The older the fiddle, the sweeter the tune

Call this week’s YCBS an epilogue if you will, but when our generation gets on a bit of a roll, we need to drive home every morsel of momentum. Thousands of readers – well, at least three or four of you – got in touch to give their backing to our stand on raising the profile of pensioners – the Elders.

At the time of writing that one, I thought of some famous people who gained their success late in life. First of all, when in my 30s, I read where a psychologist, making his living as a motivator, stated emphatically; ‘whatever you are going to be, you will be by the time you are 40’. That guy was so wrong – as we shall prove further down.

Now, having completed two 40s, I can say from any successes I have had that most of my (apart from getting Mrs Youcantbeserious!) winners were after the age of 40 – and I’m not done yet! ‘That fellow never stays at anything,’ was a criticism levelled at me by the Lads over the years.

Anyway, read on please, and discover a few famous people who made the breakthrough in the second halves of their lives. The Lads were right of course, but many successful people in life try and then quit so many jobs that those around them conclude that they lack resilience. But those are the years when late bloomers are learning from mistakes and developing the ability to wander into a broad range of activities.

Frank McCourt was an unknown until, at the age of 66, he became an overnight success as an author when he published ‘Angela’s Ashes’. Same story (no pun intended) with Bram Stoker, who became a sensation when he published ‘Dracula’ at the age of 50. Toni Morrison, the acclaimed novelist, became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature when she exploded onto the scene in 1993 at the age of 62.

In 1976, at the age of 90, Colonel Harlan Sanders was voted the world’s second most recognisable celebrity. Sanders lost his father at the age of six and from a young age he had to cook for his siblings. At the age of 65, Colonel Sanders began franchising his fast food, Kentucky Fried Chicken. He trusted his secret formula to customers with no more than a handshake, and a few years later, in his early 70s, he sold his interest in the company for $2 million.

Not bad for an uneducated guy who spent the first half of his life in and out of menial jobs. (Another Lad who ‘never stayed at anything!’)

A somewhat similar story is that of Ray Kroc, who, at the age of 52, did a deal with the McDonald Brothers who owned a small restaurant in California, and thus the famous McDonald’s was born.

‘When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.’ Those were the words of Henry Ford, when he left the family farm to pursue his dream of inventing a motor car for the masses in the fledgling motor industry of the time. Henry, when he made his big breakthrough, never claimed to be anything other than a stubborn farm boy. The first car he made ran on bicycle wheels, but the most famous car of all time was to follow; the Model T. At one time, half the cars in the world were Henry Ford’s Model T. Henry loved the land and went back farming, but it never stopped him from thinking – and thinking big!

A characteristic of late bloomers is that they never experience completion; never a sense of having the job done and able to relax. They continue to push on to improve life around them. They don’t rest on their laurels or sit around waiting for decay.

Rosemary Smith (RIP), whom some of us remember as a champion rally driver in the 1960s, became the oldest person to drive a Formula 1 car, seven years ago, at the age of 79. And there are those millennials who assert that the elders should be taken off the road because we drive too slow!

Yuichiro Miura, a Japanese gent, became the oldest person to reach the top of Mount Everest. He climbed the hill at the age of 80 (and I thought I was great crossing the Pyrenees!).

We could go on with more examples of ambitious people making it in the second half of life, but the picture is clear. Today the American Economic Review finds that 45 is the average age of an entrepreneur, but the odds of success rise as people go into their 50s and beyond. A tech founder at 55 is twice as likely to start a successful company as one who is 30.

Sure looks to me like; ‘the older the fiddle, the sweeter the tune!’

Don’t forget

Never give advice – sell it!