Stuck in a work routine? Can't bring yourself to get up in the morning? Well, here's some good news. It's never too late to change your career and do something creative that you'll love.
Whether you're interested in photography, art, illustration, design, or another creative discipline, the fact that you haven't been doing it since childhood doesn't matter.
A creative career is about passion, the willingness to learn, and dedication to developing skills and ideas.
Don't believe it? As soon as you can, check out the five examples below of famous creatives who changed their careers.
1. Giorgio Armani
From medicine to the world of fashion
Everyone has heard of fashion designer Giorgio Armani. But fashion wasn't his first career. Born in northern Italy in 1934, as a young man he enrolled in the medical faculty at the University of Milan. But after three years he left and joined the military, where he was assigned to the Military Hospital in Verona.
Armani eventually decided on a different career path, and after leaving the military in 1953 he found work as a window dresser at La Rinascente, a department store in Milan.
He then became a menswear salesperson, and in the mid-1960s moved to the company Nino Cerruti, for which he designed menswear. In 1975 he founded his company Armani. In 2001 he was recognized as the most decorated designer, with annual revenue of USD 1.6 billion and a personal fortune of USD 8.5 billion in 2013.
2. Brandon Stanton
From finance to the streets of New York
Born in 1984, Brandon Stanton is a photographer and creator of "Humans of New York," an online photography project that became a global phenomenon. Thanks to it, he made Time magazine's "30 Under 30 People Changing the World" list. But he wasn't always so creatively focused.
Instead, as a young man, Stanton went into finance and worked as a bond trader. His main goal was to make money. Plans to do something artistic came second. When he finally lost his job, he felt it was his moment. Something he needed to build a huge career.
Although he wasn't trained as a photographer, something prompted Stanton to pick up a camera and start taking photos and interviewing passersby on the streets of New York, then publishing the results on Facebook. His material quickly went viral, and today the blog has over 17 million followers on Facebook, he has created a bestselling book, and he has enormous influence around the world.
3. David Carson
The surfer who became a graphic designer
Born in 1955, David Carson is an American graphic designer and art director, best known for his innovative print design and use of experimental typography, particularly in the 1990s magazine Raygun. His layouts featured distorted or mixed typefaces and fractured images, making them almost unreadable, which led to him being known for "grunge typography."
But it wasn't always that way. From 1982 to 1987 Carson worked as a teacher in San Diego, California, while also being a professional surfer who ranked 9th in the world.
Gradually Carson began experimenting with graphic design. As was said in later years, his genius changed the public face of graphic design, and surfing's loss was the creative world's gain.
4. Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma Moses)
Talent discovered in her seventies
So far, all the creators mentioned who built careers did so when they were relatively young. But don't think you're too old to change your fate! To prove that age doesn't matter, take a look at the career of Anna Mary Robertson, known as Grandma Moses.
The famous artist appeared on magazine covers, on television, and in a documentary film. She wrote an autobiography, won numerous awards, and received two honorary doctorates. Her paintings are held in the collections of many museums, one of which was sold in 2006 for USD 1.2 million. And yet she spent most of her years living a simple rural life as a farmhand, homemaker, wife, and mother.
Born in Greenwich in Washington County in 1860. It was only at the age of 78 that Robertson's talent was discovered, when an art collector saw her paintings in a drugstore window in 1938. Her first solo exhibition took place two years later.
5. Marcus Bleasdale
Marcus Bleasdale is living proof that money isn't everything. When he worked as an investment banker, he earned half a million pounds a year, working in a comfortable office. Now he earns only a fraction of that amount, and on top of that he has given up comfort. All in order to document conflicts in Africa, Central America, and the Balkans as a photojournalist.
Bleasdale left his job in 1998 at the age of 29 after being horrified by a television report about mass deaths in the Balkans. Feeling that he should help in some way, he sold his expensive homes, donated his suits to charity, and boarded a plane to the Balkans. He had no idea what he intended to do when he got there. His mother thought he had gone crazy, and his father told him he was insane. On just his second day, Marcus Bleasdale understood what he wanted to do with the rest of his life: be a photojournalist.
The British photographer has won dozens of awards in his career from UNICEF, World Press Photo, and the Royal Photographic Society, and was also nominated for an Emmy award. He used his previously acquired experience in business and economics in his role as a reporter. For example, in Congo he investigated the sources of financing for conflicts, which usually led to mines and the armed networks connected to them.
He is currently also active in Oslo, working for a social-impact non-profit, combining his experience in banking and photojournalism, and moreover he shoots stories for National Geographic and Human Rights Watch.
Summary
The stories of Giorgio Armani, Brandon Stanton, David Carson, Grandma Moses, and Marcus Bleasdale prove that a creative career knows no limits of age or previous experience. From medicine, through finance, to teaching and banking – each of them dared to make a radical change, guided by passion and the desire to create.
The most surprising is the case of Grandma Moses, who revealed her talent only at the age of 78, becoming one of the most recognizable folk artists. This shows that it is never too late to fulfill your dreams.
