Failures in life: You are not alone

Many people started 2018 worried about their achievement levels in life but the last two weeks have offered an opportunity to understand why some people are late achievers in life.

This is the concluding part of the series on Late Bloomers. A late blooming adult is a person who does not discover his/her talents and abilities until later than normally expected. In certain cases, it happens well into retirement.

There are several examples and even worse case scenarios that make your case a rather simple one.

There are also several examples of famous achievers who were rejected or written off earlier in life as failures.

‎And for those who think they have been buffeted by the devil, the revelation is that there is something in you worth fighting for, which is why the devil is fighting you. He sees your huge potential, the glory in you, which is his target.

Some people have mistaken the devil to be just a wicked destroyer. He is more than that – smart enough to know your weaknesses; smart enough to know that if he gets to control your mind, he has got you tied; smart enough to keep you as far from God as possible. He is also a good organizer, which is why he is able control legions of demons. A legion, as used during the time of Jesus, was a Roman Legion which could be anywhere between 3,000 and 6,000 troops.

No matter how far back behind in life you are or how low you feel, you still have the ability to succeed.

‎JK Rowling

As the examples from the records show below, except in careers that require strong youthful energy like sports, there is no age limit to most of life achievements provided you are willing to reorder your steps or persevere if you are doing the ‎right thing. Unknown to many people, later achievers even enjoy some special advantages, highlighted in this article.

‎JK Rowling, the current world’s richest author made something out of nothing when she was at the lowest point of her life. At 30 years old, Rowling was a divorced mother of two, clinically depressed and living on public assistance. During her lowest point, she began writing as an outlet and a way to heal. Rowling sent the acclaimed Harry Potter manuscript to twelve publishers and was rejected by all. A year later, she received the green-light from another publisher and the rest is history.

She is now the highest-paid author, grossing a hefty $95 million on her books in the year to May 31, 2017. Rowling’s fortune was further boosted with the release of “Fantastic beasts and where to find them,” a film set in the Harry Potter world for which she wrote the script.

The story of Colonel Sanders and the Kentucky Fried Chicken has been told but there are many more examples.

Other examples of Late Achievers

Grandma Moses. Anna Mary Robertson Moses was a happy, long-time embroiderer until arthritis made that painful and difficult. Instead of the needles, she took up the paint brush at the age of 75, in 1935. Untrained, but in the firm American tradition of primitive art, her paintings were discovered in a drugstore window a la Lana Turner by a prominent collector in 1938, and a New York gallery show led to worldwide fame. She continued painting until close to her death in 1961, aged 101. Although she started out selling her paintings for $2 or $3, depending on size, in 2006–one of her 3,600 paintings, Sugaring Off (1943)–sold for $1.2 million.

Alexander Fleming. Fleming discovered the first antibiotic, penicillin. After four years as an office worker, an inheritance enabled him to attend university at age 20, and later embark on a fledgling career as a research physician. That was interrupted by World War I, which–having witnessed many deaths from bacterial infections–led him to a search for an antibiotic. His discovery, like so many in the sciences, was an accident, but an accident that required trained intelligence to recognize its importance.

Reflecting on his discovery aged 47, Fleming recalled, “When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I guess that was exactly what I did.”

It was not until another war broke out, World War II, that others overcame the problem of producing penicillin in sufficient quantities to be widely distributed and clinically useful. For his discovery, Fleming received the Nobel Prize in 1945, at age 64.

Susan Boyle

The singer was thrust into the spotlight on Britain’s Got Talent at 48, having struggled for years to break into music. None of that worked and a random talent show was what clinched it.

Vera Wang

Vera was a competitive figure skater, a journalist and a fashion editor in her early career, but it wasn’t until she was 40 years old that she flirted with the idea of becoming a fashion designer. At 40, she started fresh and launched her now iconic bridal line and has never looked back. This goes to show that the career path you choose early in life isn’t always the one that will garner success and fulfillment later on in life.

Nancy Pelosi

The former Speaker of the United States house of representatives was elected to Congress when she was 47 years old, and was 67 when elected Speaker. Pelosi has five children and was a stay at home mother for many years. She waited until her children were grown before she delved fully and wholeheartedly into politics. Her patience and perseverance paid off in a big way. She is the first woman ever to lead a political party in Congress.

Rejections

It is important to strive for the purpose for which one is born than to try to please people, or believe contrary things to God’s written script for your life. The following are example of people who defied rejection to become world-famous people.

• Beethoven’s music teacher once told him that as a composer, he was hopeless.
• John Creasy, the English novelist who wrote 564 books, was rejected 753 times before he became established.
• Charles Darwin’s father told him he would amount to nothing and would be a disgrace to himself and his family.
• Walt Disney was fired by the editor of a newspaper because he, Disney, had “no good ideas”.
• When Thomas Edison was a boy, his teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything.
• Einstein was four-years-old before he spoke. He spoke haltingly until nine years of age. He was advised to drop out of High School. And his teachers told him he would never amount to much.
• Henry Ford’s first two automobile businesses failed.
• Michael Jordan, the best NBA Player Ever, was cut from his high school basketball team.
• Ray Krok failed as a real estate salesperson before discovering the McDonald’s idea.
• Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka sold only 100 of an automatic rice cooker which burned the rice. Later, they built a cheap tape recorder for Japanese schools. This was the foundation of Sony Corp.
• Isaac Newton failed at running the family farm and did poorly in school.
• Steven Spielberg dropped out of high school in his sophomore year. He was persuaded to come back and placed in a learning disabled class. He lasted a month.
• Admiral Richard E. Byrd had been retired from the navy, as, “Unfit for service” until he flew over both poles.
• Louis Pasteur was rated as mediocre in chemistry when he attended the Royal College
• Abraham Lincoln entered The Black Hawk War as a captain and came out a private

There are even advantages of starting late, according to this compilation by experts.

• When you finally get on the same level as your peers, you have more appreciation for reaching that milestone. Some things in life people just expect to get and experience because, for whatever reason, life has just been easier for them. But for you – you’ve been waiting your whole life to get the same thing someone else achieved years before. And when you finally get there you truly appreciate the moment.
• You don’t judge people based on their appearance. You know what it’s like to be the ugly duckling, the less attractive friend, the one no one really paid much attention to. Because of that you’re less likely to judge people on what they look like because you know too well the experience of having an outside appearance that doesn’t quite match how seriously awesome you are inside.
• You’ve stayed down to earth and genuine. You’ve spent so much of your life trying to get where you want to be and now that you’re finally coming into your own you never forget how you started or where you came from.
• You never stop working hard for what you want. Late bloomers sometimes have the feeling that even after they’ve “made it” – whatever that means to them – that there’s the chance the rug could be pulled out from under them again. After they reach their goals, they create new goals to focus on because they never want to stop actively working on their progress.
• You know you’ll never take anything for granted. There’s always an element of gratitude late bloomers feel towards the life they’ve created for themselves. They know how much longer it took them to get where they are, either because of past choices or circumstance, and they refuse to ever forget their journey.
• You understand great things take time and because of that you’ve developed a great amount of patience for dealing with the lows of life. If something doesn’t happen the way you thought it would or you don’t get the results you’re after, you don’t get mad right away.
• You know your mistakes and how to rise past them. You’re all too well aware of the things you did in the past that stunted your growth to some degree. Whatever it is, you know your faults, and by now how to recognize them. It’s just a matter of overcoming those flaws and past mistakes to continue to get you where you want to be.
• There’s an extra degree of kindness within you. You understand just how mean other people can be and you vow to never treat someone the way you’ve been treated in the past.

Conclusion: Leverage on what you have, the experience that made you who you are. The late bloomers remind us never to give up. Know your dream and chase it. Indeed one of the favourite prayers of Pastor Enoch Adeboye, leader of the Redeemed Christian Church of God is ” your latter days  will be better than your former days,” because he has seen several examples himself, and he also knows that one’s life is bound to change for the better once they truly embrace God.