Whether young or old

“How old are you?” Maybe this question is not exactly the right question to ask. Let me explain. Somebody took the effort to put up this list which I got from the Internet and it is so nice it should be shared.

No matter how old you are, you are never too young or too old for success, or to go after what you want.

Here’s a short list of people who accomplished great things at different ages.

• Helen Keller, at the age of 19 months, became deaf and blind. But that didn’t stop her. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

• Mozart was already competent on keyboards and violin.He started composing at the age of five.

• Shirley Temple was six when she became a movie star on “Bright Eyes.”

• Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote her diary.

• Magnus Carlsen became a chess grandmaster at the age of 13.

• Nadia Com?neci was a gymnast from Romania who scored seven perfect 10.0 and won three gold medals at the Olympics at age 14.

• Pele, a soccer superstar, was 17 years old when he won the World Cup in 1958 with Brazil.

• Elvis was a superstar by age 19.

• John Lennon was 20 years and Paul McCartney was 18 when the Beatles had their first concert in 1961.

• Jesse Owens was 22 when he won four gold medals in Berlin 1936.

• Beethoven was a piano virtuoso by age 23.

• Isaac Newton wrote Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica at age 24.

• Roger Bannister was 25 when he broke the four minute mile record.

• Albert Einstein was 26 when he wrote the theory of relativity.

• Michelangelo created two of the greatest sculptures “David” and “Pieta” by age 28.

• Alexander the Great, by age 29, had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world.

• J.K. Rowling was 30 years old when she finished the first manuscript of Harry Potter.

• Amelia Earhart was 31 years old when she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

• Oprah was 32 when she started her talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind.

• Edmund Hillary was 33 when he became the first man to reach Mount Everest.

• Martin Luther King Jr. was 34 when he wrote the speech “I Have a Dream.”

• Marie Curie was 35 years old when she got nominated for a Nobel Prize in Physics.

• The Wright brothers, Orville (32) and Wilbur (36) invented and built the world’s first successful airplane and making the first controlled powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight.

• Vincent Van Gogh was 37 when he died virtually unknown, yet his paintings today are worth millions.

• Neil Armstrong was 38 when he became the first man to set foot on the moon.

• Mark Twain was 40 when he wrote “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” and 49 years old when he wrote “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

•Christopher Columbus was 41 when he discovered the Americas.

• Rosa Parks was 42 when she refused to obey the bus driver’s order to give up her seat to make room for a white passenger.

• John F. Kennedy was 43 years old when he became president of the United States.

• Henry Ford was 45 when the Ford Model T came out.

• Suzanne Collins was 46 when she wrote “The Hunger Games.”

• Leonardo Da Vinci was 51 years old when he painted the Mona Lisa.

• Abraham Lincoln was 52 when he became president.

• Ray Kroc was 53 when he bought the McDonalds franchise and took it to unprecedented levels.

• Dr. Seuss was 54 when he wrote “The Cat in the Hat.”

• Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III was 57 years old when he successfully ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in 2009. All of the 155 passengers aboard the aircraft survived.

• Colonel Harland Sanders was 61 when he started the KFC franchise.

• J.R.R. Tolkien was 62 when “The Lord of the Rings” books came out.

• Ronald Reagan was 69 when he became president of the US.

• Jack LaLanne at age 70 handcuffed, shackled, towed 70 rowboats holding 70 people.

• Nelson Mandela was 76 when he became president.

Age is not an issue, maturity is. The only challenge here is that maturity is not a matter of chronology. It is an issue of being serious with life and responsibilities.

There are men in their mid-20s still playing a lot of video games and watching porn. They will have a hard time in life later on. And then there are businessmen who are in their late 60s who are still playing like little boys and their latest toys are younger women in their workplace. They will hurt a lot of lives and would not leave a good legacy.

I guess the next time you say “But I am too young” or “I am too old” you need to reframe that way of thinking and say, “I am mature enough to make good and mature decisions that would not only bring me benefits but bring good to others as well.

And so maybe the question “How old are you?” is not the right question to ask.

The right question perhaps is “How mature are you?” and “How serious are you with life?”

And as the old cliché goes: Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional. No matter what age you are, grow up!

(Experience two inspiring days with Francis Kong’s learning leadership and life skills in his widely acclaimed Level Up Leadership on Sept. 13-14 at the Shangri-La Hotel Makati. For further inquiries contact Inspire at 6310912, you may also call Jen at +639178173736, April at +639285591798 or register online at www.levelupleadership.ph)