I was born in 1985.
Guess who else was born in the mid-eighties?
Mark Zuckerberg.
We’re the same age. How depressing.
But he was born in America, and I’m from South Africa. I thought that would console me. He had an unfair advantage, after all.
But, guess who else was born in the mid-eighties?
Trevor Noah.
He was born in Johannesburg, where I’m from. Well, not entirely. The guy carved his path from the township streets of Soweto…during Apartheid, no less.
I had way more opportunities than he did, but still, here he is, winning an Emmy.
And here he is chilling with Beyoncé after hosting the Grammy’s for the second time.
Guess how many Emmys I have won?
Ah man, the depression is deep.
But this past weekend, I had a glimmer of hope!
I watched world-famous British comedian Jimmy Carr perform in Cape Town.
His set was hilarious and his delivery flawless - a maestro.
But in his mid-twenties, Jimmy Carr worked in the marketing department of Shell and had never written a joke in his life. He only did his first stand-up gig at age 27. He sucked at first, but did over 300 shows a year during the early stages of his career to make up for it.
In his memoir, Jimmy Carr explains how his life changed after his career switch. He no longer needed escapism:
“The best part of my day used to be reading the newspaper on the way to work. I don’t think I’ve ever been so well informed. Then on the journey home, I’d read a novel. Pure escapism. Incidentally, I stopped reading fiction after I started doing stand-up. That isn’t like a cheat or a life hack; I’m just saying I stopped reading fiction because I didn’t want to escape any more.”
Ricky Gervais, another British comedian, was a nobody before 40, then bam! The Office happened.
Early in 2024, Gervais won his fourth Golden Globe to pair nicely with his two Emmy Awards.
It feels like actor Samuel L Jackson has been famous since, forever. But he only got his big break at 45 as a Bible-verse-slinging badass hitman in Pulp Fiction.
Portraying the exact opposite of a murderous hitman, Morgan Freeman was 52 when his career took off after his role in Driving Miss Daisy.
Let’s move on to business.
Colonel Harland Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was 62!
Jack Ma was a teacher who had been rejected by Harvard University ten times before he started the Alibaba group at age 35.
Although he founded the business in 1993, Nvidia’s founder, Jensen Huang, was well into his 50s before the company skyrocketed. Today, Nvidia is worth a staggering $2.2 trillion (that’s a T, not a B).
The odds actually favour late bloomers. Research of 2.7 million U.S. business startups between 2007 and 2014 found that older entrepreneurs have a much higher success rate.
If entrepreneurship and entertainment aren’t for you, then investing might be your golden ticket.
90% of Warren Buffet’s wealth accrued after the age of 60. As Albert Einstein said, “compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.”
Sure, these people are outliers, the crème de la crème. Emulating their success is a tall order. But the core truth remains—you can turn things around, no matter the number of candles on your birthday cake.
The moral of the story:
I summarise by quoting a cheesy-but-true Chinese proverb:
“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”
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"I don’t think I’ve ever been so well informed." Love Jimmy Carr
Great read to start the day!