrong. You’re wrong even if you’re 80. Success often isn’t achieved until later in life.
1. Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first big role until the age of 43. Prior to that he was a struggling actor with little future. Now he’s known by people all over the world for his acting. How many movies, TV shows, and video games has he been in since that first big role in Jungle Fever? 140!
2. Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart at the age of 44. He had been successful in the retail environment in his younger years, but nothing out of the ordinary. Wal-Mart went on to become one the biggest companies in the world, and Walton become one of the world’s richest.
3. Stan Lee. Known to everyone as the creator of Spiderman and the X-Men, Stan Lee didn’t experience success until the age of 39. And his most well-known work didn’t occur until several years after that. Who says it’s too late to do something incredible with your life?
4. Ronald Reagan never held a political office until the age of 55! He became one of the most popular presidents in modern history.
5. Colonel Sanders didn’t invent his famous chicken recipe until he was 50. His famous chain of restaurants is still doing well today. His likeness has been used to market KFC since the very beginning.
6. College students everywhere owe a debt of thanks to Momofuku Ando. At the age of 48, he created those Ramen noodles that poor students rely on for life itself. How many times have you had Ramen noodles in your life?
7. Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species at the age of 50. No book has had a greater effect on the theory of evolution than Charles Darwin’s iconic book.
8. Taikichiro Mori became a real estate investor at the age of 55. He was a professor before that. He was the richest man in the world in 1992 with a net worth $13 billion. He inherited his first building from his father. The rest he accomplished on his own.
9. Grandma Moses started painting at the age of 78. If you have the gumption, you can still make an impact after 70. One of her paintings sold for over a million dollars.
10. Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t publish her first novel until she was 65-years old. She wrote an additional 12 novels after that. A successful television series was built around her series of books. Older children still read her books today.
11. Peter Roget created the first thesaurus when he was 73-years old. He was trained as a medical doctor but had an obsession with words, especially words that had the same meaning. He quit his medical career to focus on the creation of the first thesaurus. The most popular thesaurus in the world still bears his name.
It’s never too late to leave your mark on the world! But time is constantly passing, so it’s time to start making it happen. Spend the later portion of your life pursuing something you love. There’s still time to do something amazing!
“Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.” ~Ronald Reagan
A few years ago, I drove to a different town to do a series of political candidate interviews I’m working on for one of my local news writing jobs.
The first interview was with a candidate who called himself a Reagan conservative republican. I’m not very political by nature, but I think in general, some of my beliefs and ideas would be considered pretty liberal. Even so, I could definitely identify and connect with this man.
The Definition of Soulmates
In addition to all of the political stuff, the candidate talked a lot about his wife, who unexpectedly passed away more than a decade ago.
He told me that he hadn’t changed a thing in the home she decorated, and then he told me the story of their epic love.
Even now, more than a decade later, the love shone brightly in his eyes as he spoke of his beautiful wife. He showed me pictures of her and talked about their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Since they’d married young–he was 20, she was 18–they had planned to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary together.
Goodnight, Sweetheart, It’s Time to Go
They were married for nearly 40 blissful years when his wife had a terrible headache one night and went to bed.
The candidate said he tried to take her to the hospital because the headache seemed so severe–in fact, he tried three times, but each time his wife refused, preferring to stay in the comfort of her own home.
She wasn’t even sick, as far as they knew, and the next morning, he left her to sleep as he went about his morning routines.
One of his daughters called him that morning, around 7:15 am. She asked after her mother, and the candidate told her she was asleep.
His daughter then asked him a question that, to this day, he has no idea why she’d ask–was her mother breathing?
The candidate said of course she was, but when he hung up, he thought about how strange it was that his daughter would say something like that. He went into the bedroom to check on his wife and found her there, unresponsive. He said she couldn’t be moved.
He called 911 and the paramedics, fire department and police arrived soon after. He said that much of the rest of the day was a blur, as he was understandably quite traumatized by the whole situation.
But he did remember that he tried to go into the bedroom to see her again. He was not allowed into the room, so he paced the floors of the family room where they’d spent so many happy hours together. He waited, and finally learned that she’d been declared dead.
One True Love: Soulmates are Forever
Since the death of his beloved wife, the candidate hasn’t even had the desire to date anyone else.
He said there was only one true love for him, his soulmate, his wife. He also mentioned that he had grown closer to his children since then and told me that his wife had done such an amazing job raising them.
She had been the primary caregiver as a stay-at-home mom while he worked to support the family.
The look on his face as he talked about his wife was indescribable. He was clearly still in love with her, even thirteen years after she’d passed away–theirs was a love that truly transcended even death.
Honestly, I was moved almost to the point of tears by the depth of his love for her.
In addition to getting a glimpse inside of an amazing love story, the thing that really struck me about this man is that, even though he lost the love of his life so unexpectedly, he was still so very grateful for everything that they’d been given in life.
He made it very clear that even now, he feels very grateful for the life he has been given, he is all about love. Love is the answer, he said, to everything.
That day, I found myself feeling grateful that I had the opportunity to meet such an amazing man with such an incredible outlook on life and that he was kind enough to share it with me.
And that night, when I kissed my husband good night, I kept this political candidate’s love story in my heart and remembered to be grateful for every moment we have together.
Do you believe in soulmates? Have you met yours yet? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section, below!
