Is there ever a “right” time to start a creative career? Our goal has always been help people pursuing their passion. Helping those people often means helping them think through important decisions such as when to start, when to take the leap. Below, you’ll find our conversations with successful creatives reflecting back on when they had to decide whether to start or wait.

Katherine Hoffman

I wish I would have started sooner straight out of college. It wasn’t until I moved to Orlando in 2016 that I started trying to apply to art festivals and had the confidence to show my art. It really was the job I got after moving here at Painting with Twist that made me fall in love with painting again. Read more>>

Devereaux Stone

I absolutely wish I’d realized my “calling” a lot sooner. I know everything happens for a reason, so I don’t give thoughts of regret too much power, but I do have them every now & then. I’m just glad DRILL waited for me to take my place! Drill is all I’ve ever done. I moved to Austin in 2011 for a job at Travis High School after being the top performer in my hometown (Buffalo, NY) for many years. Read more>>

Crystal Diaz

Oh man, well I started in blogging and posting on Instagram wayyyy back in 2014. Some call me an OG and had I kept up with it through the years, who knows where I would be today in that content creator world. I stopped back in 2016 due to life simply getting in the way, which happens to all of us, right? Read more>>

Naomi Sarna

My earliest memory was making a clay animal when I was about 4. It was the process of making something with my hands that made the moment special and memorable. Read more>>

Peter Kim

When I turned seven, I asked for a CD-player as a my birthday present. Ever since, I have always had a passion for listening, playing, and making music. As I started to hone craft, I noticed how many talented musicians there were in the world and doubted myself, thinking that my music wasn’t good enough to be liked by others. Read more>>

Svetlana Toropoviene

I have never regretted that I started my professional music career later than I desired. After all, sometimes time, opportunities, personal problems or life circumstances do not allow us to do this. It’s never too late to start doing what you love. In addition, for example, the process of learning vocals’ management, as a rule, goes faster and more efficient for adults. Read more>>

Megan Warnick

I had gone back and forth often asking myself if I should have waited to start my professional company. I always knew I wanted to eventually do it, but didn’t think I would jump in at age 25. I was lucky enough to already have rehearsal space and eager dancers ready to perform professionally, so I figured why wait? Read more>>

Michaela Penn

I try not to have regrets in life, however I do wish I would’ve been more consistent with my music early in my career. I started recording in high school and dropped my first singles after I graduated from in undergrad. Due to grad school and overthinking I took a very long hiatus from music. Those years I spent writing and desired to do music full-time, but I didn’t. Read more>>

Brittany Peals

I wish I started my business sooner. I love what I do and I love being my own boss. It has given me the opportunity and flexibility to also be the mom I have always wanted to be for my 3 kids. Read more>>

Russ Gooberman

Like many Angelinos, I moved here from the east coast with an eye on becoming a creative. I come from a funny family – my Austrian-accented grandfather would crack up the staff at the local pizzeria in Brooklyn by demanding they make him a hot dog. He would do surprise vaudevillian comedy acts on cruise vacations with my grandmother. Read more>>

Paul Montelongo

It’s wonderful to reflect on the journey of becoming an artist. Starting this path earlier might have led to a different set of experiences, perhaps more steep learning curves and costly mistakes. I’ve observed a few artists navigate those hurdles, and it’s made me appreciate the timing of my own journey. Read more>>

Darcy Marks

Look around writing community boards and you will see so many conversations about publishing before you’re twenty or finding an agent after fifty. The obsession with age is everywhere. I blame articles like the Forbes 30 Under 30 lists. Read more>>

Leanne Bishop

I’m an Actress, Writer, Director from Canada now living here in Los Angeles. My path was non traditional in that growing up in a small town I never thought a career in a the Film Industry was possible, so I took the ‘safe path’ and worked as a CPA and pursued acting on the side. However, after a life altering event, I decided to go to NYC for a 6 week Acting Intensive at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Read more>>

Ana Carolina Mitchell

Coming from a family of artists, I was always exposed to various forms of art. Art has always been a part of my life, one way or another. I really wish I had started pursuing my professional art career sooner. It certainly isn’t too late to start but I feel like if I had started younger I would be at a different place now. Read more>>

Vanessa Owens

This is a hobby for me but it’s essential to my mental health and happiness. It’s been a dream of mine for a long time. I just never thought it would happen. I wanted to create representation I didn’t have growing up. I’m doing my best physically and mentally and putting so much of my heart into this hobby. Read more>>

Kevin Kinkade

I started out as an actor in school but went on to pursue music and sports. I had applied and been accepted at Potsdam University’s music department but was unable to afford tuition, was unable to get a student loan or grant and so therefore, went to work in the steel plant at the age of 18. I was living in Buffalo, New York at the time and traveled to Seattle, where once again, I was working in the steel plant. Read more>>

Kamilah Foster

I started my podcast in 2020 during the pandemic. I found a way virtually to check in on people who were in my circle since we limited on being outside. It started with conversations through Facebook and then I graduated to podcasting and I have been doing that ever since. My mantra is I believe in 6 degrees of separation you are one person away, one advice away, and one help away from where you need to be in your destiny. Read more>>

Vaughn Ramirez

I definitely wish I would have started sooner, and I started gigging at about nineteen years old. When you go out into the world and play live music with people you meet the coolest, interesting people but make no mistake, you will also meet the craziest egotistical maniacs along the way. In my first gigging band I was in a Guns N’ Roses tribute band named Nuns N’ Moses. Read more>>

Renee Dodoo

No, I don’t wish I would have started my creative career sooner because I needed the lessons/experiences in my to cultivate my mind, body and spirit to be who I am today and who I’m becoming. Read more>>

Victoria Tara

“Do you wish you started your creative career sooner or later?” In a world often fixated on the notion of youth as the crucible of creativity, I find solace in a story that unfolds at its own, deliberate pace and perfect timing. Read more>>

Seth Lawrence

I am currently thirty-seven. Sometimes, I do wish I had started standup earlier. However, I really do not know that it would have helped my happiness all that much. Read more>>

Virgi Dart

I feel that with music there’s not a specific timeline to create, do, find the route to reach your goals because it’s a career that is in constant movement. You, as an artist, also constantly move, with your tastes, with your personal growth and yes, any career started at a very young age gives a longer lifespan and probably gives more room to change and adapt to what you really want to do, with music you can still create so much for different types of targets (and let’s not even dive into the other side of music which is “the behind the music”-producing, managing, promoting, distributing and all the different jobs and tasks related to music that are not exactly being the main artist or main band) with music you constantly evolve and I feel that any moment in life it’s a perfect moment to share your talent with and create art that many people can feel related with. Read more>>

Cindë N/a

I think my present brain is best developed right now to undergo a creative career. I’m not sure I’d even know how to properly do anything for myself if I didn’t spend my early 20s in artist management learning all the ins and outs of the music BUSINESS. My creativity has always been there, I’ve never really had a scarcity complex with writing songs or making up guitar riffs, There’s always a new experience to be had and a new song for me to write. Read more>>

Jason McElweenie

I really do but the stars didn’t align for me at a younger age. I’ve always had a creative mind but I didn’t have the tools back then that I have now. I can’t draw to save my life, music is a very complex thing for mind, and I was afraid of film photography due to all the variables. That doesn’t mean I didn’t understand the end result. Read more>>

Tim Messer

I wish I had started pursuing my creativity much sooner. I know it was there, and the busy-ness of life persists, but I’ve learned all the other things feel a little more manageable when I can step away from the rush of life and make something with my own two hands. Read more>>

Rachel Camacho

I wish I had been able to take chances on my art as a paying gig WAY sooner! I started taking commissions and offering my services as a designer and an illustrator in 2012, after graduating in 2008 and being thrown into THAT recession. However, it was slim pickings and I didn’t have any decent opportunities in my chosen field. Read more>>

Anthony Ficco

At one point early on… I definitely said, “I wish I would have started sooner” but in time I saw that my journey and my experiences are exactly what they should have been and I am grateful for that. So… no, I don’t think there is time to waste wishing or regretting when I started or didn’t. This is it and I trust in that. Read more>>

Margot Escott

I started improv when I was 60 years old and certainly wish I had learned it sooner! I love teaching improv for all kinds of diverse groups and use applied improv. Read more>>

Blake Scott

I worked in sales until I was 27 and hated my life. During that time, I always found solace and passion in creating videos and music in my free time. It wasn’t until I took the leap to move to LA that the stars aligned perfectly for me. The people I met there played a crucial role in shaping my path to success. Read more>>

Lorean Mapp

I can honestly say that the timing was just right for me to start pursuing my creative career in a professional manner. I believe that every play, every murder mystery dinner, etc led me to the path that I am on now. Those experiences inform who I am as an actress and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. Read more>>

Ilse Duijn

I wished I had listened to my gut and join the Art Academy right after high school. I always got that special feeling of cozyness and comfort during artclass in highschool; now I know that feeling meant you’re in ‘your zone’. I have been painting from the moment I could hold a brush; Looking back; it was pretty obvious that I would pursue a creative carreer over a ‘regular’ one. Read more>>

Lexx Marie

I think one of the main reasons I am drawn to mentoring young people when it comes to tattoos, henna and photography is because I wish I would have started my creative career much sooner than I did. The thing is, I’ve been creative for as long as I can remember. It has always been some thing that I’ve been drawn to and have had talent in. Read more>>

Olivia Rios

My backstory is that I’m an indigenous latina from New Mexico that came to Georgia to attend school. I had a slight detour and got married and had children; unfortunately I did not finish getting my degree. Instead I focused on raising my kids, which was especially challenging after my divorce. Read more>>