Welcome to “Better Late Than Never,” a conversation about second chances and the quiet power of not giving up.

The phrase better late than never goes back centuries. Medieval texts like Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales used an early form of it, and scholars trace it even further to a Latin proverb meaning “rather late than never.” In other words, if something matters, the clock is bossy, but it is not in charge.

History is full of people who proved that. Colonel Harland Sanders franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken in his 60s after a lifetime of failed jobs and closed restaurants. Vera Wang entered the fashion world at 40 after missing her dream of becoming an Olympic figure skater. American folk artist Grandma Moses didn’t start painting seriously until her late 70s, eventually exhibiting in major museums. Their timelines would look like failure on social media, but their lives say something different: late is still on time if you’re moving.

Recent reporting on careers and education shows more people changing direction in midlife, reskilling into new fields like tech, healthcare, and green energy. News outlets have highlighted nurses who started training in their 50s, athletes returning after devastating injuries, and entrepreneurs launching first startups after retirement. These stories land in our feeds as “inspirational,” but they are really case studies in better late than never.

Yet society pushes the opposite message. There is pressure to peak by 30, be “established” by 40, and quietly shrink your dreams after that. Algorithms reward the overnight success story, not the twenty–year slow burn. That can make listeners feel that if they haven’t “made it” yet, they never will.

So this is for the listener who thinks they missed their moment.

If you’re going back to school after raising a family, better late than never.

If you’re opening a blank document to write the book you abandoned a decade ago, better late than never.

If you’re apologizing, healing a relationship, changing a career, or simply daring to want more from your own life than what you settled for, better late than never.

You have not run out of time to start. You have only run out of reasons not to.

This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI