Monday, July 1, 2013

Age Is Not An Excuse For Your Success

Are you too young  or too old to success?
Look at this short list of people who accomplished great things at different ages…

1) Helen Keller At the age of 19 months Helen became deaf & blind. But that didn’t stop her.She was the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. In 1882, she fell ill and was struck blind, deaf and mute. Beginning in 1887, Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, helped her make tremendous progress with her ability to communicate, and Keller went on to college, graduating in 1904. In 1920, Keller helped found the ACLU. During her lifetime, she received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments.
"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow."
– Helen Keller
2) Mozart was already competent on keyboard & violin, he composed from the age of 5

Wolfgang Mozart  was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a musician capable of playing multiple instruments who started playing in public at the age of 6. Over the years, Mozart aligned himself with a variety of European venues and patrons, composing hundreds of works that included sonatas, symphonies, masses, concertos and operas, marked by vivid emotion and sophisticated textures.

 " I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings." - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

3) Shirley Temple was 6 when she became a movie star on “Bright Eyes”

Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Temple; April 23, 1928) is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, and former U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. She began her film career in 1932 at the age of three, and in 1934, found international fame in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. She received a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 1935 for her outstanding contribution as a juvenile performer to motion pictures during 1934, and film hits such as Curly Top and Heidi followed year after year during the mid-to-late 1930s. Licensed merchandise that capitalized on her wholesome image included dolls, dishes, and clothing. Her box office popularity waned as she reached adolescence, and she left the film industry in her teens. She appeared in a few films of varying quality in her mid-to-late teens, and retired completely from films in 1950 at the age of 22. She was the top box-office draw four years in a row (1935–38) in a Motion Picture Herald poll.

Temple returned to show business in 1958 with a two-season television anthology series of fairy tale adaptations. She made guest appearances on television shows in the early 1960s and filmed a sitcom pilot that was never released. She sat on the boards of corporations and organizations including The Walt Disney Company, Del Monte Foods, and the National Wildlife Federation. In 1967, she ran unsuccessfully for United States Congress, and was appointed United States Ambassador to Ghana in 1974 and to Czechoslovakia in 1989. In 1988, she published her autobiography, Child Star. Temple is the recipient of awards and honors including Kennedy Center Honors and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

She is No. 18 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female American screen legends of all time.

4) Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote the diary of Anne Frank

She was born in Germany in 1929, Anne Frank is one of the most famous Jewish victims of the Holocaust because of the diary she kept during her time in hiding before being captured by the Nazis. She was only 13 years old when she and her family went into hiding. The writings from the two years she spent in such close proximity to her family was discovered and published by her father, Otto Frank and continue to touch people today.

5) Magnus Carlsen became a chess Grandmaster at the age of 13 years.

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (Norwegian: [sʋɛn mɑŋnʉs øːn kɑːɭsn̩]; born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster and former chess prodigy who is the No. 1 ranked player in the world. His peak rating is 2872, the highest in history. Carlsen was the 2009 World Blitz chess champion.

On 26 April 2004, Carlsen became a grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 148 days, making him at that time the second youngest grandmaster in history, although he has since become the third youngest.

6) Nadia Comăneci At age 14, gymnast of Romania scored seven perfect 10.0 and won three gold medals at the Olympics

  • Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10.0 in the Olympics. She did it at the 1976 Games, and then went on to score six more 10.0s and win three gold medals.
  • Comaneci was also the first Romanian gymnast to win the all-around title at the Olympics, and is the youngest ever all-around champion.
  • In 1979 Comaneci became the first gymnast to win three all-around titles at the European Championships.
  • At the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Comaneci won her second Olympic gold medal on beam, and took home another gold on floor and a silver medal in the all-around. 

7) Tenzin Gyatso was formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama November 1950, at the age of 15

Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. He was born in a small village called Taktser in northeastern Tibet. Born to a peasant family, His Holiness was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lamas are the manifestations of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, who chose to reincarnate to serve the people. Dalai Lama means Ocean of Wisdom. Tibetans normally refer to His Holiness as Yeshin Norbu, the Wish-fulfilling Gem, or simply, Kundun, meaning The Presence.

8) Pele soccer superstar was 17 years old when he won the world cup in 1958 with Brazil


9) Elvis was a Superstar by age 19

 Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo, Mississippi. In September 1948 when Elvis was 13, he and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee. After graduating from Humes High School in Memphis, Elvis took odd jobs working as a movie theater usher and a truck driver for Crown Electric Company. He began singing locally as "The Hillbilly Cat", then signed with a local recording company, then in 1955 with RCA. He did much to establish early rock and roll music, bringing black blues singing into the white, teenage mainstream. Teenage girls became hysterical over his blatantly sexual gyrations, particularly the one that got him nicknamed "Elvis the Pelvis" (television cameras were not permitted to film below his waist). At the time of his death, he had sold more than 600-million singles and albums. In 1956 following his six television appearances on The Dorsey Brothers' "Stage Show", Elvis was cast in his first acting role in a supporting part in Love Me Tender (1956), the first of 33 movies he starred in. Critics blasted most of his films, but they did very well at the box-office earning upwards of $150 million total.

Elvis Presley died at age 42 on August 16, 1977 at his mansion in Graceland, near Memphis. Since his death, his Memphis home Graceland has become a shrine for millions of followers worldwide. Elvis impersonators and purported sightings have become stock subjects for humorists.

10) John Lennon was 20 years & Paul Mcartney 18 when the Beatles had their first concert in 1961.

11) Jesse Owens was 22 when he won 4 gold medals in Berlin 1936

12) Beethoven was a Piano virtuoso by age 23

13) Issac Newton at 24 wrote Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

14) Roger Bannister was 25 When he broke the 4 minute mile record

15) Albert Einstein was 26 when he wrote the theory of relativity

16) Lance E Armstrong was 27 when he won the tour de France 

Cyclist Lance Armstrong was born on September 18, 1971, in Plano, Texas. At age 16, Armstrong became a professional triathlete. In 1989, the U.S. Olympic development team invited him to train as cyclist. He placed 11th in the World Championship Road Race, with the best time of any American since 1976. From 1999 to 2005, Armstrong won seven consecutive Tour de France titles, inspiring others with his cancer survival. In 2012, the U.S Anti-Doping Agency stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour titles—as well as other honors he received from 1999 to 2005—and banned him from cycling for life, concluding that Armstrong had used banned performance-enhancing substances during those years. The cyclist vehemently denied the claims for several months thereafter, but in January 2013, admitted to doping throughout his cycling career.

Armstrong has lived in Austin, Texas, since 1990. In 1996, he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation for Cancer, now called LiveStrong, and the Lance Armstrong Junior Race Series to help promote cycling and racing among America's youth. He is the author of two best-selling autobiographies, It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (2000) and Every Second Counts (2003). In 2006, he ran the New York City Marathon, raising $600,000 for his LiveStrong campaign. Armstrong stepped down from LiveStrong in October 2012 following the USADA report that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."
– Lance Armstrong

17) Michelangelo created the two of the greatest sculptures “David” and “Pieta” by age 28

18) Alexander the Great by age 29, had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world

19) J.K.Rowling was 30 years old when she finished the first manuscript for Harry Potter

20) Amelia Earhart was 31 years old when she became the first woman 2 fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean

21) Oprah was 32 when she started her talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind

22) Edmund Hillary was 33 when he became the first man to reach Mount Everest (highest Mountain in the world

23) Martin Luther King jr was 34 When he did the speech “I have a dream”

24) Marie Curie was 35 years old when she got nominated 4 Nobel Prize in Physics 1903

Marie Curie was Born Maria Sklodowska on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland, Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only woman to win the award in two different fields (physics and chemistry). Curie's efforts, with her husband, Pierre Curie, led to the discovery of polonium and radium and, after Pierre's death, the development of X-rays. She died on July 4, 1934.

25) The Wright brothers, Orville (was 32 ) & Wilbur (was 36) when they invented & built the world's first successful airplane & making the first controlled, powered & sustained heavier-than-air human flight

26) Vincent Van Gogh was 37 when he died & virtually unknown yet his paintings today are worth millions

27) Neil Armstrong was 38 when he became the first man to set foot on the moon

28) Mark Twain was 40 when he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and 49 years old for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

29) Christopher Columbus was 41 when he discovered the Americas

30) Rosa Parks was 42 when she refused 2 obey bus driver’s order 2 give up her seat 2 make room for a white passenger.

 On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American woman who worked as a seamstress, boarded this Montgomery City bus to go home from work. On this bus on that day, Rosa Parks initiated a new era in the American quest for freedom and equality.

She sat near the middle of the bus, just behind the 10 seats reserved for whites. Soon all of the seats in the bus were filled. When a white man entered the bus, the driver (following the standard practice of segregation) insisted that all four blacks sitting just behind the white section give up their seats so that the man could sit there. Mrs. Parks, who was an active member of the local NAACP, quietly refused to give up her seat.

Her action was spontaneous and not pre-meditated, although her previous civil rights involvement and strong sense of justice were obvious influences. "When I made that decision," she said later, “I knew that I had the strength of my ancestors with me.”

She was arrested and convicted of violating the laws of segregation, known as “Jim Crow laws.” Mrs. Parks appealed her conviction and thus formally challenged the legality of segregation.

31) John F. Kennedy was 43 years when he became President of the United States

32) Henry Ford Was 45 when the Ford T came out

33) Suzanne Collins was 46 when she wrote “ The Hunger Games”

Since 1991, Suzanne Collins has been busy writing for children’s television. She has worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little Bear and Oswald. She also co-wrote the critically acclaimed Rankin/​Bass Christmas special, Santa, Baby! Most recently she was the Head Writer for Scholastic Entertainment’s Clifford’s Puppy Days,and a freelancer on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

While working on a Kids WB show called Generation O! she met children’s author James Proimos, who talked her into giving children’s books a try.

Thinking one day about Alice in Wonderland, she was struck by how pastoral the setting must seem to kids who, like her own, lived in urban surroundings. In New York City, you’re much more likely to fall down a manhole than a rabbit hole and, if you do, you’re not going to find a tea party. What you might find...? Well, that’s the story of Gregor the Overlander, the first book in her five-part fantasy/​war series, The Underland Chronicles.

Her next series, The Hunger Games Trilogy, is an international bestseller.

At present, Suzanne is at work on a picture book with James Proimos.

She currently lives in Connecticut with her family and a pair of feral kittens they adopted from their backyard.

34) Charles Darwin was 50 years old when his book On the Origin of Species came out

35) Leonardo Da Vinci was 51 years old when he painted the Mona Lisa

36) Abraham Lincoln was 52 when he became president

37) Ray Kroc Was 53 when he bought the McDonalds Franchise and took it to unprecedented levels

In 1917, 15-year-old Ray Kroc lied about his age to join the Red Cross as an ambulance driver, but the war ended before his training finished. He then worked as a piano player, a paper cup salesman and a multi-mixer salesman.

In 1954 he was surprised by a huge order for 8 multi-mixers from a restaurant in San Bernardino, California. There he found a small but successful restaurant run by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, and was stunned by the effectiveness of their operation.  They produced a limited menu, concentrating on just a few items—burgers, fries and beverages—which allowed them to focus on quality at every step.

Kroc pitched his vision of creating McDonald’s restaurants all over the U.S. to the brothers. In 1955 he founded the McDonald’s Corporation, and 5 years later bought the exclusive rights to the McDonald’s name. By 1958, McDonald’s had sold its 100 millionth hamburger.

38) Dr. Seuss was 54 when he wrote “the cat in the hat”

Dr. Seuss; Author, composer ("Get-Together Weather"), and artist who was educated at Dartmouth College (BA) at Lincoln College in Oxford, England, UK. He was a major in the US Army during World War II, and wrote and produced informational films. He also served in the ETO as Liaison Officer. He was awarded the Legion of Merit. He was a political cartoonist and an advertising executive, most famously creating numerous campaigns for Standard Oil. Most famously, he wrote and illustrated children's books that included "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins," "Horton Hatches the Egg," "Yertle the Turtle," "The Cat in the Hat," "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue FIsh," and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"

40) Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III was 57 years old when he successfully ditched US Airways Flight 1549, in the Hudson River in, 2009. All of the 155 passengers aboard the aircraft survived.

41) Colonel Harland Sanders was 61 when he started the KFC Franchise

Before Harland Sanders became a world-famous Colonel, he was a sixth-grade dropout, a farmhand, an army mule-tender, a locomotive fireman, a railroad worker, an aspiring lawyer, an insurance salesman, a ferryboat entrepreneur, a tire salesman, an amateur obstetrician, an (unsuccessful) political candidate, a gas station operator, a motel operator and finally, a restaurateur.

In 1930, the then 40-year-old Sanders was operating a service station in Corbin, Kentucky, and it was there that he began cooking for hungry travelers who stopped in for gas. He didn't have a restaurant yet, so patrons ate from his own dining table in the station's humble living quarters. It was then that he invented what's called “home meal replacement” — selling complete meals to busy, time-strapped families. He called it, “Sunday Dinner, Seven Days a Week.”

As Sanders' fame grew, Governor Ruby Laffoon made him a Kentucky Colonel in 1935 in recognition of his contributions to the state's cuisine. Within four years, his establishment was listed in Duncan Hines' “Adventures in Good Eating.”

In 1955, confident of the quality of his fried chicken, the Colonel devoted himself to developing his chicken franchising business. Less than 10 years later, Sanders had more than 600 KFC franchises in the U.S. and Canada, and in 1964 he sold his interest in the U.S. company for $2 million to a group of investors including John Y. Brown Jr. (who later became governor of Kentucky).

Until he was fatally stricken with leukemia in 1980 at the age of 90, the Colonel traveled 250,000 miles a year visiting KFC restaurants around the world. His likeness continues to appear on millions of buckets and on thousands of restaurants in more than 100 countries around the world.
Not bad for a man who started from scratch at retirement age

42) J R R Tolkien was 62 when the Lord of The Ring books came out

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) was a major scholar of the English language, specialising in Old and Middle English. Twice Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the University of Oxford, he also wrote a number of stories, including most famously The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), which are set in a pre-historic era in an invented version of the world which he called by the Middle English name of Middle-earth. This was peopled by Men (and women), Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, Orcs (or Goblins) and of course Hobbits. He has regularly been condemned by the Eng. Lit. establishment, with honourable exceptions, but loved by literally millions of readers worldwide. Please note also that his name is spelt Tolkien (there is no "Tolkein").

43) Ronald Reagan was 69 when he became President of the United States

44) Jack Lalane at age 70 handcuffed, shackled, towed 70 rowboats

1984, At age 70 the fitness pioneer towed 70 people in 70 row boats for about one mile in Long Beach Harbor.

45) Nelson Mandela was 76 When he Became President

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in Mveso, Transkei, South Africa. Becoming actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement in his 20s, Mandela joined the African National Congress in 1942. For 20 years, he directed a campaign of peaceful, non-violent defiance against the South African government and its racist policies. In 1993, Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to dismantle the country's apartheid system. In 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. In 2009, Mandela's birthday (July 18) was declared Mandela Day to promote global peace and celebrate the South African leader's legacy.

"Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do."
– Nelson Mandela


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