A for Effort



Barack H. Obama

 “No matter how old you are now. You are never 2 young or 2 old for success or going after what you want. Here’s a short list of people who accomplished & (against the odds) great things at different ages…


1) Helen Keller At the age of 19 months Helen became deaf & blind. But that didn’t stop her.She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

2) Mozart was already competent on keyboard & violin, he composed from the age of 5.

3) Shirley Temple was 6 when she became a movie star on “Bright Eyes”.

4) Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote the diary of Anne Frank.

5) Magnus Carlsen became a chess Grandmaster at the age of 13 years.

6) Nadia Comăneci At age 14, gymnast of Romania scored seven perfect 10.0 and won three gold medals at the Olympics.

7) Tenzin Gyatso was formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama November 1950, at the age of 15.

8) Pele soccer superstar was 17 years old when he won the world cup in 1958 with Brazil.

9) Elvis was a Superstar by age 19.

10) John Lennon was 20 years & Paul Mcartney 18 when the Beatles had their first concert in1961.

11) Jesse Owens was 22 when he won 4 gold medals in Berlin 1936 .

12) Beethoven was a Piano virtuoso by age 23.

13) Issac Newton at 24 wrote Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

14) Roger Bannister was 25 When he broke the 4 minute mile record.

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

16) Lance E Armstrong was 27 when he won the tour de France .

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

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

19) J.K.Rowling was 30 years old when she finished the first manuscript for Harry Potter.

20) Amelia Earhart was 31 years old when she became the first woman 2 fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

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

22) Edmund Hillary was 33 when he became the first man to reach Mount Everest (highest Mountain in the world.

23) Martin Luther King jr was 34 When he did the speech “I Have A Dream”.

24) Marie Curie was 35 years old when she got nominated 4 Nobel Prize in Physics 1903.

25) The Wright brothers, Orville (was 32 ) & Wilbur (was 36) when they invented & built the world's first successful airplane & making the first controlled, powered & sustained heavier-than-air human flight.

26) Vincent Van Gogh was 37 when he died & virtually unknown yet his paintings today are worth millions.

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

28) Mark Twain was 40 when he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and 49 years old for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

29) Rosa Parks was 42 when she refused 2 obey bus driver’s order 2 give up her seat 2 make room for a white passenger.


30) John F. Kennedy was 43years when he became President of the United States.


31) Henry Ford Was 45 when the Ford T came out.


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


33) Barack H. Obama was 47 when he became the first black President.

34) Charles Darwin was 50 years old when his book On the Origin of Species came out.

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

36) Abraham Lincoln was 52 when he became President.

37) Ray Kroc Was 53 when he bought the McDonalds Franchise and took it to unprecedented levels.
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38) Dr. Seuss was 54 when he wrote “the cat in the hat”.

40) 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.

41) Colonel Harland Sanders was 61 when he started the KFC Franchise.

42) J R R Tolkien was 62 when the lord of the ring books came out.

43) Ronald Reagan was 69 when he became President of the United States.

44) Jack Lalane at age 70 handcuffed, shackled, towed 70 rowboats.

45) Nelson Mandela was 76 When he Became Presidident.   

 In a few weeks I'll be 50.  Most of my aspirations have not been met yet, but suddenly, for the first time, I don't feel old. My grandfather used to always tell my mother  'not to let age dictate what she's supposed to be doing.'   He's right.

I will show this list to my nephew.  He's in his senior year of high school. He's a good young man and makes good grades. He's got lots of aspirations, but he's lazy. I'm glad that we've always been close and that he listens to me. Soon we'll talk about what he's most passionate about doing and  I'll try to inspire him to put more of an effort. I don't want him to just talk about it. I want him to be about it.
The same with my self. I don't want to just talk about it. I want to be about it. I need to put in more of an effort, I will admit.   And I'm not too old.