Crossing a certain age milestone — 30, 40, or even 50 — often pushes people to take stock of their lives, weighing their wins against their losses. But feeling like time has run out is never a good enough reason to give up on your dreams.
The years we live through leave us with something valuable: life experience. And that very experience can end up being what finally pushes you toward the life you’ve always wanted. AdmiGram.com rounds up five inspiring stories of people who turned setbacks into extraordinary success.
5 Examples to Believe in Yourself and Never Give Up
Ray Kroc
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Founder of McDonald’s — was still selling paper cups at 52.
By 52, Ray Kroc’s health was falling apart: he had diabetes and arthritis, was going deaf, and had already lost his gallbladder to surgery and most of his thyroid gland to illness. Every business he tried seemed to end in financial disaster, and his only steady income came from working as a traveling salesman, peddling paper cups and milkshake mixers to restaurants.
That’s when he came across a small hamburger stand in California run by two brothers named McDonald — and the idea of turning their setup into a nationwide chain took hold of him. To make it happen, Kroc had to mortgage his own home, since no bank would lend him the money. Over the following decades he built McDonald’s into a global empire; by the time of his death, his fortune was estimated at $600 million.
Mary Kay Ash
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Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics — spent 25 years as a sales rep before starting her own company at 45.
Mary Kay spent a quarter of a century climbing the ranks in direct sales, only to keep watching men she’d personally trained get promoted ahead of her. At 45, worn out and frustrated, she finally quit — and decided to write a book about women’s place in business. Partway through writing it, she realized her book had turned into a full business plan.
In 1963, she used that plan to launch what would become Mary Kay Cosmetics, one of the best-known names in skincare and beauty. Within just a few years, the company was a leader in its industry.
Harrison Ford
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Actor and producer — once made a living as a carpenter.
One of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors and the man behind Han Solo got off to a rocky start. In one of his earliest film roles, every scene he shot ended up cut from the movie — the studio simply didn’t think he had what it took. After that, acting offers dried up completely.
With no work coming in, Ford fell back on skills he’d picked up years earlier and spent the next eight years working as a carpenter, building cabinets and furniture and renovating houses. It wasn’t until he was 35, when Star Wars hit theaters, that audiences discovered the actor who would go on to play both Han Solo and Indiana Jones.
Sheldon Adelson
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Founder of Las Vegas Sands — started selling newspapers on the street at 12.
Born to immigrant parents with roots in Lithuania and Ukraine, Adelson grew up poor and started earning his own money at just 12, borrowing $200 from an uncle to buy the rights to sell newspapers on a Boston street corner. From there, he and his brother Lenny hustled at anything they could — selling shampoo and napkins to hotels, sprays to auto shops — grabbing every chance to make a dollar.
His talent for organizing didn’t fully click into place until his mid-40s, when he came up with the idea of running trade shows and conventions for major brands in Las Vegas. It wasn’t until he was 55 that Adelson bought his first casino, the Sands Hotel, which became the foundation of his fortune.
J.K. Rowling
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Author of the Harry Potter series — once a single mother living on welfare.
Long before Harry Potter made her famous, Rowling went through years of hardship. By 31, after enduring an abusive marriage, she was battling clinical depression and had reached a breaking point.
That’s when she decided to start over. With her infant daughter in her arms, a single suitcase, and three chapters of a book about a boy wizard, she moved in with her sister in Scotland. Before her first novel was ever published, she was living entirely on welfare. By 40, J.K. Rowling had become one of the first authors ever to reach billionaire status from book sales alone.
