It’s Never Too Late to be Rich and Famous

This is the first in a series on life long change called, “It’s Never Too Late.”

Settling Down – A Cultural Phase

The phenomenon of working a single, stable job all your life or even following a single career path is historically new. And in today’s market, it is already fading away as an apparent phase of the 20th century. The modern, transient society is not modern at all, rather it is a return to ways of old.

Laura Ingels Wilder, famous for her Little House book series, including Little House on the Prairie, lived a transient life which was typical of most working class people in the 19th century. She moved countless times and had multiple careers and streams of income throughout her life as a teacher, local columnist, a homestead farmer, and finally, beginning at age 63, a published author.

She had lived a fairly modest life until 1929 when she and her family had lost everything they had worked for in failed stock investments. On a whim, she focused her efforts on selling her life story in a series of books to help maintain her family’s finances. She had no idea that the children’s book series she would produce would bring great wealth and world fame to herself and her family.

What If You Lost Everything?

What would your life be like if you lost everything you had worked for and had to start over? Chances are, you would be less resistant to making significant changes and trying new things. This is because one of the things that prevents us from growing and changing as we get older is an accumulation of things we are afraid to threaten. When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.

It is unrealistic to expect than any of us will give up everything we have in exchange for the freedom to start something new with nothing to lose. But, if we examine our attachment to our possessions, we can begin to loosen our grasp and expand our horizons.

Wilder lived to be 90 years old and lived her final 27 years as a world-famous, wealthy author, because when she had nothing to lose, she decided to try something new.