'The Story of Late Bloomers'
영문판 <뒤늦게 발동걸린 인생들의 이야기>
* 영문 번역판 <뒤늦게 발동걸린 인생들의 이야기>가 드디어 오늘 제 손에 도착했습니다. 사실 영어 제목으로 어떤 표현을 쓸지 궁금했는데, 번역자는 제목을 'The Story of Late Bloomers'로뽑으셨네요. 사실 우리말의 맛을 잘 살리는 게 쉽지 않은 일이었을 것이라 여겨집니다.
'Late Bloomer'란 말 그대로 늦게 핀 꽃이란 뜻으로 영어권에선 '대기만성형'의 인생을 의미한다고 합니다.
'뒤늦게 발동걸린 인생들의 이야기'라는 의미와는 조금 맛이 다르긴 하지만 그래도 나쁘지 않은 것 같습니다.
부제로 올린 'habent sua fata libelli'는 제가 글을 쓰기 시작하면서 처음 가슴에 간직한 라틴 경구입니다. 뜻은 '모든 책에는 고유한 운명이 있다'.
아무튼 이제 25% 분량의 영문번역판이 나온 셈입니다. 나머지 75%는 다시 제가 노력해서 채울 부분이죠.
어려움도 있겠지만, 100% 영문 완역을 위해 노력하겠습니다. 뜻이 있으면 길이 있겠죠.
이 콘텐츠는 출판진흥원의 지원을 받아서 진행되었으며, 앞으로 영어권은 물론이고 싱가폴, 일본, 유럽 등의
비영어권 마케팅에 큰 도움이 될 것 같습니다. 많이 응원해주세요.
(영문판 '뒤늦게 발동걸린 인생들의 이야기')
The Story of Late Bloomers
by Kim Deog Young
‘Habent sua fata libelli’
Table of Contents
Prologue. A Renewed, Second Life There is Still Plenty of Time
Chapter 1. You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?
Set Your Goal among the Stars
Aging Strategically: Create Your Own Future
You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?
The Man Who Fried 1009 Chickens
Three Years on a Cold Rock
The Past is Only a Prelude
Scintillating Creativity and Innovation are Not Exclusive to Youth
Great Amateurs Who Changed the World
Chapter 2. People Who Turned Back Their Life Clocks
“Counterclockwise” Study
Becoming an Artist at 78
No Hobby Life, No Fun Life
Daughter’s Shoe Master at Age 55
Face the Life-long Pain to Survive
90-Year-Old Orchestra Maestro
100-Year-Old Comedian Who Loved Women and the Stage
Chapter 3. Life-long Learning is the Secret to Longevity
Master 15 Languages for a Dream
Brain: The Only Organ That Doesn’t Age
Cato, Studying Greek at the Age of 80
Marvelous Eighties
Enjoyably Learned Lessons Do Not Rot after Death
Hobby and Health: Unsolvable Problem When You Wait
Meeting Mr. Perfect in England
Life-long Learning is the Secret to Longevity
Reading Revitalizes Brain Cells
Chapter 4. Learn about Life through Journeys
Walking on the Road to Santiago
I Miss You, Father
Bon Voyage: Travelers’ Prayer
Bike Ergo Sum
A Ride on the Night Train in Europe
Bookstore Travel
Checkpoint Charlie: Berliner’s History Lesson
Energizing Travel Buddies
Epilogue
Telling Data on Changes for Your Second LifeThere is no evidence that dreams are a privilege reserved for the young.
'We ourselves created this prejudiced notion in our youth.
It is an injudicious misconception that we have projected upon ourselves
In order to enjoy the privilege of youth.
You flounder in the trap of misconception
If you believe that dreams are
Reserved for the young.
Let us remove the trap that clings to our ankles.
The ones who had the impetus for this new and latter part of life
Also had the courage and honesty to push on.
I shudder to think of encountering death after a passionless life.
Our lives are ultimately shaped by our thoughts.'
Prologue
A Renewed, Second Life: There is Still Plenty of Time
A surprisingly large number of people have successfully arrived at their dream destinations after adjusting their coordinates late in life. This book focuses on people who have successfully completed their second mission in life.
They got back in the saddle when others thought it was too late. They did not give up because of their age, nor did they let anxiety and uncertainty frustrate their goals. Instead, they faced numerous difficulties with the anticipation and hope for the new life ahead. They never thought it was too late.
The results were remarkable. Immense wealth and glory awaited many of them, an incredible change from their ordinary and boring previous lives. Failure in business and retirement, which brought them down the social ladder, turned out to be a turning point that motivated them to discover qualities.
They didn’t give up when life hit hard, but were powerful optimists who found solutions through fierce self-innovation. They always remembered two things:
Some people get started later in life.
Dreams are not a privilege reserved for the young.
As I wrote this book, I investigated the lives of well-known heroes, artists, and intellectuals. After reading countless biographies and examining the turning point in each person’s life, I arrived at the conclusion that dreams never lose their magic. They never expire.
We subconsciously think of dreams as a privilege of youth. We believe that innovations, original ideas, and world-changing creativity are only possible for the young. This is a foolish notion that does not apply to late bloomers.
We always dream and desire. We yearn to live to the very last breath. That’s why our lives are filled with lingering emotions and frustration. But it is the dreams that keep going.
There is no evidence that dreams are reserved for the young. This is a prejudice that we fashioned in our youth. This is a misconception that we foolishly created to justify an ambitious youth.
Let’s be honest. We’ve been tripped up by the trap of misconception. If you believe that dreams are reserved for the young, then you are floundering in this trap. Let us remove the trap that is binding our legs! They may be a little behind the rest, but the people who start late in life have the courage and honesty to succeed. The first thing we need to do is reclaim our dreams.
We dream forever—even at the moment we die. There is nothing more piteous than a life that ends without passion. In that respect, Marcus Aurelius’ notion that our thoughts shape our lives is most fitting.
Speaking of Aurelius, let me share an anecdote. Perhaps his quote “our thoughts shape our lives” is from lessons he learned through excruciating failures in his life. The story begins with his military campaign to conquer the Germanic tribes with his Roman troops.
The Germanic tribes who inhabited the northern forests were barbarians to the Romans. However, those barbarians posed a great obstacle to the growing Roman Empire. Emperor Marcus Aurelius led his troops to battle, and released hungry lions from Africa to get the upper hand.
The strategy was to use the starving lions as weapons. When the furious beasts were unleased, straight away they began prowling through the forests. The Roman troops smiled with anticipation of the coming slaughter. However, something completely unexpected turned the battle around. The Germanic tribes were perplexed by this new animal until their defiant leader declared,
“That is only a Roman dog.”
The moment the warriors decided that it was only a dog, their fears subsided, and the tide of the battle turned. The Germanic warriors rushed the lions and beat them to death. They didn’t fear the furious claws or sharp fangs. To the warriors, these fierce beasts were mere dogs. Needless to say, the Romans suffered heavy losses in the battle.
This anecdote illustrates how important our attitude is in shaping our actions. As the Roman emperor watched the Germanic warriors kill his lions, he must have realized that there is no stronger determinant of life and destiny than attitude.
This is exactly why we need to pay attention to late bloomers. They think differently. The more they age, the less restricted they feel. They never think it is too late. Like the Germanic tribes, they faced their destiny.
No matter how old he is, a man will be rewarded for the sweat he sheds. The stories of the people discussed in this book are proof.
This is another reason not to be frustrated by your not-so-exciting and not-so-ambitious life. Perhaps you have been patiently waiting for the second half or the fourth quarter. Opportunities await those who prepare for the second half. One undeniable fact is that we still have a long time to live.
If someone else did it, then you can do it too. You are about to embark a journey to examine the lives of late bloomers. You may even have more time and opportunity than the people introduced in this book. A new life is awaiting each of us. Let’s welcome it with open hearts.The First Story
Chapter 1. You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?
01. Set Your Goal among the Stars and You Will See Your Role Models
Allow me to enumerate a few famous people that we all know. Most are well known historical figures. We too often focus on their achievements when we talk about successful people. But what about the process that led to that success?
The first thing you may notice is that these people achieved success late in life. For this group, 40 to 50 years old is young. Some only reached their goals in their seventies and eighties.
What’s important is that these people never gave up on their dreams even when they reached an age when others would have considered it too late. These successful people believed that age is just a number. This minor shift in attitude brought about remarkable results.
Let’s take a look at the Renaissance artist Michelangelo. He was 55 by the time he began designing the Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy. Considering how short the average life expectancy was at the time, Michelangelo was very old.
But that was only the beginning. He was 63 when he undertook St. Peter’s Basilica. When he was appointed, some people were skeptical about allowing such an aged, feeble man take on a project as grand as St. Peter’s. To this Michelangelo replied, “Genius is eternal patience.”
He thought of aging as learning, and did not impose his seniority over others. Instead, he humbly shared his experience and knowledge with them. As a result, he was able to dispel opposition and focus on his creative work. This is how his masterpieces the Creation of Adam and the Last Judgment were created. By the time the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica was complete, he was 88 years old. He was truly ancient for his time, and yet he was avidly involved in his work until the very end.
Goethe is an example from the literary world. He was 83 when he completed Faust. Even in his old age, he kept challenging himself to innovate. He believed that his mind would petrify without continuous renewal.
Travel was particularly significant to him. When The Sorrows of Young Werther brought him fame, he went on a journey to Italy to escape the comforts encroaching upon him. During his long and bumpy trip from Germany, Goethe conversed with his inner self. He challenged his arrogance throughout the uncomfortable and painstaking journey. As a result, Italian Journey came to be Goethe’s most treasured work. This memoir based on his diaries was the turning point in his career from popular writer to great thinker. It was this journey of self-searching that allowed Goethe to write into his eighties.
In the United States, the life of Thomas Edison provides a similar model. He was a prolific inventor whose patent record has yet to be broken. He applied for his last and 1093rd patent when he was 83 years old. An unyielding man, who in his search for the incandescent lightbulb recorded his failures in order to keep faith, Edison logged 1,000 unsuccessful attempts. His famous quote, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration,” does not sound like empty words.
Scientist and politician Benjamin Franklin made remarkable contributions to science through his experiments and inventions. It is interesting to note that his bifocal glasses were a personal invention to help him as his vision gradually faded. He worked day in and day out to invent an aid for his eyes. He was 78 at the time.
It is interesting that Benjamin Franklin, a respected founding father of the United States, was the son of a soap-maker and received little formal education. His diligence and indefatigable spirit were apparent from early on. He never let go of the belief that aging was the process of character building and intellectual development.
There are many musicians who enjoyed fame only in their later years. Polish-American orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski held the baton until his death at 95 years old.
Japanese conductor Takashi Asahina resolved to break Stokowski’s record. After a long life conducting Japan’s leading orchestras, including the NHK Symphony Orchestra, he fell short by just one year.
Surprisingly, his background was not in music. Asahina studied law and philosophy in university, and worked for a railroad company upon graduation. The first part of his life had nothing to do with music. Then one day, after an orchestra performance, he took to the stage and devoted the second part of his life to music.
Louise Bourgeois was a female artist known for her spider installations in major cities around the world. Her gigantic steel sculpture Maman made her one of the most renowned artists of the 20th century. Her early life was full of tragedy, but that did not stop her from creating art until her death at the age of 99.
Martha Graham, named “Dancer of the Century” by Time in 1998, had to leave the stage due to severe depression at an early age. However, she survived the dark times and returned to the studio. When she announced her comeback as a choreographer, she was 78 years old. She concluded her beautiful life after choreographing influential pieces that shaped modern American dance.
German philosopher Immanuel Kant dedicated his life to study. He was a great thinker who understood the world in his mind and embraced it in his heart. One of his most influential works, Critique of Pure Reason, was published when he was 57 years old, and followed by Critique of Practical Reason when he was 64. Kant’s philosophical discourse concluded with Critique of Judgment, which was published when he was 66 years old. He passed away at the age of 78. Although Kant rarely left his hometown, his readings and intellectual capacity allowed him to journey without restriction through time and space. His example illustrates how mental activity can shine brighter with age.
Russia’s literary giant Dostoyevsky wrote his masterpieces Letters from the Underworld and The Brothers Karamazov at the end of his 60 year life. When American architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim Museum, he was 90 years of age. He allegedly watched over the construction site in Spain despite his age. It is said that even the feeblest people who can barely keep themselves standing, experience a powerful surge of strength when their creative passion is set ablaze. These people are examples for us all.
One intriguing similarity is that these people lived longer than others. Even when average life expectancy was much shorter, the writers and artists who enjoyed intellectual pursuits lived longer and harder.
In the 15th century, when most people died in their late forties, Leonardo da Vinci was painting the Mona Lisa in his fifties. He lived to be 67. Sir Isaac Newton left behind many great physics theories for humanity, and lived to be 85, much older than the average life expectancy of his time.
Of all the numerous commonalities between these people, the most notable is their infinite passion for life until the very last moment. They led lives full of intellectual curiosity and a passion for learning. They delighted in it. Da Vinci began studying Greek and Latin in his forties so he could read the classics. He believed learning a new language was a way to experience a new world. A similar example comes from ancient Rome. Plutarch’s Parallel Lives notes that Roman politician Cato began studying Greek when he was 80 in order to read original Greek texts. There is no end to learning, nor was there any time to waste fearing old age. They advanced by challenging the fearful unknown. Towards the end of his life, da Vinci left the following words with his disciples:
“Fix your course on a star and you’ll navigate any storm.”
His quote illuminates how significant it is to have a goal, what we need to depend on, and why we live.
The examples mentioned here uniformly demonstrate the simple truth that no matter what the situation, life is shaped by attitude. That is why it is a misconception to think that being older means being feeble and having diminished passion creating something new. As long as you maintain your curiosity and the will to improve, you can lead a long energetic life, just like the people mentioned in this book. It is helpful to look at the people who lived as they wanted. Identifying and aligning your life coordinates with the stars is a meaningful first step towards reaching your dreams. 02. Aging Strategically: Create Your Own Future
If you wish for something passionately, it will come true one day. You must make it come true. Only then can you say you lived without regret. In this respect, management guru Peter Drucker’s famous quote is relevant.
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
If you can create your own future, there is no need to sit around waiting for it to come to you. Everyone wants to know how the future will unfold, but it is not easy to know how to make the future. Furthermore, as we age, our physical capacities fade. Bad eyesight, for example, makes obtaining new information from books very frustrating. But this is reality. This natural process of aging is why most people give up on creating their own future. Here is where we fall into the trap.
Changes in body bring changes in mind. After a certain point, reflecting on the future overlaps with the concept of death. While a man becomes more reflective when he realizes death is waiting for him, he also builds a wall in front of himself, saying “you can’t cheat old age” To his dismay, he discovers that he’s no longer the young, red-blooded man he was, and becomes disappointed. That which is suitable for middle age life is calmly standing in front of the mirror, reflecting on the past, and preparing for the future. Middle age comes with the prudence and peace to reflect on life.
These late bloomers went through the same issues. They, too, had days where the morning sunshine were excruciatingly hot and burned their eyes. Their failing bodies made them question whether they had the energy to advance towards the future. They felt lost and alone in utter darkness.
So they looked to the stars. Just like the North Star that guides lost sailors, the late bloomers looked to their teachers and role models.
If you dream of change, identify the path of the stars that have already gone that way. Searching for the path is the seed of change. It is the unknown world, where you have not yet tread, beyond the hills, where the stars shine. Role models are nothing special. They are the ones who leapt towards new life and successfully accomplished their goals. Where the stars shine is where you will find strategic aging.
What worked when you were young doesn’t apply anymore. So your style must also change. You can’t simply rush at everything like you did in your twenties and thirties, nor can you bet everything you have hoping for success.
You must strategize for midlife and old age. The first step is identifying the ideal lifestyle you desire. No matter how much time you have left, poor time management always results in failure. Strategic aging means aligning with the role models who are most relatable and respectable to you. These models demonstrate how aging requires strategic thinking.
First, liberate yourself from negative associations with aging. For this, we need to examine why we have developed negative perceptions about aging over time. We need to study how the understanding of aging has evolved.
Aging has not always been considered negative. In the prehistoric times, when life experience was more appreciated, knowledgeable elders determined the fate of the tribe. In order to survive, the tribe listened to its elders. The wisdom of survival—where to dig for water, how to reap crops, how to set traps to catch prey—was preserved only in the minds of the elders. Until humanity fell to the arrogant notion that science rules the world, human civilization was built upon the wisdom of its elders.
As technology advanced, however, their experience was discredited. The value of age rapidly eroded as science and technology advanced. With industrialization and materialistic value systems centered on new technology, aging has become a sin. There is no need to consult elders to find where to dig for water and how to get food. They have been supplanted by scientific tools such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and engineering. The time-tested wisdom of age gradually lost its footing.
All of our modern success stories are associated with physical capacity. Elders who do not retain the same youthful strength are considered less efficient beings. In order to fight through difficulties and climb the ladder of success, one had to have firm legs and the strength to leap forward.
It was at this point that the misconception about passion for success being exclusive to youth arose. Romanticism in 18th and 19th century Europe further dignified youthful fervor. Ideals of youthful love, passion, and success spread like wild fire. With the rise of once-in-a-lifetime success allowed only to for the young, elders fell behind as incompetent people who either used up or missed out on opportunity. The wave of societal change brought by materialism and romanticism towered overhead. Since then, nobody has cared to heed the words of their elders. Their experience and wisdom were discarded.
However, if the opportunity for success is only once-in-a-lifetime, just like a one-use battery, what’s the point of life? Like a sports game without ups and downs, there is no excitement in life without turnover. Without it, life is empty?
The exhilaration of dreams and anticipation of sweet success are for everyone—regardless of age. In fact, the commonality I found in my research was that the door to success is open to us all, no matter how old we are.
With this faith, late bloomers created their own future, their own second lives. This is the reason why we need to focus on the successful people who strove so hard to achieve their goals. They shed light on the fastest and most certain path to success. They are the future and the model of life you want.
Now is the time to set your goals among the stars that shed light on your sincerest wishes. The stars remain in their place even in the darkest of nights. We are the ones who fail to see them through the fog and clouds. Let us delve into the stories of the late bloomers who thoroughly planned for their future and strategically prepared for their new life.
03. You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?
The elderly population around the globe is growing quickly, but the world is rife with negative perceptions of old age. How ironic! This phenomenon is the product of efficiency-driven culture and myopic profit-driven lifestyles. In our post-industrialization civilization built on science and technology, the aging population has degraded to being an inefficient and disposable component of the system.
To the surprise of all, it was the intellectuals who disseminated this negative perception of old age. They believed that brain capacity gradually slows, just like other body organs, and stops functioning altogether at some point.
Until recently, human brains were thought to be incapable of repairing themselves. Broken skin heals, and fractured bones come together over time. Even blood cells are regenerated. However, brain cells, the building blocks of the brain, were thought to be finite. A malicious agenda to disseminate negative images of old age was behind this.
The most common case is the psychologist or scientist’s argument for decreasing brain capacity as the main symptom of aging. Even Sigmund Freud maintained that the brain began to wane from age 50.
When a person reaches their fifties, the psychological plasticity that enables psychotherapy wants. In other words, older people cannot learn new things.
Ultimately, the brain was considered to peak between the teen years and twenties, and slowly degrade from then on. According to scientific research, the only human organ that did not regenerate was the brain. However, this belief evinced the limitations of the neuroscientists, not of the brain itself.
Ironically, Freud’s most renowned works were produced when he was 65 years old or more. In other words, Freud himself grew more creative the older he got. In fact, the ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles—to whom Freud owes much of his psychoanalysis about the inability of older people to obtain new knowledge—produced tragedies at an advanced age. Oedipus, an influential piece to Freudian theory, was written when Sophocles was 71.
The more you examine the negative perceptions of age, the more you will discover how unsubstantiated it is. Our society’s broad-based prejudice is at the very heart of the problem. Perhaps this widespread and groundless perception is associated with the subconscious fear of death. Apprehension towards death is translated into a desire to denounce aging.
Nonetheless, mid-20th century research revealed high brain activity even in old age. More and more researchers have presented the errors behind the old belief that brain cells do not regenerate. The discovery of the brain’s potential in now on the horizon.
American psychiatrist Gene Cohen devoted his life to demonstrating that human brains do not degenerate, but rather develop with age. According to Cohen, the brain is not a one-use organ. He enumerates four qualities of mature brain development.
First, the brain develops continuously as it learns and adapts to experiences. Second, brain cells are generated throughout life. Third, with age the wiring in the brain matures and become more balanced. Fourth, the older a person is, the more balanced she uses the left and right hemispheres of her brain.
Cohen’s rebuttal of the traditional stance that brain cells stops regenerating, and in fact exhibit lifelong development, was quite shocking. Up until that point, the science community was firmly convinced that the human brain did not regenerate. If brain cells were not able to generate new neurons, neurons were not able to regenerate. Without neuron regeneration, brain function could only regress.
However, new studies have dispelled this erroneous belief. In the early 1960s, an MIT investigation team led by Joseph Altman discovered the creation of new neurons in the brains of adult mice. The hippocampus is a critical area responsible for memory. Altman discovered that the hippocampus in adult mice generated new cells.
This discovery had telling implications. Mice DNA and human DNA are more than 90% identical. Generation of new brain cells in mature mice suggests that the same could happen in humans.
New research and studies followed. In the 1960s, another experiment by Marian Diamond, professor of anatomy at UC Berkeley, proved that mature brains continue to develop in an enriched environment with continued stimulation. Based on this potential, scientists started a study of neurogenesis, or growth and development of neurons. These findings led to discoveries on the potential for repairing human brain, a critical and valuable realization that even old dogs can learn new tricks.
Numerous studies on neurogenesis continued, but many of them were trial and error. The discovery of neuron development in mice did not necessarily mean neurogenesis in humans. A considerable amount of time and effort had been invested, but researchers did not relinquish the belief that the human brain degrades due to age.
In 1998, an intriguing experiment was conducted by the Salk Institute. Through a microscope, one researcher discovered living and multiplying neural stem cells in the brain specimen from a deceased old man. This dramatic discovery overturned the erroneous prejudice and fallacious information about the human brain.
In 1980, Fernando Nottebohm noticed that bird songs varied seasonally. By examining their brains, he discovered that the number of synaptic connections grew in the area of the brain responsible for learning during the time the birds switched songs. His findings extended to further research on other mammals closer to humans.
Studies on the human brain took full fledge soon after. Fred Gage, the man who discovered neurogenesis, led this endeavor. Gage’s team developed BrdU, a neuronal marker to track cell generation. This staining label was the key to measuring neurogenesis in the human brain, because BrdU reacted positively only with living, newly generated brain cells.
But how could he observe activities taking place inside the brain? The brain of a living person cannot be the subject of experiments. The research team considered using patients who were close to death.
They visited old people in the last moments of life, fighting an excruciating battle with Death. They explained the significance of their research and requested to prove their theories correct. This meant injecting BrdU in the patient’s brain.
Solemn hours passed. Despite their failing bodies, the patients’ hearts were pumping hot blood. They were alive. It was not an easy decision to make. What’s more, the patients had to suffer the pain of injecting the chemicals into their brain. Everyone desires to pursue life, even those who are in their last days. We all strive to live until we simply cannot. A few days passed. The patients’ families called. “My grandfather decided to volunteer for your experiment.” This was the last thing they could do for the world.
As scheduled, BrdU was injected in the volunteer patients’ brains. BrdU stains the neurons only when new neurons are generated. It was a critical clue to finding whether adult neurogenesis existed.
When the patients passed away, and their brains were delivered to the lab. There was a solemn and reverent moment of respect for the people who volunteered for the experiment. Careful incisions were made in the brain, and a specimen was placed under microscope. What had happened in those final moments?
The patients did not have any energy left after fighting their illness moments before death. Only pain and despair filled them the instant before the light of life went out. After studying the brain cell specimens, one researcher’s eyes sparkled. It was the decisive moment that they were waiting for.
As expected, the brain cells were glowing brightly. BrdU, injected immediately before death, was glowing. Although their bodies may have been fading, the brain cells were striving to regenerate to the last minute. This experiment proved what a precious being a man is and what wondrous capacity he has.
Fred Gage’s experiment provided decisive evidence that human brains continue to produce new nerve cells even in adulthood. Scientists realized that the human brain transcended conventional understanding. Modern science is in awe of the wondrous phenomenon created by these 100 billion cells.
Even more fascinating is that brain capacity does not diminish based on age. In fact, a recent discovery illustrates that younger brains focus mostly on the left or right hemisphere, while older brains balance between both.
The old myth that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks is now busted. Just as muscles strengthen the more you exercise, your brain develops the more you use it. Modern science has proven that, regardless of physical age, the mind improves the more you focus on new projects and challenge it.04. The Man Who Fried 1,009 Chickens
Colonel Harland Sanders: 1890-1980
The Founder of America’s Top Chicken Chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken
After 1,009 tries, Sanders successfully started KFC, and sold it for $2 million at the age of 66.
KFC has chains in more than 100 countries around the world. In front of them, you will often find an old man in a white suit, greeting customers with his beaming smile. To first-time customers exposed to this generous looking old man, Sanders is just an ordinary advertising mascot.
Even in the United States, where KFC originated, not many people know Sanders’ story. According to a poll taken by USA Today, 61% of Americans between 18 and 25 did not know who Sanders was and why he was associated with KFC.
They thought of him as kind-looking old man who provided fried chicken and sandwiches to hungry customers, or a marketing scheme to make each franchise look more family oriented. However, the image is not a simple marketing technique designed to sell chicken. It is the personification of the founder Harland David Sanders, who developed KFC, one of the world’s top franchises. This should be reason enough to plaster his image around the store.
Sanders was the symbol of the American Dream and scudding for success. When he opened his first restaurant, he was 66 years old and had a mere $105 in his hand. His restaurant was later closed when a new highway opened, so he had to do something else to survive. He fixed up his truck and hit the road to market his unique fried chicken recipe. He travelled across the country, and was rejected 1008 times.
At an age when most people sit back and watch their grandchildren grow, Sanders was receiving his 1,008th rejection. But he didn’t give up. After his 1,009th attempt, he found his first franchisee for his chicken dish—two years after leaving Kentucky with his truck.
Was it easy for him to lower himself to young investors in order to sell his recipe? The older you are, the harder it is to lower before others. In the corner of our minds, we all want our life experience to be recognized by others. Sometimes this pride frustrates our dreams. Sanders overcame this wanting with his white suit. There was something magical about it that kept him confident despite all the rejection.
Sanders had to sleep in his crumpled suit in his truck, and sometimes he drove down the highway without being able to shower for days. When he visited a prospective franchisee, he straightened his suit, groomed himself in the mirror, and put on a tie. In this outfit, he knocked on 1,009 doors.
His life sheds light on the simple yet noble truth that perseverance is always rewarded. His tattered white suit is evidence of the trips he made. Sanders believed that he could not be complacent or succumb to despair. Where did this drive to travel around the country holding a fried chicken recipe come from? Let’s travel back in time to witness Sanders’ life firsthand.
His early life was not easy. Sanders’ father passed away when he was six. Without her husband, Sanders’ mother worked various jobs to feed the family. It was Sanders’ task to look after his three-year-old brother and infant sister. This was one critical reason he had to cook at an early age. Reportedly, he was a skilled cook by the age seven.
Sanders was ten when he started making money for himself. At the time, he worked on a farm for two dollars a month. When he was twelve, his mother remarried, and young Sanders was left home alone. His difficult life continued. His life, in fact, was closer to a treacherous struggle to survive. He worked as a cleaner for a railroad company, and later served in the army in Cuba. Each time his life led him to new places, he reminded himself that learning something new is the only way to overcome difficult situations. He studied voraciously and enjoyed challenging himself with new tasks. Sanders’ entrepreneurial spirit is well demonstrated in his experience of driving a steamboat on the Ohio River.
Later, he managed a service station on a national highway. His service station was ordinary, but very precious to him. It was a proud business he established himself, after suffering through a difficult early life. From this business, he realized that there was no good restaurant to serve the travelers on the road, so he opened a small restaurant for hungry passersby. This was the beginning of his food service empire.
From this point on, his served unique chicken dishes, with which he gained meteoric popularity among the customers. As a result, he opened a small restaurant across from the service station. The restaurant grew considerably in size in a few years, and expanded to seat more than 100 customers. The fried chicken dish using Sanders’ secret recipe of eleven herbs and spices captivated the palates of the customers. His chicken was so successful that some customers travelled long distances to try it. But his success did not last long.
In 1952, life dealt him a blow when construction of an interstate commenced. His restaurant lost its locational edge. After he was forced to sell the property to pay his debts, Sanders was left with some savings and a monthly Social Security check of $105. It was all he had, and hardly enough to live on for the rest of his life. Without warning, he was broke.
Sanders was a man of unyielding spirit in his youth, but now in his sixties, this was a burdensome load. Thinking about the road ahead was draining. What could he do with a mere $105? But this is where his life made a dramatic pivot. Sanders reflected on his life. He examined what he was best at. The answer was in his heart.
He started outlining his second life. He did not have any intention of blaming society or drafting complaint letters to pass the long nights. He revisited his life and questioned himself. Then he found the answer.
What can I do that will help others? What can I give?
How many of us would think about what we can do for others while we are on the verge of bankruptcy ourselves? This is precisely what Sanders did. Rather than resenting society for inflicting pain on him, he worried over what he could do for society. He decided—despite his old, grey hair—that he would serve society by doing what he did best. It didn’t take long to identify that task: serving chicken to the people.
The very next day, Sanders converted his truck into a mobile kitchen. He installed the appliances to deep fry chickens, and stocked up on the eleven secret ingredients. Before he started the truck, he looked at himself in the mirror wearing a white suit. He believed in himself. He was convinced that somewhere in this wide world, there was a franchisee who would show interest in his fried chicken recipe. Perhaps he would have no choice but to sleep in the truck that smelled of cooking oil. However, it was not a big problem. Lowering himself to young prospective franchisees was not something to be ashamed of. Even if people closed the door on him, this new goal was not to be given up easily. He believed that the day would come when many people would appreciate his food.
Most other people would have just sold fried chicken. But Sanders was different. He thought it would be better business to sell the recipe rather than the chicken. In a way, he was an entrepreneurial man. He wanted to market the recipe, rather than the dish, to build a network of restaurants. He was certain that it would be more profitable this way. He was a businessman with a vision.
Through this process, he made the transition from simple cook to businessman. He demonstrated his unique fried chicken recipe in restaurants, and demanded royalties from the revenue. This is how his cross-country trip canvassing his recipe began.
However, this business idea to sell the recipe was not very conducive to getting franchisees. Each time he offered to sell the recipe, restaurant owners treated him like a mad man. In fact, there was no such business model at the time. It was unconventional.
Imagine a grey-haired old man in a white suit entering a restaurant and proposing to sell a fried chicken recipe. Who would take him seriously? For a while, he was considered mad and doors slammed in his face. He had 1,008 such rejections. If we assume that he was rejected twice a day, then he pitched his idea for more than two years.
But Sanders considered how to persuade the restaurant owners, rather than berating them for rejecting him. He searched for better recipes and better ingredients. He struggled all day long with fried chicken, and crawled into his truck at night for uncomfortable rest. He began each morning energized, visualizing the first client he would take his offer to. It is not an easy thing to be spurned for two years straight. It was much harder for a 66-year-old man. But somehow Sanders withstood being dismissed by younger people who deemed crazy. And on his 1,009th attempt, he met his first franchisee.
There are a number of commonalities among historical figures with great success. They never gave up. They firmly believed that rejection was dissatisfaction with their proposal, rather than a rejection of themselves. This is where they drew the energy to maintain their dream and power themselves after continuous rejections.
The more people age, the more they fear rejection. Inaction is better than rejection. Justification is better than practicality. However, the more people are focused on their image, the cloudier their judgment and the slower their actions.
The older they become, the more faith people require to justify their actions. Why do I have to do this? Can I pull this off? They are faced with these questions, and they must find the answers to proceed. The problem is, the answers to these questions cannot simply be calculated in one’s head.
Sanders chose to enjoy this process. He told himself that he was exploring. The hope to provide his delicious fried chicken to all Americans kept him strong for two years. The necessary condition to ignite one’s vigor late in life is the conviction that life is worthwhile.
Sanders spent nights in the back of his truck and welcomed 1009 mornings. How many of us could lead such an adventurous older life? How many of us can make fried chicken to share with others, and feed ourselves with the scraps leftover? Sanders did. And that’s what made his second life successful.
Although not quite to the extent as Sanders, there was another man who did not give up after countless rejections. This man dreamt of the happiest place on earth for children. When he was searching for an investor for this dreamland in California, he was rejected 302 times in 1955. All the banks he visited thought he was insane. This man was Walt Disney, the founder of Disneyland.
Nobody questions Disneyland’s value and potential. Just like many other things, however, when Walt Disney conceptualized Disneyland, it appeared preposterous. His dream to make Disneyland to nurture the imaginations of children originated from altruistic motivations. As you see from the paths taken by the masters of rejection, there is one commonality. Big rejections bring about big successes. This was the case for Sanders and Disney.
There is yet another master of rejection. Although his experience is different from the former two examples, he had to suffer countless failures before attaining what he wanted. This man was Babe Ruth.
Babe Ruth played 22 seasons for the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. He hit 718 homeruns, a record that stood until Hank Aaron broke it. However, in order to hit 718 homeruns, he had strike out 1,330 times. Before he could set a world record, Babe Ruth had to experience double the amount of failures.
Everyone’s situation is different, but many people have been rejected countless times to this date. The more you are rejected, the more you feel like giving up. Perhaps it may be helpful to remember the masters of rejection when you feel down and want to give up. For a big success, getting used to routine rejection may be necessary, just like Sanders, Disney, and Ruth learned.
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