Young People Never Change the World

Except for these ones:

Thomas Jefferson was 33 when he penned the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Thomas Alva Edison was 32 when he invented the light bulb in 1879.

The average age of an American soldier serving in World War II was 26.

When they founded Microsoft in 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen were 20 and 22 respectively. A year later, 21 year old Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer.

Anne Frank was barely a teenager when she moved the world with her diary account of her family’s hiding from the Nazis.

When he was assassinated in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was just 39. He delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech when he was 34 in August, 1963.

George Eastman invented the Kodak camera, revolutionizing photography by bringing it to the masses, in 1888 at the age of 34.

In 1905, Albert Einstein published four landmark essays, one of which was his theory of relativity, the pillar of modern physics. He was 26 years old.

Napoleon was crowned Emperor of France in 1804 at the age of 33. By age 40, his empire spanned nearly all of continental Europe.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer of over 600 works of timeless musical genius and widely regarded the greatest composer of all time, died at 35.

Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 for developing the theory of radioactivity. She was 35.

Alexander Hamilton, writer of more than half of the Federalist Papers and a crucial force in the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, among other things, was only 32 in 1789 when became the first U.S. Treasury Secretary.

Martial arts legend Bruce Lee only lived 33 years.

Jesus of Nazareth only spent 33 years on this earth. Two thousand years later, his religious followers number over 2 billion.

Tupac died at 25, Biggie at 24. Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix both died at 27. Bob Marley died at 36. John Lennon lived to 40. Elvis lived to 42, Marvin Gaye to 44 and Freddie Mercury to 45.

Walt Disney was 27 when he illustrated Mickey Mouse’s world debut, “Steamboat Willie,” in 1928.

Orville and Wilbur Wright were 32 and 36 respectively when they embarked on the world’s first successful flight of an airplane in 1903.

To us, Mother Theresa is a kind, elderly woman, but she was 36, with her whole life ahead of her, when she resolved to move to Calcutta and dedicate her life to serving the world’s poor, starving and destitute.

John F. Kennedy, having just returned home from World War II, ran for Congress and won at the age of 28 in 1946.

In 1997, 32 year old Joanne Rowling published Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first of the most popular book series of all time. She began the book when she was 25.

And don’t be afraid of failure:

Failure is only final if you give up.

Don’t let anyone tell you you’re too young to pursue your dreams. Many of the most influential people to ever live were your age or younger when they began their extraordinary journeys to change the world.

The time to begin is now.