Inspirational people who found success later in life

Harland David Sanders, Kentucky Colonel - KFC

“He was a failure who got fired from a dozen jobs before starting his restaurant, and then failed at that when he went out of business and found himself broke at the age of 65. He drove around in a Cadillac with his face painted on the side before anybody knew who he was, pleading with the owners of run-down diners to use his recipe and give him a nickel commission on each chicken. He slept in the back of the car and made handshake deals. His first marriage was a difficult one, so he divorced his wife after 39 years. (His second marriage was much happier.)” Click here to learn more about this extraordinary man.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

The author of the “Little House” book series, the series that inspired the hit TV show “Little House on the Prairie” was 65 when the first book published and 76 when she wrote the last book. When Laura was 43, her daughter encouraged her to write a memoir of her childhood. Her first attempts at her autobiography were rejected several times, but she was determined to succeed and spent several years improving her work. Finally, the publishers agreed to publish the books as fiction for young children. Click here to read more.

Ray Kroc

In his early 50’s, he thought about going into the restaurant business and started working with restaurant owners and by his late 50’s he bought his first McDonald’s. At this restaurant, he saw great success with a fast-food milkshake mixer he was selling and wanted to expand the restaurant brand and eventually he ended up running the company. “I have always believed that each man makes his own happiness and is responsible for his own problems.” To learn more about Ray, read on here.

Gladys Burrill

Already a well accomplished woman having been a multi-engine aircraft pilot, desert hiker, mountain climber, and horseback rider, she is most known for breaking a world record at 92 when she power-walked and jogged the Honolulu Marathon. Though she wasn’t thinking about breaking records, Guinness World Records and Hawaii House of Representatives still recognized her for her wonderful story. Gladys says "It's so important to think positive. It's easy to get discouraged and be negative. It makes such a difference in how you feel and your outlook on everything." Read more here.

Peter Mark Roget

To cope with depression, at 61, Peter Roget started doing something he really enjoyed, making lists. He devoted much of his time to created catalogs of words organized by their meanings. At 69, he prepared the lists for publication and by the time he was 73, Roget’s first print came out: “Roget’s Thesauras of English Words and Phrases”, now known as a Thesaurus, continuing to work on it till he death at 90. Read more in depth here about Peter’s life in the 1800’s.

Kathryn Joosten

At 40, Kathryn quit her psychiatric nurse job, got out of a troubled marriage, and pursued her dream as an actress. Having no previous experience, she took up acting classes and for 10 years she had a bumpy transition. She painted houses and hung wallpaper to support herself and her kids in the meantime. She won parts in local theater products and built her career slowly, by age 50, she became a street performer in Disney World, which helped build her confidence. At 51, despite family and friends advices against it, she moved to L.A to fully pursue her dream. Over the next few years, she worked hard and landed guest roles on notable TV shows; E.R, Seinfeld, Frasier, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Home Improvement, etc and at age 60, she landed a crucial part on “The West Wing”. She continued doing guest roles before being cast in “Desperate Housewives” for which she won two Primetime Emmy Awards. More here.

Taikichiro Mori

Japanese real estate tycoon was a self-made billionaire who left his job as head of the School of Commerce at Yokohama City University at age 55, to enter into the family real estate business. He had inherited a couple buildings from his father, became a real estate investor, and jumped right into Tokyo’s real estate. Within just a few short years, Mori, was extremely successful in Japan’s real estate scenes. An economic boom and enormous growth in real estate fueled his progress, and he knew just how to persuade local residents to cooperate with his development plans. “Mori transformed downtown Tokyo from a clutter of narrow lanes populated with houses, small shops, and workshops into a modern urban centre of "smart buildings" equipped with computer-driven heating systems, electronic "talking" elevators, and electric curtains. These sleek glass, concrete, and brick towers boasted foundations secured with an intricate system of rollers designed to absorb the shock of earthquakes.” Mori was Forbes’ two time reigning world’s richest man with a net worth of around $13 billion in the early 1990’s, with control of the most expensive real estate in the world. Read here.