#2: Nine Stories and Stats For Perspective on How Long Success Actually Takes

TLDR

Today, most people think success and hitting major achievements should all happen early in your journey. If things don't pan out that way, you're a failure.

I used to think that way for a long time (despite how miserable it made me), but I've come to realize real long-term success takes A LOT more time than you think.

If you don't believe me, just ask Enzo Ferrari, Ferruccio Lamborghini, Hans Wilsdorf (founder of Rolex), Peter Parker, Lewis Hamilton, Michael Bloomberg, and many others (Keep reading…).

The Whole Lesson

For the longest time, it seemed like everyone I knew (or followed) was absolutely killing it, while I was floundering. 

I couldn't understand why, after almost 5 years post-MBA, I didn't consider myself as "successful" as I "should be." It really ate at me and likely led to some bad career decisions (more on that in another post).

Anyway, after doing some research and reflecting over the years, I've come to realize how much of an idiot I was being.

If you look at the histories of some of the most successful people out there (or at least the ones I look up to), they all have one thing in common; their accomplishments took A LOT of time. 

We don't realize how the world has programmed us to think we should be an Executive or multimillionaire by 25 due to the rise of social media influencers, or one-off stories of unicorn founders that seem like they are more common than they actually are.

The reality is, anything worth doing will most likely take A LOT longer than you think and will often come about through building on a series of compounding experiences or events (some of which are outside of your control).

Here's nine inspiring stories and stats about success that have given me perspective on this topic. I hope you find them as interesting as I did when I researched them:

Before we start, please note that whenever I reference an age, it's likely not 100% exact. For some of these stories, I could only find the year in which these events happened and not the exact month. Some of the ages noted might be slightly off, but you should still get the point.

Ferrari

Enzo Ferrari started racing cars when he was about 21 and first made his name as part of Alfa Romeo. It took about a decade however, for him to start his own racing team at age 31 which was made up mostly of Alfa Romeo cars. Despite his aspiration to make his own cars, the lead up to WWII forced Enzo to delay the launch of Ferrari’s first road car by almost 18 years. He was 49 when the first Ferrari road car came out.

Sources: 1, 2

Rolex 

Hans Wilsdorf had a passion for watches at a young age and cut his teeth in the industry working for a host of watch companies. After realizing he could start his own watch business focused on accurate, reliable, waterproof and dust proof timepieces, he co-founded Wilsdorf and Davis in 1905 in London. Three years later, the company was rebranded to Rolex when Hans was 27. It took another 18 years though for Rolex to actualize Hans’ initial vision with the landmark release of the Rolex Oyster in 1926/7. Hans was 45 when this happened.

Sources: 3,4 

Marvel

Marvel Comics was founded in 1939 as Timely Comics and almost went under several times. In 1996, the company went bankrupt. This was almost 10 years before Superhero mania began with the release of the first Spider-Man in 2002. The funny thing is, in the initial negotiations for the Spider-Man film rights, Sony dismissed the value of Marvel’s other characters. Marvel initially offered Sony the film rights to 25 major Marvel characters for only $25M (~$45M inflation adjusted for today). Sony didn’t take it. Instead, Marvel sold Spider-Man’s lifetime film rights to Sony for $10M (~$18M inflation adjusted for today). In 2009, about 7 years after the release of Spider-Man, Disney bought Marvel for $4B. Fast forward another 10+ years, Marvel movies now make up 4 of the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time. Avengers Endgame alone took in $2.8B in box office sales. I cried multiple times during that movie (Not joking).

Sources: 5,6,7,8

Les Paul + Gibson Guitars

Les Paul went all in on playing music professionally around age 19 but it still took him about 7 years to invent the first solid body electric guitar around age 26. After that, it took almost another decade for Gibson to release the guitar line that was based on his original design in 1952. Les was 37 when the Gibson Les Paul came out which means he had been a professional musician for almost 20 years.

Sources: 9, 10,11

Fender Musical Instruments  

Leo Fender went to school to become an Accountant. Despite what he studied, Leo opened a radio repair shop at age 29 to follow his true passion; electronics. About 10 years later at age 38, he went all in on musical instruments and eventually invented two of the most important musical instruments in history. The Fender Telecaster was born almost 5 years later in 1951/2, followed by the Fender Stratocaster in 1954. Leo was in his early 40s when these breakthroughs took place. The crazy thing is this all could have never happened. Leo was supposed to go to war in WWII but got out of it because he had a glass eye due to cancer that was contracted at age 8.

Sources: 12,13,14

Lewis Hamilton 

Lewis Hamilton started karting at a very young age. He was 8 when he started and eventually made it Formula 1 by age 22. One year later, he won his first Formula 1 championship at age 23, making him the youngest person to claim the title at the time. While that’s a lot of success at such a young age, most people forget that means Lewis spent over 14 years and his entire childhood focused on nothing but racing before he truly made it. 

Sources: 15

Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg landed his first job on Wall Street at Salomon Brothers in 1966 after graduating from Harvard Business School’s MBA program at age 24. His starting salary was only $9,000 (~$85k inflation adjusted) which was ~14% lower than the median starting salary of his graduating class. At the time, Harvard’s overall admissions rate was ~20%. Today, it’s 3%. Despite this good start, it still took Bloomberg over six years to be promoted to Head of Salomon’s Equities desk. Nine years later, Bloomberg was fired from Salomon and launched the first Bloomberg Terminal at age 39. By that time, Bloomberg had been working in Capital Markets for almost 15 years, had a substantial amount of industry connections and was about to be smack dab in the midst of what many consider the golden age of Wall Street.

Sources: 16,17,18

Lamborghini 

Ferruccio Lamborghini started making tractors from salvaged army surplus left behind by the Allied Forces in WWII at age 30. He worked as a mechanic during the war and came from a farming family. Almost 12 years later in 1958 at age 42, the man made enough money to buy a Ferrari 250GT…Well done! Unfortunately, Ferruccio wasn’t happy with his Ferrari’s clutch and thought he could do better. The Lamborghini car company was founded as a result in 1963 and its first car was rolled out a year later. Ferruccio was 47. While the 60s were good for Lambo, the 70s forced Ferruccio to sell 51% of the company in 1972 and the rest a year later at age 57. In 1978, the company entered bankruptcy and was ultimately bought by Chrysler in 1987. Lambo eventually found decent footing with the release of Diablo in the 90s which attracted Volkswagen to buy the company in 1998. Today, Lambos are pretty popular and sought after by everyone from new crypto bros to rich old guys who want to feel young again.

Sources: 19,20,21

The Average Millionaire 

It might feel like everywhere you look, people younger than you, less capable than you or experienced than you are doing better than you. Just remember that according to Fidelity, the average person only just becomes a millionaire once they are in their late 50s.  

Sources: 22

Wrapping Up

To close this history lesson, here are some parting words from billionaire investor and the king of awesome one-liners, Charlie Munger:

“It took a long time to get ahead. I will say, in retrospect, I’m glad it took so long because it was interesting.”

Source: 23

Tune in next week if you want to hear some of my perspectives on Product Marketing. No worries if you plan on skipping though. I get that weekend classes are a bummer. 

Until next time,

Ginger P.

The Ginger Professor explicitly represents the personal thoughts and views of the author only. It does not reflect the thoughts or views of any current or former employer or client of the author. All information referenced and contained in the article enclosed is for informational purposes only and does not represent advice of any kind.

If you find any historical inaccuracies in the above, please let know so I can fix them.