Oprah Winfrey says ‘life starts at 44’—and research proves she’s right: the average founder starts their business after 40

Workers spend their 20s climbing the corporate ladder under the belief that they’ll have it all by 30—the perfect job, six-figure salary, and dream house. But seasoned professionals are pulling back the curtain on the realistic timeline of career success. And for billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey, that begins in your mid-40s. 

“Life starts at 44,” Winfrey recently said on the Baby, This is Keke Palmer podcast. “Because you come into yourself in a way that you’re no longer trying to please everybody else.”

At that age, Winfrey was in the middle of her stride; she was in her daytime talk-show heyday, having already amassed a collection of Emmy awards for her work hosting The Oprah Winfrey Show; was named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century”; and produced and starred in her movie adaptation of Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Winfrey says she was finally in “full drive,” and purposefully living for herself—a hard-won confidence that can take decades to develop.

“I do have some girls now that I’ve mentored who are in their early 30s, who’ve gotten to it sooner,” Winfrey continued. “But for me it was 44 where I locked in…I could see the rising for myself. I wasn’t just doing things for other people.” And research shows........

© Fortune