The Wisdom of New Beginnings
“Fail until you succeed” is for many the key to success, but not all of us have enough patience, self-determination and perseverance to achieve it. We’ve to recognize that we live in an age of immediacy and eagerness to succeed. Moreover, it’s also difficult to deal with the frustration of failure, and make sufficient efforts to get up and try again. New beginnings are not always comfortable.
If you have ever faced this situation and you thought about throwing in the towel, let us tell you some experiences that will motivate you for sure. Discover the ones who achieved success by reinventing themselves in their middle age.
Skating to the Top
If you have consulted a fashion catalog, especially one for brides, you’ve probably read this name. Today, Vera Wang is one of the most famous apparel brands in the world. However, her name hasn’t always been associated with the fashion world.
Vera Wang was an ice skater who competed in various national tournaments and came close to qualifying for the 1968 Winter Olympics.
After abandoning her sports career, she entered the fashion journalism world as a temporary assistant at Vogue. There, she stood out for her ambitious spirit and tenacity. Although these were her first steps into the fashion world, it was at the age of 41 that she opened her first wedding dress boutique on Madison Avenue. That was the beginning of her path to glory. Since then, her brand has expanded to become a benchmark in haute couture, fragrances, and home design.
Portraits of Success
Family comes first
This mantra motivated this head waiter to quit his job to take care of his daughter in 2005. He decided to dedicate himself entirely to being a father, but he started carrying around a small digital camera and photographing the different people he saw on the streets. This transformed Scott Schuman into his alter-ego: The Sartorialist.
In this new project, he sought to connect the fashion world with ordinary people. He created a company and collaborated with prestigious magazines, such as GQ, Vogue Italia, or Vogue Paris, and even managed to work as a photographer on the catwalks of New York’s Fashion Week.
Some of his successful pieces are exhibited in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. (Another artist who got inspired by the street is Ilustronauta. You can check his story right here)
Too Old for a Computer
“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”
Many older people are often reluctant to learn how new technologies work, sometimes because of their habits or fear. Some consider them unnecessary tools because they’ve lived without them. Graphic designer Muriel Cooper had a completely different position. At the age of 52, she decided to try her luck in the digital world after having succeeded in the print world.
Fascinated by all the possibilities it offered, she managed to express her creativity in this new medium and founded the Media Lab at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Thanks to all the contributions Muriel made for the graphic design world (especially the digital one), she was awarded by the Professional Association of Design (AIGA) in 1994, when she was 69 years old. Her legacy led her to be considered one of the most influential designers in history.
Write Your Future
We are victims of our circumstances. Although there are situations that we cannot change, there are certain others that we can, and it often depends on our choices.
After World War I, Hermann Zapf’s life changed dramatically. He had always wanted to go into electro-engineering; but he was forced to pursue something different after a new regime took power in Germany. Some people noticed that Hermann had drawing skills and recommended that he should take up lithography. This could be considered the boost he needed to make his way into the graphic design world. At the age of 40, he began a process that led him to become one of the most influential personalities in the world.
His name may not sound familiar, but he’s the creator of more than 200 typographic families, such as “Palatino”, “Optima” or “Kompakt”.
It may sound cheesy or idealistic, but it’s never too late to undertake a new project and redesign yourself. In the end, there are many cases of people who managed to overcome the prejudices of age; proving that you can always start from scratch and succeed (especially in the design world).
What is the next path you want to take? Whatever it may be, remember that in Freepik you will always find all the necessary tools.
