You should be observant, talk less but listen more. This will make you a wise person.

There was an old owl that lived in an oak. Everyday he saw incidents happening around him. Yesterday he saw a boy helping an old man to carry a heavy basket. Today he saw a girl shouting at her mother. The more he saw the less he spoke. 


As he spoke less, he heard more. He heard people talking and telling stories. He heard a woman saying that an elephant jumped over a fence. He also heard a man saying that he had never made a mistake. 


The old owl had seen and heard about what happened to people. Some became better and some became worse. But the old owl had become wiser each and every day. 

You should be observant, talk less but listen more. This will make you a wise person. 

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EVERY SUCCESS STORY IS ALSO A STORY OF GREAT FAILURE

Failure is the highway to success. Tom Watson Sr. said, "If you want to succeed, double your failure rate." If you study history, you will find that all stories of success are also stories of great failures. But people don't see the failures. They only see one side of the picture and they say that person got lucky: "He must have been at the right place at the right time."


Let me share someone's life history with you. This was a man who failed in business at the age of 21 ; was defeated in a legislative race at age 22; failed again in business at age 24; overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 26; had a nervous breakdown at age 27; lost a congressional race at age 34; lost a senatorial race at age 45; failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47; lost a senatorial race at age 49; and was elected president of the United States at age 52.
This man was Abraham Lincoln.Would you call him a failure? He could have quit. But to Lincoln, defeat was a detour and not a dead end.


In 1913, Lee De Forest, inventor of the triodes tube, was charged by the district attorney for using fraudulent means to mislead the public into buying stocks of his company by claiming that he could transmit the human voice across the Atlantic. He was publicly humiliated. Can you imagine where we would be without his invention?

A New York Times editorial on December 10, 1903, questioned the wisdom of the Wright Brothers who were trying to invent a machine, heavier than air, that would fly. One week later, at Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers took their famous flight.
Colonel Sanders, at age 65, with a beat-up car and a $100 check from Social Security, realized he had to do something. He remembered his mother's recipe and went out selling. How many doors did he have to knock on before he got his first order? It is estimated that he had knocked on more than a thousand doors before he got his first order. How many of us quit after three tries, ten tries, a hundred tries, and then we say we tried as hard as we could?


As a young cartoonist, Walt Disney faced many rejections from newspaper editors, who said he had no talent. One day a minister at a church hired him to draw some cartoons. Disney was working out of a small mouse infested shed near the church. After seeing a small mouse, he was inspired. That was the start of Mickey Mouse.

Successful people don't do great things, they only do small things in a great way. 

One day a partially deaf four year old kid came home with a note in his pocket from his teacher, "Your Tommy is too stupid to learn, get him out of the school." His mother read the note and answered, "My Tommy is not stupid to learn, I will teach him myself." And that Tommy grew up to be the great Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison had only three months of formal schooling and he was partially deaf.

Henry Ford forgot to put the reverse gear in the first car he made.

Do you consider these people failures? They succeeded in spite of problems, not in the absence of them. But to the outside world, it appears as though they just got lucky.

All success stories are stories of great failures. The only difference is that every time they failed, they bounced back. This is called failing forward, rather than backward. You learn and move forward. Learn from your failure and keep moving.

Below are more examples of the failures of successful people:
1. Thomas Edison failed approximately 10,000 times while he was working on the light bulb.
2. Henry Ford was broke at the age of 40.
3. Lee Iacocca was fired by Henry Ford II at the age of 54.
4. Young Beethoven was told that he had no talent for music, but he gave some of the best music to the world.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

STRUGGLE

                       A biology teacher was teaching his students how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. He told the students that in the next couple of hours, the butterfly would struggle to come out of the cocoon. But no one should help the butterfly. Then he left.

The students were waiting and it happened. The butterfly struggled to get out of the cocoon, and one of the students took pity on it and decided to help the butterfly out of the cocoon against the advice of his teacher. He broke the cocoon to help the butterfly so it didn't have to struggle anymore. But shortly afterwards the butterfly died.

When the teacher returned, he was told what happened. He explained to this student that by helping the butterfly, he had actually killed it because it is a law of nature that the struggle to come out of the cocoon actually helps develop and strengthen its wings. The boy had deprived the butterfly of its struggle and the butterfly died.

                             Apply this same principle to our lives. Nothing worthwhile in life comes without a struggle. As parents we tend to hurt the ones we love most because we don't allow them to struggle to gain strength.

What matters is saying yes.

Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a f@*$%load of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.

We all operate in two contrasting modes

We all operate in two contrasting modes, which might be called open and closed. The open mode is more relaxed, more receptive, more exploratory, more democratic, more playful and more humorous. The closed mode is the tighter, more rigid, more hierarchical, more tunnel-visioned. Most people, unfortunately spend most of their time in the closed mode. Not that the closed mode cannot be helpful. If you are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time for considering alternative strategies. When you charge the enemy machine-gun post, don’t waste energy trying to see the funny side of it. Do it in the “closed” mode. But the moment the action is over, try to return to the “open” mode—to open your mind again to all the feedback from our action that enables us to tell whether the action has been successful, or whether further action is need to improve on what we have done. In other words, we must return to the open mode, because in that mode we are the most aware, most receptive, most creative, and therefore at our most intelligent.

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this

 A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive. To them… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off… They must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating.

Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect; It means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections

1. Enjoying the present moment is a habit that takes practice.

If you always look toward tomorrow for happiness, odds are you will do the same when you attain what you’ve been dreaming of. As strange it sounds, the abilit
y to appreciate what’s in front of you has nothing to do with what you actually have. It’s more about how you measure the good things in your life at any given time.

Practice wanting what you have and it will feel even sweeter when you eventually have what you want. Look around—what’s in front of you that can enjoy?

2. Finding reasons to be happy now can benefit your future.

Subsequent tests revealed that the women who expressed more positive emotion in those photos became more mentally focused, had more successful marriages, and enjoyed a greater sense of well-being.

“While positive emotion tends to broaden thought, negative emotion tends to narrow it and hold back development…

3. Tuning into joy can improve your health, something that affords you many possibilities in life.

Something that most people take for granted until it’s compromised.

Choose to be happy now and you’ll have more days of good health to enjoy.

4. Consistent, long-term happiness depends on your ability to notice and appreciate the details; you can hone that skill right now.

Once you get everything you want, you will still be subject to life’s highs and lows. If you haven’t learned to enjoy the little things, your well-being will parallel your life’s circumstances. Every time something goes wrong, you’ll feel deeply unhappy (as opposed to disappointed, but determined to make the best of things).

Think about the things that fill you with the most joy—spending time with your pets, listening to the rain, and running on the beach, for example. Focus on those things right now, and let them brighten your day. That way, no matter what changes, you’ll have a variety of simple pleasures to help you through.

5. Every day is a new opportunity to be better than yesterday; that pursuit can increase your self-esteem and, accordingly, your happiness.

I used to be obsessed with being perfect. If I wasn’t the best at something, I couldn’t sleep at night. Becoming great never felt as good as I imagined it would because there was always room to be better. I was constantly dissatisfied and disappointed in myself.

I now look at the things I do as opportunities to get better from one day to the next. It’s more satisfying to set and meet an attainable goal, like focusing better and writing an extra article tomorrow, than it is to obsess about perfection, stressing because I’m not a world-famous author.

By focusing on small improvements and mini-goals, you’ll naturally move yourself toward your larger dreams. And you’ll respect the way you’re doing things.

6. You can be who you want to be right now, no matter what your situation looks like.

You may think life needs to change dramatically for you to be the person you want to be. That you can’t be giving unless you make more money. Or you can’t be adventurous until you sell your house. The truth is, you can be those things at any point in time.

So you don’t have money to share. Be generous with your compassion, and listen when your friends have problems. So your house hasn’t sold, pinning you in one place. Create adventure in your day by trying new things and introducing yourself to new people.

You never know when your nows will run out, so ask yourself, “How can I be that person I want to be in this moment?”

7. Finding joy in the present moment, no matter how inadequate it may seem, makes a difference in other people’s lives.

Though we all have different lists of dreams and goals, for most of us this is at the forefront: the possibility of living a meaningful life that affects other people for the better.

Happiness is a moment-to-moment choice, one that many have a hard time making. Other people will notice if you make that choice. And you will motivate them to do the same. As the research above indicates, this motivation has a substantial impact on their health and future happiness.

I know this isn’t your usual reasons-to-be-happy post. It didn’t start or end with “count your blessings” and I didn’t delve into your relationships or good fortune. There’s a very good reason for that.

I don’t think happiness is so much about what you have. What you have changes; your “blessings” evolve. Happiness is about how you interpret what’s in front of you. How proud you are of the way you live your life. How willing you are to enjoy simple pleasures, even if things aren’t perfect.

Though I have’t always done this well, today I choose to focus on the good—both in the world and myself—to feel happy right now. How will you tune into happiness today?

The symbol of one man’s impossible dream

The concept of building a magnificent ‘Brooklyn Bridge’ to connect New York with the Long Island was dreamt up by an innovative German engineer John Augustus Roebling, who had been consistently criticized and warned by skeptics. Critics laughed at him for his impractical and impossible feat as they predicted the entire construction to collapse into New York’s East River.

Though discouraged, Roebling could not stop dreaming of that bridge deep down in his heart and one day he shared his concept with his engineer son Washington who was convinced to work on his idea after a lot of discussion and persuasion. Roebling, along with his son, developed the model of how to proceed and overcame all the obstacles to accomplish the wild challenge and made a dedicated crew to build the epic bridge of the century.

In 1857, he drew designs for massive towers that would hold the bridge’s cables and he was the pioneering figure of using steel in the construction to make the bridge stronger (earlier such suspension bridges had been built of iron). Making this enormous bridge was the most difficult task which cost John Roebling’s life and caused injury to Washington Roebling, who became handicapped and never recovered. They were called “Crazy men and their crazy dreams”, but he never gave up. He discovered a way to communicate and instruct his wife and for 13 years he kept giving directions to his wife to accomplish their mission. When it was completed and opened on May 24, 1883, the whole world experienced the most wonderful phenomenon the entire United States celebrated. A group of dignitary figures walked across the bridge and called it a “Wonder of Science”, Military bands played in its dignity, and cannons in the Brooklyn Navy Yard sounded salutes. Even after 125 years of its opening, the bridge remains the busiest route for New York commuters.

Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands as the symbol of one man’s impossible dream, indomitable spirit and his resolution not to be overwhelmed by negative circumstances.

Life itself is an opportunity to make it meaningful and significant

American biochemist and geneticist John Craig Venter, who is widely known as the first person to sequence the human genome (the process that led to decoding the human genome), was once a C and D grader in school and terribly away from studies.

His interest in medicine arrived from his life situations. He was against the Vietnam War but he was enlisted in the United States Navy to work in the intensive-care ward of a field hospital. Frustrated, he once attempted suicide by swimming out to sea, but he couldn’t when the images of the pathetic condition of injured and dying marines knocked his head. The desire to do something for them inspired him to study medicine and he went to a community college ‘College of San Mateo’ in California. Though, later, he transferred to the University of California, San Diego and switched to biomedical research. He completed his BS in 1972 in biochemistry then a PhD in physiology and pharmacology in 1975 from same University. On completion of his studies he worked as an associate professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he later became full time professor. In 1984, he joined the National Institutes of Health. He is the founder of The Institute for Genomic Research ‘Celera Genomics’, and the J. Craig Venter Institute where he is working to create synthetic biological organisms.

John Craig Venter was on Time magazine’s 100 list of the most influential people in the world for 2007 and 2008. The British magazine New Statesman enlisted him as the 14th “The World’s 50 Most Influential Figures.

Life itself is an opportunity to make it meaningful and significant; some become explorer and dive deep to take out the treasure while the others just sit, watch, and applaud for them.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a C or D grader throughout your school/college life. At any point in time, you can evolve as ‘the greatest’ provided you feel determined for something worthy and work diligently.

The Curse of Lee Kuan Yew

          Lee Kuan Yew, who died Monday at 91, was in his final years more than a man: He was a myth, a global idea—an intellectual cult built around the idea that not all autocrats are bad; they can be enlightened philosopher-kings too, leading their countries to prosperity and power without the hassle of liberal democracy.

Today, with little sense of irony, leaders of the major Western democracies are falling over each other to eulogize the fallen Singaporean leader. President Obama praised Lee as “a true giant of history,” saying, “No small number of this and past generations of world leaders have sought his advice.” Former President George H.W. Bush lauded Lee for his “singular leadership,” while Britain’s David Cameron acclaimed him for “one of the great success stories” of modern times because of Lee’s role in transforming Singapore from a backward colonial entrepot into a shining high-tech economy.

And yet since the early 2000s the cult of Lee Kuan Yew has been an unmitigated disaster in Eastern Europe, where the example set by Singapore’s unapologetic autocrat has helped to rehabilitate and legitimize authoritarianism.

Vladimir Putin is a greater admirer of Lee, whom he awarded Russia’s prestigious “Order of Honor.” In Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili has been under Lee’s charismatic spell, passing his books around like bibles. The Ukrainian government, when ruled by Putin puppet Viktor Yanukovych, would disguise its kleptocracy by likening its governance to Singapore. Today, the cult is so widespread that even the Russian minister directing Crimea points to Lee Kuan Yew as a mentor.

The problem is that in Russia, Ukraine and Georgia, strongmen inspired by Lee Kuan Yew have only led their countries into war, chaos and economic dead ends, all the while professing to follow his example. The cult of Lee Kuan Yew has allowed these elites in Moscow, Kiev and Tbilisi to make the case that they could find an alternative path to success without liberal democracy. And this is the cult that the sycophantic eulogies of Western leaders are now elevating only further.

The Lee cult took off under Saakashvili, who introduced his revolutionary reforms in Georgia in 2003. “The great nation builder and personal role model passed away today,” the former leader posted on Facebook after his death, “We the Georgian reformers traveled many times to Singapore and drew our inspiration.”

As the appeal of the European Union waned, the myth of Singapore offered to Eastern European leaders the illusion of a high-growth, hard-man alternative. Those in Saakashvili’s Tbilisi who didn’t want to implement cumbersome and difficult EU-proposed reform agendas began justifying themselves by pointing to the Singapore model (which in truth involved a lot of hard economic sacrifice under single-party rule).

Lee Kuan Yew’s books were passed around in Saakashvili’s Tbilisi the same way a previous generation had passed around the Communist manifesto. The myth of Singapore was hugely damaging to the young reformist government. They intellectually waved away accusations of militarism, which led to a disastrous war with Russia in 2008, widespread police brutality and creeping one-man rule by pointing to the triumph of Lee Kuan Yew.

These accusations eventually toppled them at the ballot box. But Saakashvili even used Lee Kuan Yew’s books to justify his loss of power to the opposition in 2012. “He wrote in his books that the population gets tired of even the most successful government that ensures stable growth,” said Saakashvili, belittling Georgian democracy, “so in free elections the people will vote against the government just for the sake of change.” Here, and in many other places, the cult of Lee allowed the Georgian leader to say the unsayable: Democracy is not the only virtue.

Georgia’s 2003 revolution had enormous influence across the former Soviet Union—triggering a wave of “colored revolutions.” From Ukraine to Kyrgyzstan I heard revolutionary thinkers and leaders similarly point to Lee Kuan Yew as an alternative to the EU’s path. Not only the revolutionaries but the counter-revolutionaries too began citing Lee Kuan Yew as their master-mentor. While working as an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London, from 2010-2012, I frequently attended briefings by visiting Ukrainian diplomats who would justify Yanukovych’s practices by pointing to the success of Singapore.

No country in Eastern Europe fell in love with Lee Kuan Yew quite as much as Russia, as I discovered while I was researching my book Fragile Empire in 2011-2012. I was frequently told by both Kremlin insiders in Moscow and regional governors that Lee Kuan Yew was the inspiration of Russia’s deepening authoritarianism. Anatoly Artamonov, the governor of the Kaluga region, even joked to me he would like to erect a statue of Lee in his city. During his puppet presidency, Putin protege Dmitry Medvedev cited Singapore as the model Russia must follow—and his adviser Igor Yurgens dutifully called on Medvedev “to become Russia’s Lee Kuan Yew.” These Kremlin “liberals” even went as far as appointing Lee Kuan Yew to sit on the board of Skolkovo, the science and technology-park that once embodied their hopes of a new high-tech authoritarianism.

Thanks to the myth of Singapore, Kremlin elites came to believe—for the first time since the 1980s–that there could be a third way between Western liberal democracy, especially following the path of the European Union, and despotic authoritarian rule.

This has turned out to be a bitter illusion during Putin’s third term as president. The cult of Lee Kuan Yew helped to keep the liberals in thrall to Putin when they had the power to halt his slide into expansionist nationalism. Many of those very those same advisers and politicians who once lauded the Singapore option can now be heard darkly muttering about Putin’s creeping dictatorship at think-tank conferences across Europe.

However, by no means has the spell of Lee Kuan Yew been broken in Moscow. Oleg Savelyev, the head of the new Crimean Affairs Ministry, recently told Bloomberg: “I blew the dust off the book Singapore: From Third World to First by Lee Kuan Yew to have another read when I became minister.”

And Lee Kuan Yew is not merely a hero to power. He is also a hero to the strongmen of the opposition. Alexey Navalny, a Putin critic, is a devotee of Singapore’s ruthless war on corruption. He has said that should he ever come to power Russia must follow his example. Putin himself remains fascinated with Lee, but the irony is that Lee himself had nothing but disdain for the Putin regime. “Their system is not functioning… because it has gone haywire,” Lee told Charlie Rose in 2012, “They have lost control over various provinces. They have got an enormous nuclear arsenal. But what else?”

Lee even predicted that as a result of Yeltsin’s and Putin’s mismanagement, the Chinese would eventually control Siberia. “Siberia and Vladivostok are filling up with more and more Chinese,” he said, “the lands on the bend of the Amur will be repopulated by Chinese.”

The cult of Lee Kuan Yew has poisoned Eastern Europe, but we should remember that it is also a global phenomenon. Brilliant Western intellectuals, CEOs and leaders created this cult over many years at Davos and other conferences and summits of the global power elite, thus fueling the authoritarian temptation in Eastern Europe.

Vladimir Putin, Viktor Yanukovych, Mikhail Saakashvili—all knew full well that the Singaporean authoritarian was viewed with respect and awe in the West. They knew it so well they hoped to emulate his very success.

Yet these eulogies for Lee’s brand of authoritarianism have sounded like a siren song in Eastern Europe. And I believe they point to something deeper and more troubling. They reveal, on some level, a lack of confidence among our supposed democratic elites in the very idea of democracy.

YOU CAN SUCCEED AT ANY AGE – IT’S NEVER TOO YOUNG, NEVER TOO OLD

The World history is replete with the stories of people who became successful by working hard and not by waiting for success to befall. The following people have proved that it’s never too late or never too early to accomplish your goals and live your dreams. You can create more meaningful life and authentic career at any age.

1. The greatest composers of all time Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is the history’s most recognized child prodigy. He started composing at the tender age of 5 and at the age of 8 he wrote his first symphony.

2. American film and television actress, most popular and famous as a child star in 1930s,Shirley Temple Black starred in “Bright Eyes” when she was 6. She ended up becoming a diplomat.

3. American child prodigy with brilliant mathematical abilities William James Sidis is believed to be the smartest man ever lived with an IQ of 250 to 300. He had the ability to read at 18 months, had already published four books and could speak eight languages fluently at age seven, had given a lecture a Harvard at nine and entered Harvard at the age of 11.

4. At the Age 12 Maths Prodigy Xavier Gordon-Brown is Britain’s Youngest University Student who can recite 2,000 digits of Pi and passed his GCSE at the age of eight.

5. At 12, Anne Frank wrote the journey her experiences of pain and sufferings of her secret world during the Holocaust into her renowned wartime diary that touched millions. The diary is full of wisdom and wise sayings.

6. At the age of 12, Srinivasa Ramanujan mastered the advanced trigonometry book written by S. L. Loney, discovered theorems and re-discovered Euler’s identity on his own. By the age of 17, he independently conducted his own mathematical research on the Euler–Mascheroni constant and Bernoulli numbers. During his short lifespan, he compiled nearly 3900 results, which were mostly identities and equations and most of them have now been proven to be accurate.

7. 13-year-old Malavath Purna from Andhra Pradesh touches a historic feat of Indian mountaineering by conquering the Mount Everest – thus becoming the youngest woman in history. The daughter of a poor farm laborer completed her journey with 16 year-old Sadhanapalli Anand Kumar, the son of a cycle mechanic from Khammam district, on 25th May 2014.

8. At 14, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci, the winner of three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, became the first female gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic event.

9. A 16-year-old Kolkata boy Shouryya Ray, who came to Germany without any knowledge of German, created history by solving a 350-Year-Old two fundamental particle dynamics theories set by Sir Isaac Newton. Before him, physicists could calculate only by using powerful computers.

10. Brazilian footballer Pele is considered to be the most popular and greatest football player to walk the earth won the World Cup at 17. He reigned supreme for near 20 years. All the other greatests – Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini – rank beneath him. Some even call him incomparable.

11. At the age 19, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook in 2004 and changed the way people communicated and shared information. He is the world’s youngest billionaire whose 28% Facebook shares are estimated to be worth $33 billion, making Facebook’s market worth about $100 billion.

12. The World Heavyweight Champion and professional boxer Rocky Marciano, who didn’t dedicate himself to professional boxing until he was 25 in 1948, won the first 16 fights and go unbeatable throughout his career.

13. British novelist J.K Rowling, who is widely known as the author of the children’s favorite Harry Potter fantasy series, was 30 when the first Harry Potter book was published. She was rejected by more than 12 publishers.

14. At 31, an American aviation pioneer and author Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, set many other records and wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences.

15. American media proprietor Oprah Winfrey, widely known and popular for multi-award-winning talk show ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ was 32 when she emerged with the highest-rated programme.

16. Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, and poet Leonard Cohen started his music career at 33. He became one of the most successful musicians and was inducted at the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

17. Brenden Gleeson, who is called to be Ireland’s greatest Living Actor, began he career at 34 when he kicked the day job and decided to become a full-time actor

18. American billionaire businessman and philanthropist John Paul DeJoria began, who is popular for founding The Patron Spirits Company and the Paul Mitchell line of hair products, started his career at age 36. Until then he was homeless.

19. Joseph Conrad, full name Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski, a young Polish sailor working for the French marine service, the author of the book Apocalypse Was a sailor, drifter and Part-Time criminal until the age 37.

20. At 26, American actor and novelist Gene Hackman was voted ‘least likely to succeed’ in his acting class and it wasn’t until 37 he got his first movie role and became most successful actor winning three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs and two Academy Awards.

21. Norwegian professional biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who is known to be the most medaled Olympian of the Winter Olympic Games with 13 medals, and the most successful biathlete of all time with 39 medals is 40 years old and not thinking of retiring soon.

22. Italian tenor and singer-songwriter Andrea Bocelli, who became blind at the age of 12, wasn’t prominent or played a substantial role until he was 34. His career actually took off at the age of 41 with his famous and the most successful classical album ‘Sacred Arias’, which was sold over 5 million copies.

23. British-American novelist Raymond Chandler was working in the oil industry until the age of 44 when he discovered his passion for writing and decided to pursue it.

24. English actor Alan Rickman Got His First Movie Role at the age of 46. He is famous for his role as Hans Gruber in Die Hard, Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He won a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

25. Scottish singer Susan Boyle came to international attention at the age of 47 when she appeared on the TV programme Britain’s Got Talent on 11 April 2009 as a contestant and sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables.

26. American businessman of Czech origin Ray Kroc was 52 years old in 1954. He was a milk shake machine salesman and built the most successful fast food chain in the world.

27. Wallace Stevens – changed his career from insurance salesman to poet in his 50s. In 1995, Steven won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Collected Poems.

28. An American nun Sister Marion Irvine became the then-oldest person to take part in the United States Olympic Trials at age of 47. Earlier, she used to be overweight and smoked almost 2 packs of cigarettes a day. She was qualified for the Olympic marathon trials at age of 54.

29. An American chef, author, and television personality Julia Child is best known for her initiative in popularizing French cuisine to the American public with her famous cookbook ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’. It all happened when she was 49, she later at 51 featured on her TV program “The French Chef”.

30. Emmy Award Winning Actress Kathryn Joosten, who was as a psychiatric nurse at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, went to Hollywood to pursue her dream of becoming an actress and at 56 she finally made her name there.

31. At age 60, Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn, won two 1908 Gold medals in shooting. He won his last silver medal at the age of 72, which makes him the oldest medalist.

32. An acclaimed African-American author, poet, storyteller dancer and singer Maya Angeloucame into limelight in her 60s when her poetry and books became popular.

33. An American motivational speaker, and long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad became the first person to dare to swim from Cuba to Florida without any safety shark cage at the age of 64. Though she gained national attention in 1975 but she received international fame after such daring swim.

34. Ronald Reagan, who is considered to be one the most successful actors in history and the most impactful presidents in American history, became the 40th president of the United States at 69.

35. British natural theologian, physician, and lexicographer Peter Mark Roget is widely renowned for publishing the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases at Age 73. He was an accomplished doctor, lecturer and inventor but Thesaurus earned him fame across the world.

36. A renowned American folk artist Grandma Moses started painting at 76, when she had to stop embroidery work because of arthritis, continued till 101. She aspired to be an artist in her childhood when should use lemon and grape juice to make colors for her “lambscapes” but couldn’t pursue due to the pressure of assisting her family. She is a very good example that one of such advanced age can accomplish their dream.

37. After spending 27 tortuous years in prison, Nelson Mandela, was elected the president of South Africa in the first election that was open to all races in that country’s history. Mandela was near 76 then

38. 103-year-old British marathon runner of Punjabi Sikh descent Fauja Singh is the world’s oldest marathon runner. At the age of 89, he started running seriously and ended up in international marathon events.