When someone seemingly has their life all figured out in their early twenties, it can really hurt your motivation to succeed. You automatically get envious. You start to think “what the hell am I doing with my life and why don’t I have anything figured out?” But, I feel like this is normal. When people around me are driven and succeeding, I, on the other hand, feel like I’m drowning. As if I’m not already doing enough. As if at 21 years old, I’m already failing.
To put things in perspective, here are some slightly successful people who didn’t have it all figured out right away…
Oprah Winfrey, talk show host superstar, was fired from her first television job for being “too emotionally invested in her stories.”
Vera Wang began her fashion design career at forty years-old after failing to make the 1968 US Olympic figure skating team and being passed over for editor-in-chief at Vogue.
J.K. Rowling was 25 years old and living on welfare before she began writing the Harry Potter series.
Martha Stewart was first a stockbroker, a model, a mom, and a caterer before she became the Martha Stewart businesswoman and homemaker we know and love.
Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, was a Xerox salesman before joining the Starbucks Company.
Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime; his art being mostly ridiculed by his peers.
Albert Einstein created the light bulb a thousand different ways before one way worked.
Marilyn Monroe was told she should consider being a secretary instead by a modeling agency.
Harland David Sanders, aka Colonel Sanders of KFC, had his chicken recipe rejected over a thousand times before a restaurant finally accepted it.
Lady Gaga was dropped from her first record label after only three months.
The point is… most people don’t have success just happen to them. People fail a thousand times. People chase the wrong career. People figure out their passions late in the game. And all that’s okay. If you think you have to have it all figured out by twenty-five, you’re wrong.