In spite of what people say or think, your chances of success are not determined by how old you are. They are determined by how determined you are. They are not even determined by how much money you have. Many people who are now famous today may tell you their stories and sometimes it all sounds surreal but remember they were just ordinary people once and they persevered to the “legends” you see today. Of course this does not include those who were born into money or fame. There are those who created their own success and fame. Most of these people were not sitting on the couch and wishing they were successful or working for a little while and throwing their hands in the air because they had been working for so long and nothing changed. Their history shows that they were busy behind the scenes, mostly working against a lot of odds, until they made it. Fame may not be everyone’s end goal but I’m sure success is. Read about these 4 women from different backgrounds who proved that it does not matter what your dream is, it can be achieved.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah was born into a poor family in rural Mississippi. She started working towards her dream while she was still in High School when she landed a job in radio. She always worked in Media but the show that would make her famous, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” only started airing when she was 32. She worked mostly as the youngest, only woman and only black person in the circles that she was in but she kept going. Today Oprah is worth 2.9 BILLION!! yes American dollars!! Where she started indicated nothing of where she would wind up but here we are.
Mother Teresa
She only established her charity, “Missionaries of Charity” when she was 40. It only had 12 members when it started. She won a Nobel Peace Prize when she was 69!! Mother Teresa opened about 517 in her lifetime. And none of them in her youth.
Martha Stewart
She did not start her home improvement business until she was in her 30s. And once that was off the ground many other doors opened for her. She went on to become an author and television personality after that. her net worth is listed as $970. million! Her self-made success was not deterred even by an obstruction of justice conviction and her stay in prison.
Joyce Banda
Joyce Banda was the president of Malawi from 2012 to 2014. I’m sure people that when Joyce first told people that she was going to run for presidency they laughed their heads off because who had ever heard of a female president in Africa! Women have had to fight for years to be so much as managers at work because most men do not want to be led by a woman. Even in a family setting most African cultures do not let women speak for themselves. Joyce started off a secretary. If you are looking at where you are and thinking that going from there to where you want to be is too huge a leap think of a secretary becoming the president of a country! Joyce freed herself from an abusive first marriage and started following her dreams as a business woman first then political figure. She only entered the political arena when she was 49.
I love this poem. It’s never too late. Start now…
Have we not all, amid life’s petty strife,
Some pure ideal of a noble life
That once seemed possible? Did we not hear
The flutter of its wings, and feel it near,
And just within our reach? It was. And yet
We lost it in this daily jar and fret,
And now live idle in a vague regret;
But still our place is kept, and it will wait,
Ready for us to fill it, soon or late.
No star is ever lost we once have seen,
We always may be what we might have been.
Since good, tho’ only thought, has life and breath,
God’s life—can always be redeemed from death;
And evil, in its nature, is decay,
And any hour can blot it all away;
The hopes that, lost, in some far distance seem.
May be the truer life, and this the dream
by Adelaide Anne
35 Plus 