Why You Shouldn’t Worry If You Have Not Been Successful in Your Art by Age 30
We love stories of people who have achieved success at a young age. The world’s Mark Zuckerbergs become heroes, while the rest of us feel like failures if we don’t succeed by the age of 30. This thinking is completely reversed.
As you can see in the above video from Delve.tv, even the great artists and successful creatives we look at didn’t start out this way. For example, Leonardo da Vinci, undisputedly one of the greatest artists in history, painted images of dead criminals for 40 florins by the age of 30. It was the 15th century equivalent of “Hey, you’re an artist! Can you make me a logo? I’ll give you twenty bucks. “
It was only when da Vinci turned 46 that he finished his famous Last Supper , known all over the world. A decade and a half after most of us start to panic about being “lost.” This does not mean that da Vinci blossomed late. He started painting at a very young age, so his talent was not obvious. Rather, it takes a lot longer than we think to truly master the creative field. So if you’re not a superstar by your 30s, don’t panic. It usually doesn’t work that way.
The Long Game, Part 1: Why Leonardo Da Vinci Was Once a Loser | Vimeo