Welcome to Amplify with Jess Ekstrom, a show designed to help women get out of their head and into their zone of influence. Happy Monday, everyone. Here’s some food for thought to start your week. Okay, so I have a deep-rooted fear of being late. I don’t care if it’s something as big as being on time for a keynote talk or something as small as like picking up my Chipotle order. I have the same internal pressure that I absolutely cannot be late. And when I was thinking about this, I think it stems from, I was in middle school at volleyball camp. My mom thought the camp started at 9:30, but it started at 9. So we showed up 30 minutes late. And as my quote unquote punishment, the coach made all of the other campers run a lap around the gym while I had to sit there and watch. It was humiliating and absolutely torture. And I remember as I was watching these girls run a lap in their knee pads and rolling their eyes, I vowed in that moment that I would never be late again. So fast forward to today, this internal clock that I have and this feeling of being late also applies to things that truly don’t have timestamps, like career milestones. I mean, have you ever asked yourself? Am I where I should be at this point in my life? Or am I, quote, on time? It’s easy to think that way when we glorify the headlines of all the young people making it. You know, Zuckerberg was 19 when he started Facebook, or Bill Gates was 23 when he started Microsoft. And these narratives teach us that by the time we hit puberty, we should own an empire and disrupt an industry and have an entire library named after us. But I think it’s important to remember that we’re all on our own timeline. So I’m going to share some stories that you maybe don’t hear, that in my opinion are more impressive. Okay, so Stan Lee created his first hit comic, the Fantastic Four, just shy of his 39th birthday in 1961. And in the next few years, he created the legendary Marvel Universe, whose characters like Spider-Man and X-Men became cultural icons. Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning author Toni Morrison wrote her first novel, The Passionate Eye, at age 40. While she was working at Random House as an editor. And she won her Pulitzer Prize when she was 56 and her Nobel Prize for Literature at 62. Martha Stewart, I mean, obviously the home and kitchen icon, she didn’t find her real success until age 41 when she published her first cookbook. Vera Wang was a figure skater and journalist before entering the fashion industry at age 40. And today she’s one of the world’s premier women designers. Emmy-nominated actress and trans right activist Laverne Cox. Rose to prominence with her role in Netflix Orange Is the New Black in 2013 when she was 41. And then in 2014, she was on the cover of Time magazine at age 42. And at age 45, she was nominated for her first Emmy. Donald Fisher was 40 and had no experience in retail when him and his wife Doris opened the first Gap store in San Francisco in 1969. Obviously, Gap rose quickly and is one of the top clothing chains in the world now. Samuel L. Jackson, I’m sure you’ve heard of him, has been a staple in Hollywood for years now. But he’d only had small parts, before winning this role at Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever in 1991 when he was 43. And Henry Ford was 45 when he created the revolutionary Model T car in 1908, which changed how we get around and how we transport. Rodney Dangerfield is remembered as a legendary comedian, but he didn’t catch a break until he made it on The Ed Sullivan Show at 46. Julia Child worked in advertising and media before writing her first cookbook when she was 50, launching her career as a celebrity chef in 1961. And one of my personal favorites, Betty White, was one of the most award-winning comedic actresses in history. But she didn’t become an icon until she joined the cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1973 at age 51. And we all know Steve Carell, one of my favorites, The Office is My Comfort Show. And he’s known for a lot of his blockbuster hits where he’s in the background, the 40-year-old version, the big short. But he didn’t land his hit role as Michael Scott in The Office until he was 42. So this list isn’t here to tell you that you need to launch your cookbook at 50 or invent a new form of transportation in your 40s. But rather, show you that you will always be on your own timeline. It’s super catchy for the media to flock to these 30 under 30 lists or show young people making it. But in my opinion, even coming from someone who made some of those lists and started her business when I was young. I think it’s just overrated and puts an unnecessary pressure to figure things out before the age of 30 or when you’re in your younger years. Plus, in my opinion, it was easier to start a company when I was in college and had nothing to lose and everything to gain. What’s more impressive to me is when people take leaps or pivots when they’ve already found a comfort zone or they already are receiving a steady salary or they have a mortgage on a house or a family to support. Now that’s newsworthy. Okay, so I will leave you all with this. It is impossible to be behind when you’re on your own timeline. Thanks for listening to Amplify. If you are a fan of the show, show us some podcast love by giving us a rating and review. And give us a follow at Mic Drop Workshop and at Jess Ekstrom.