# People who reached a world class level starting their discipline after the age of 30? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 27, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-reached-a-world-class-level-starting-their-discipline-after-the-age-of-30/738766 "2015-11-27T21:14:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-reached-a-world-class-level-starting-their-discipline-after-the-age-of-30/738766/61 "2015-11-30T17:37:31Z")
I understand Harvey Milk didn’t get into politics or gay rights activism until age 40. Though I suppose being a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors isn’t exactly world class politician… ---
**Author:** ![trmptgn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@trmptgn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trmptgn)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-reached-a-world-class-level-starting-their-discipline-after-the-age-of-30/738766/62 "2015-11-30T19:40:44Z")
Elon Musk was around 30 when he learned enough rocket science to conceptualize and found SpaceX as referenced [in this article](http://www.businessinsider.com/how-elon-musk-learned-rocket-science-for-spacex-2014-10). Depending on how you define “expert”, he could qualify since he runs one of the leading privatized space transport companies in the world now. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-reached-a-world-class-level-starting-their-discipline-after-the-age-of-30/738766/63 "2015-11-30T20:43:18Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > All the writers that have been mentioned started writing after they turned 30? If they get published at 40, but have been writing since they were 13 that doesn’t match the question. Cervantes had written poetry in his youth, but he didn’t start on prose (other than what was required for school work) until after his captivity in Argel. I’d be really worried if, having had access to schooling since childhood, he hadn’t put pen to paper (or rather, stylus to wax or coal to tablet) until age 13, but the skills required to write Latin translations, cuartetas and novelas are all quite different. At that time, most writers were self-published (at least for first editions, if the work was succesful it might get picked up for reprinting), including him. So maybe he had been working on Galatea since his age was in single digits, but he hadn’t considered it publishable until he was 38. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-reached-a-world-class-level-starting-their-discipline-after-the-age-of-30/738766/64 "2015-11-30T21:08:16Z")
The[Roman Emperor Claudius.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius#As_Emperor) He did practically nothing prior to his ascension to the imperium. He was a considered slow witted and harmless (he had some physical disabilities). Because of that he survived Caligula’s purges, but meant he had very little involvement in politics right up to his ascension on Caligula’s death when he was in his fifties. Despite that he is considered one of the most effective emperors of Rome. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-reached-a-world-class-level-starting-their-discipline-after-the-age-of-30/738766/65 "2015-11-30T22:08:39Z")
Well, eventually Prince Charles will also reach an OP “world class level.” Green the mathematician, although he may disallowed in that he may have “started his discipline” young, if in an unorthodox manner, is interesting nonetheless in the OP general thrust, where extraordinary accomplishments in mathematics (and to a lesser extent music, chess) are almost always associated with “either-by-age 30 or none at all.” Also ballet, it occurs to me… ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-reached-a-world-class-level-starting-their-discipline-after-the-age-of-30/738766/66 "2015-12-01T07:10:44Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > [Cliff Young](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Young_%28athlete%29) took up marathon running in his 50s and won his first race in his 60s. > > J K Rowling wrote her first novel at 30. > > David Attenborough became a TV presenter at 29. > > Sylvester Stallone wrote his first screenplay at 30. It won him an Oscar. > > Jackie Collins started writing at 30. > > Billy Connolly gave his first stand-up performance at 30. I’m not sure this is what the OP was asking about, or that all of it is factually accurate: most of these are people who “started their discipline” much earlier, though they didn’t get their first big break till after 30. Rowling, for example, had been writing stories ever since she was a child and always dreamed of being a writer. It’s not like she was a novice at the craft at the age of 30. Similarly, Jackie Collins first **published** a novel around 30, but she had attempted many works of fiction before then: she wasn’t “starting her discipline” with her first published novel. Attenborough first applied for a job as a radio talk producer with the BBC at age 24, started working full-time for the BBC as a producer at age 26, during which time he first appeared as a presenter. Stallone started writing scripts as a struggling young actor in his early 20’s. And so on and so on. Most people who hit the big time in any field have had a lot of practice at it before they get to 30, even if they haven’t yet had any successes to speak of. ETA: Oh, and Connolly was a folk singer who varied his songs with humorous introductions and comments, as folk singers do, long before he did an actual no-singing standup gig. Not exactly “starting his discipline” at a late age. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-reached-a-world-class-level-starting-their-discipline-after-the-age-of-30/738766/67 "2015-12-01T11:29:36Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > Artist [Gladwyn “Miss Lassie” Bush](http://www.artscayman.org/mind-s-eye) didn’t begin painting until age 62. She painted the walls, shutters, and nearly every fixed surface of her home which was later [listed](http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2011/10/14/Signal-honour-for-Mind-s-Eye/) on the Watch List of the World Monuments Fund. I just had to find a picture - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJNoT392dm8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJNoT392dm8) ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-reached-a-world-class-level-starting-their-discipline-after-the-age-of-30/738766/68 "2015-12-01T15:37:43Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Jim Morris became a major league baseball player at 35. But had previously played baseball from childhood until age 24. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-reached-a-world-class-level-starting-their-discipline-after-the-age-of-30/738766.md?page=3)