Shut Up and Draw: Youth is Wasted on the Young

Reprinted from my book,

Shut Up and Draw

It's a youth oriented world...

Many have spent a lifetime wondering if they could have made a contribution with their talents and many go to the grave still wondering.

Rich Karlgaard wrote a book entitled Late bloomers and in it he explains the tendency in America to espouse a youth oriented culture. The media and society in this country favors early success and the prevailing attitude among many is that if you haven't struck it rich by age 30 you have missed the boat and somehow doomed to a life of mediocrity.

This is not only untrue but would be terrible news to the millions of late bloomers who have yet to hit their stride.

Many don't hit their stride till their later years which is testament to the value of years of life experiences innate in late bloomers and their potential contributions.

It can be early programming as in my case that slows things down but many times it takes wisdom and experience to discover it.

I'm impressed with today's youth who find their calling early, go on to great success and they deserve all the credit they have coming to them but when you look at the statistics the odds are not in favor of early success.

I'm also impressed with the late bloomers who discover their purpose after years of tempering and hardening:

Harland Sanders was 65 when he created Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Rodney Dangerfield's first break was the Ed Sullivan show at age 46.
Duncan Hines was 55 when he wrote his first book on food and hotels. At age 73 he licensed the rights to use his name on cake mixes.
Julia Child's first TV appearance was at age 51.
Laura Ingalls Wilder was 65 when she published Little House on the Prairie.
Jack Cover received a patent for the taser gun at age 54.
Harry Bernstein published his first book at 93. Before that he was a freelance writer and editor till age 63.
Peter Marsh Roget was 69 when he began Roget's Thesaurus and completed it at age 73. He improved upon it until his death at 90.
Kathryn Jooster was 42 when she began pursuing an acting career. She played bit parts till age 66 when she won an Emmy for her role in Desperate Housewives.
Anna Mary Robertson, Grandma Moses, started paintng in her 70's. Her work was displayed in New York's Museum of Modern Art at age 78. She was 92 when she wrote her first book.
Edmund Hoyle wrote Rules of Card Games at 70.

Abraham Maslow put forth his hierarchy of needs in The Theory of Actualization. He said not only is it vital to live uo to our full potential but it is also our moral obligation to do so.

"Musicians must make music. Painters must paint. Poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What humans can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature."

Abraham Maslow

My mistake, and the mistake of so many others, has been the mismanagement of priorities. I've given undue regard to my early programming and the social expectations competing for my attention. I deferred to my fears in order to satisfy my sense of security which led to unhappiness and, in an ironic twist, I never found the security I sought.

For your copy of Shut Up and Draw, click here