Do you often feel that you are missing on life?
Henry Ford was 40 when he founded the Ford Motor company.
Abraham Lincoln – At the age of 40, Lincoln left the House of Representatives and went back to practicing law, his young political career seemingly over. He jumped onto the just-founded Republican Party seven years later, and then was elected President of the United States four years after that.
Reid Hoffman – Not every social media website was founded by some young tech genius. Reid Hoffman founded SocialNet in 1997, a precursor of sorts to Facebook. But he founded LinkedIn in 2002 at age 35, and then worked for years to make it the professional social networking site. When Hoffman took Linkedin public 8 years later, he became a billionaire.
Sam Walton – Walton ran several stores. He did fail many times in the process. But he learned from those failures and used the lessons to open the first Wal-Mart at 44 and become one of the richest men in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi – famously know as “Father of the Nation” in India needs no introduction. Bringing anti-colonial nationalism to the common Indians, Gandhi led in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930 (he was 60 years old then) and in calling for the British to quit India in 1942.
Premlata Agarwal – Piqued by mountaineering at 35 and mother of two, she has scaled the seven summits in seven continents, becoming the first Indian woman to do so.
Taru Mateti – an ultimate example to show how it’s never to late to do what you enjoy. She realised her loves running at 49 and followed the passion. She completed the 2018 down run Comrades Marathon (90.2K) in 10:53:02 to become one of the five women from Pune then to have attempted this run. She then went on to complete the 2019 up run Comrades Marathon (86.83K) in 10:44:56 to secure her second Bronze medal and the back-to-back medal. She is the first and only woman from Pune to have finished her back-to-back runs in the Bronze category.
She ran her longest distance so far, 100K in Pune Ultramarathon in November 2017. She was the only woman to run in that event and was placed fifth amongst all men and women with a timing of 13:54. She has also run the challenging hilly, trail 80K Malnad Ultra finishing amongst the top three women in the open category.
And… the list of great achievers goes on.
You might feel some people are ahead of you or some behind you. But remember everyone is running their own race. Don’t envy. They are in their time and you in yours.
Nor are you LATE nor EARLY. You are very much ON TIME!
Pic: While conducting one of my coaching sessions.