13 famous people who became highly successful after 50

• Some of the most recognizable brands today were started by people who were 50 or older.
• Fast-food companies like McDonald’s and KFC were founded by people who were middle-aged.
• Media personalities like Martha Stewart, Julia Child, and Kris Jenner didn’t become famous until 50.

Not every success story looks the same.

While the ultra-young tech founder has become an archetype of modern entrepreneurship, some of the most successful businesses today were started by people well into middle age.

In fact, a 2018 Harvard study found that the age of a founder directly correlates to its success, with the probability of extreme startup success rising with founder age up to their late 50s.

While making a career change later in life can be a difficult decision, it can also be the start of a new, fruitful chapter for those who dare take it.

See how these 12 celebrities and entrepreneurs found career success later in life.

Martha Stewart

Long before becoming a food media mogul, Martha Stewart started her career as a stockbroker on Wall Street, quitting her job in the early 1970s after her family moved to Connecticut.

There, she restored a 19th-century farmhouse, sparking her interest in homemaking. Over the next few years, Stewart started a successful catering business with recipes she then featured in her famous cookbooks.

Stewart was 49 when she published the first issue of her magazine in 1990, Martha Stewart Living, launching her highly successful brand. Her TV show began airing when she was 50, and she became a billionaire when her company went public in 1999.

The company went on to become an empire, encompassing more magazines, more books, and TV shows.

Although she later lost her billionaire status, Stewart continues to live a luxurious life.

Harland Sanders

Born in 1890, Harland Sanders worked a wide variety of jobs before reaching age 40, from working on a farm to serving in the military, per a profile written by the University of New Hampshire.

At the age of 40, Sanders ran a service station in Kentucky and served fried chicken to bring in more customers. Eventually, he became famous for his recipe.

In 1952, Kentucky Fried Chicken started when then-62-year-old Sanders franchised his recipe to a friend in Salt Lake City, Utah. A decade later, the company had grown to hundreds of franchises, and Sanders sold his ownership for $2 million.

In 2023, KFC, which is now a part of Yum! Foods, brought in $2.83 billion in revenue, per the company’s 2024 report.

Ray Kroc

In 1954, Ray Kroc, a milkshake-mixing-machine executive, ate at a restaurant run by the two McDonald brothers, per the company’s website.

Impressed with the brothers’ food and operation, Kroc turned their business into a franchise by creating McDonald’s System, Inc the following year, at the age of 52.

Overnight, the food became a success, and the 100 millionth McDonald’s burger sold just three years later.

Today, McDonald’s makes $25.9 billion in annual sales, per Forbes, and is considered one of the most recognizable brands in the world.

Momofuku Ando

Coming from textiles production and credit unions, Momofuku Ando was 48 when he launched the first version of his invention, dehydrated instant ramen noodles, in 1958, per the website for his company, Nissin Foods.

After it took off, he wanted to bring his invention to a bigger, international market. In 1971, at the age of 61, he introduced Cup Noodle (later, Cup Noodles in the US), a format that led his noodles to dominate the market and reach worldwide audiences.

Bernie Marcus

After being fired as the chairman of Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers in 1978, Bernie Marcus decided to open his own home-improvement store at the age of 50 with Arthur Blank. They called the store The Home Depot.

The first store was 60,000 square feet, much larger than your typical hardware store.

Today, Home Depot is the largest home-improvement retailer, and is valued at around $410 billion, per Yahoo Finance.

Leo Goodwin

Leo Goodwin was writing insurance policies when he decided to open his own company, the Government Employees Insurance Company, or Geico, with his wife, Lillian. The two created the company in 1936, when Goodwin was 50 years old, per the company’s website.

In the first year, the company had 3,700 policies.

Today, Geico is the third-largest private passenger auto insurer in the US.

Arianna Huffington

An immigrant from Greece, Arianna Huffington first worked as a writer, penning biographies. But it wasn’t until she was 55 that the writer really broke ground when she launched The Huffington Post in 2005 and named herself its editor in chief.

The commentary and news site slowly gained momentum. In a few years, it was known as one of the most influential blogs in the world.

Huffington stepped down from her role in 2016. Today, the site is owned by BuzzFeed and is known as HuffPost.

Julia Child

Long before Julia Child became a celebrity chef inspiring millions to explore French cuisine, she worked as an intelligence officer during World War II for the Office of Strategic Services, a predecessor to the CIA, where she met her husband Paul Child, per the CIA’s website.

She released her first cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” at the age of 49 in 1961. She became a TV chef with the debut of “The French Chef” in July 1962.

By 1974, her cookbook had sold over 1.25 million copies in the US, as reported by the New Yorker that year, and in the following decades Child became one of the most famous and influential celebrity chefs in history.

Tim and Nina Zagat

In 1979, Tim and Nina Zagat, both lawyers at the time, decided to create the Zagat Survey to collect friends’ reviews of Manhattan restaurants. In the following years, the couple began publishing print editions of their restaurant guide, which quickly expanded and gained popularity beyond their social circle.

Tim quit the corporate counsel firm Gulf & Western Inc. to pursue the restaurant guides business full-time in 1986, at age 46, while Nina continued working as a lawyer until she was 49, as reported by Bloomberg in 1991.

In 2000, when the two were 60 and 58, respectively, the Zagat Survey finally found investors to back the reviews business, per AARP.

The Zagat Survey eventually became one of the most respected measures of customer satisfaction in the culinary world, and the company was acquired by Google for $151 million in 2011, per Forbes.

Today, the brand is owned by the JP Morgan Chase-owned restaurant discovery website The Infatuation.

Taikichiro Mori

In 1955, then-university dean Taikichiro Mori founded Mori Fudosan, the predecessor to the Mori Building Company, at the age of 51, per the company’s website. In the following years, the firm, which became the Mori Building Company in 1959, built office spaces that invited foreign companies to the city.

The company went on to develop some of Tokyo‘s most emblematic high-rise buildings, and today it manages over 100 office facilities in Japan and China.

In 1991, Mori became the richest man in the world, with a reported fortune of $13 billion at the time, per The New York Times.

Julie Wainwright

In 2000, Julie Wainwright was the CEO of Pets.com when she decided to shut down the company. After filling in as CEO at other companies, she decided to create her own.

In 2011, she was in her mid-50s and launched The RealReal, an online marketplace that resells designer items. In its first year, the company made $10 million in sales, per CNBC.

In 2024, The RealReal had $600 million in revenue, per a company release.

Kris Jenner

The Kardashians‘ media empire didn’t begin until 2006, when Kris Jenner pitched the idea of a reality TV show to Ryan Seacrest at the age of 52.

“Keeping Up with the Kardashians” debuted in October 2007, and since then it has launched the multibillion-dollar careers of multiple members of the Kardashian family.

Read the original article on Business Insider

The post 13 famous people who became highly successful after 50 appeared first on Business Insider.