Getting started sounds so easy – but for millions of aspiring artists and creatives, the uncertainty of the path forward presents a very real challenge. So, we wanted to gather some artists and creatives we admire to open up about their experience and how they think about whether they should have started sooner or waited for a better time.

Xiaoqian Zhu

I didn’t fully commit to studying art and creating videos until my Junior year in college. It wasn’t until three years ago, during my graduate program, that I ventured into the realm of stop-motion animation. Reflecting on my journey, if I were to start over, I believe I would make the same choices. However, had I embraced stop-motion earlier, I might have gained more work experience in the field. However, things related to creative things are different. Industry experience can occasionally lead to more rigid ideas. Read more>>

Anna Amejko Peterson

I truly feel that my career as an artist came about at the perfect time. I had a realization about a few months in, that so many of the skills I utilize in the process of making my art have been learned in previous careers and schooling paths. I had never intended to be an artist, so it was pretty cool to step back and see how everything ended up aligning just right. in order to bring me to my current place. Prior to Amejko Artistry, I had gotten my fashion degree in Los Angeles, CA, and then spent 15 years working as a swimwear designer in the industry. Read more>>

Riley Conn

Yes, absoulutley! I didnt really get started in my art career until I was 50. I graduated college in Economics and started the rat race of life. I always enjoyed art and wished I was an artist. Before you know it, Im 50 years old and said screw it, Im goinig to try this, successful or not. It has been an awesome ride. Hard, humbeling, frustrating, and I love it. I fall asleep thinking about values and colors. Read more>>

Sherry Finzer

I had aspirations of being a classical flutist in a symphony or orchestra when I was younger, but chose a different path. As a woman who returned to music later in life, I wish to inspire others that they can do the same, not only in music, but whatever they were passionate about earlier on in their lives, but put aside to raise a family, or go into a more “stable” career. Sometimes I wonder how my career may have turned out if I had stayed on the music path early on, but I really wouldn’t trade all of the jobs and experiences I had before returning, as they all helped me to be able to do what I do today, which is creating music for wellness and healing, and running my record label Heart Dance Records, along with my radio promotions company Higher Level Media. Read more>>

Malinee Churanakoses

Well I tried to start my creative career sooner when I was in my 20’s but didn’t get very far. I was also living in LA at the time. I wish I was able to succeed sooner, but am finding that timing is everything with my age and stage in life, Ironically being in San Diego now, it seems that being a “middle-aged Asian woman” has been helpful at the moment. Read more>>

Ken Blendz

I believe I started my creative career at just the right time. I started early as a Bartender when I was in my early twenties. During that time, I did a lot of risk taking, relocating to beautiful cities like Atlanta and New York for some time while Bartending events in between. With those experiences, in great variety I was able to learn more about different people, taste and cultures. The wisdom gained from all of those experiences is exactly why I believe i am able to serve people the way I do within my profession as a creative. Read more>>

Lynae Gregg

I wish I had taken risks and chances to pursue my creative and spiritual career sooner than later. I am grateful for the journey along the way but feel like it was necessary for me to learn the lessons and experiences that I did in order to gain more wisdom. Read more>>

Rachael Rage

I started my career late, after I turned 30. In high school I was the kid who did all the music and theater I could do, packing my schedule with stage band, chamber singers and theater rehearsals. I wrote my first song at 12 and played it at my schools talent show. The song was about a civil war soldier who fell down a path of women and sin and never went to visit his mother. The first verse was “He was a little boy but now he is a man, mother hardly knows that it’s him. He runs along the field where a battle has been, searching for someone’s lost brother…” Read more>>

Kylee Kauffman

I do! There was a lot of self doubt and insecurities that altered my outlook on my capabilities. In any career, you have to be able to see your worth before anyone else does. Definitely wish I could’ve believed in myself at a younger age! Read more>>

Laura Novak-Roesgen

In some cases, yes I wished I would have started Novaura Jewelry right after we closed my family’s electronics business. However, I believe that the moment I chose to turn my love for wearing and creating jewelry into a business coincided with a period in my life where I craved a creative outlet the most. I have an engineering degree and since I didn’t pursue the path of an art degree or get training as a silversmith, I didn’t consider myself an artist or a creative person. Read more>>

Natasha Papousek

While there’s a part of me that wishes I had the confidence to begin sooner, I also recognize that I would have missed out on some incredible experiences if I had taken a different route. As I’ve grown older, my focus has sharpened, and there’s a certain determination that comes from knowing my time is limited. Read more>>

Sarah Kraning

This is such a tricky question to answer! While I do wish that I had believed in myself creatively sooner, my journey to becoming a professional artist made me the artist I am today. Growing up, I was a creative kid and involved in both theatre and visual arts, but a series of major medical problems led me to switch into a more “traditional” college path after my first semester of school. I went on to become a speech pathologist with an emphasis on cognitive rehabilitation and psychology. While I didn’t stay in this discipline, it taught me a lot about how the human mind works — including my own — in a way that was integral to my artistic journey. Read more>>

Mary Brooks

While sometimes I feel a tinge of regret at not beginning on this path sooner, I realize I began at the perfect moment, simply because I was, without a doubt, “ready.” At a recent art show, someone asked me how long it took to paint a particular painting. I answered, “all my life,” an immediate response that perhaps sounded a bit cavalier, But it was the accumulation of experiences, unrelated jobs, relationships, and so on, that brought me to that finished painting and every other painting. I came to full-time painting later than most. I was an academic book editor and indexer for many years. I mastered late nights and attention to detail; I helped manage a home and family. Read more>>

Radheya Reinkarn8d

I’m twenty five years too late to the game! I went to fancy private schools, studied business, and ended up in corporate America. Most people I knew followed the same path. Honestly, pursuing a creative career never even occurred to me! Ten years ago, I reached a point of deep unhappiness. I had achieved the conventional measures of success: advanced degrees, high paying jobs, a loving family. Yet inside I was screaming, inside I was dying! My soul was struggling to breathe. Read more>>

Chyna Norman

I understand that everything happens for a reason and at the exact moment that it takes place. I’ve learned how to be patient and know that things don’t happen on my timing, rather the most highs. I know that I’m in the right place at the right time. All I need to do is continue to invest into my craft and keep putting in maximum effort so that I can continue to see growth and the outcome I want to achieve. I’ve always been invested in the beauty industry since a young girl, but I chose to take it a step further by enrolling into beauty school which I started October 2021. Read more>>

Laëtitia Mahicka

I used to think that I started too late but now I honestly don’t wish I had started my creative career sooner. I’m proud of my past corporate career because I proved to myself that I could do it and I was good at it. It taught me to be disciplined, grounded, how to work hard, how to handle myself, and today I apply the same principles to my creative career. A lot of the jobs that I book as an actor or model are corporate related because my corporate career is part of my brand. Starting my creative journey at the time I did enabled me to have more maturity and to have more realistic expectations. I don’t think there is such a thing as starting too late, I think you start when the time is right. Read more>>

Naomi Volain

I wish I’d started my creative career earlier. Because I don’t have formal art training, I didn’t think I could be considered as an artist. If I’d started earlier, my art might be more polished. However, I’ve been writing science stuff with many styles and intentions throughout my work life. It didn’t occur to me to bring my words and pictures together until I started to notice non-fiction comics. At this point, in 2019, I started creating science-based comics. Read more>>

Greta Kelly

I’ve grappled with this question for a long, long time. I’d been in love with the idea of being a writer since middle school. I was sure that i would strike out into the world and become a globe-hopping journalist. And then the 2000’s actually happened, and every other news story seemed to be about the death of print media. Yeah, ouch. In a fit of pragmatism I decided the responsible thing to do would be to go and get myself a business degree. It was the safe thing to do. But it was also the afraid thing to do. It was pessimism in the guise of practicality. Read more>>

Keith Martin

He is a free soul, some would say. Others would classify it as ADHD. I just say that I am still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. As I approach my 50’s, I look back on my many careers and can see the pattern emerge. I dont stick with one thing for long and am always looking to do something different. Tow truck driver, mechanic, fabricator, chef, waiter, framer, roofer, drywaller, tile setter, and every other avenue of construction. I just couldn’t make up my mind what it is that I want to do. All these things I have done and still that overall passion for ART was needed in my life. Read more>>

Sole Bovelli

I think timing is everything as an artist. I love artists who have had interesting and challenging journeys. It’s made me realize who I want to be and what I want to say to the world. I think that can only come through experience and hardship. Many of the challenges I experienced helped shaped what path I wanted to take and why. I’m glad I was able to experience a lot because it has influenced my work profoundly I think I needed to wait and find myself first. Our stories make us who we are. Read more>>

Austin Henderson

I wish I had started performing and taking music more seriously at an earlier age! I feel like I would be alot further than I am in my career although I have done a ton of amazing things and have gotten to meet some amazing people! But when I started writing when I was 13 it was really just a way to vent, i never really put it in my brain that I could gain a following and share my story and truth be told I never truly thought anybody would care about my story, as i got older my mindset changed and i realized I could be the example artists need to get up and work their butt off every day. Read more>>

Denny Hamann

I wish I had started writing sooner. When I was younger, I allowed life to get in the way. I wish I had realized there was time to do it all. Read more>>

Lisa Harris

God, don’t we all wish we could do things differently, turn back that clock? I wish I had done better in school and not moved around so much. Taking the time to build a client would have helped so much in this particular business. Read more>>

Tiffany Reid

Sometimes I wished I had started my professional creative journey sooner because it makes me so happy and I felt lost when I was younger. However, if I had been a young artist, I never would have learned about myself along the way. In my opinion it takes years of seeking what is unfound, thrusting yourself into the world of possibility, experiencing heightened emotions, appreciating peaceful evocation, and overall gaining life experience to truly make art that matters to oneself. The viewer will ultimately connect to your art because they feel your emotion. You have to know how to express yourself in vulnerable way. When I was young, I was too immature to understand that so I think my art would have been artificial and unfeeling. Read more>>

BK Of BK & the Understanding

Yes. Looking back, I wish I had pursued my BK & the Understanding endeavor sooner. I had the idea for it when I was in college, circa 2009, and at the time I was surrounded by some creative friends—one of which is the bassist and vocalist for a Nashville rock trio called The Brunswick, Caleb Hooper—, but there are many factors and influences to why I made the mistake of not pursuing my dream sooner. So, I understand why I didn’t, and spiritually I understand why I have gone through what I have gone through, but nonetheless, I do wish I could take what I have learned from my mistakes and do things sooner, better, and with good, talented people I could trust and rely on. That is what is hard to find: good, trustworthy and reliable personnel who also happen to be talented. Read more>>

Jon Francis

I started my creative career much later in life. Though I have always been interested in art from the time I could hold a pencil, I did not pursue a serious career till more recently. In high school I was introduced to fine art and using art as a way to communicate ideas. I learned that it could be more than decorative and illustrative. This led to art being a much more serious interest for me. I went to college and closely studied classical painting techniques and historical development of modern art. Read more>>

Deanna Rowland

Sometimes I do wonder how much further I’d be in my creative career by now if I had started seriously pursuing this when I was younger, but everything happens for a reason. I’m grateful for all the experiences I’ve had that shaped me into the person I am today. I like to think of it as more of a unique edge than something negative – everything was character development. You can start something new or take a risk at any point in life. There’s no set timing, it’s when it makes sense for you. Dwelling on the past and ‘what ifs’ doesn’t change anything, but you can always set new goals and more forward with intention. Hit ‘em with a plot twist. Read more>>

Tracey Parson

Honestly, no. I believe that I needed to go through my past experiences as an Entrepreneur in order to be tough enough to make the decision to get into the entertainment business. This business is not for the weak and you have to have business savvy, good intuition, and thick skin. Had I entered or attempted to do what I’m doing now when I was younger, I doubt it would have been as satisfying or successful. Read more>>

Bäsmini Hayes

This has to be one of the best questions I’ve heard. I do wish I started taking music/modeling seriously a lot earlier because of how difficult it’s become to “catch up” at my age. Both industries are pretty competitive and I feel like those with the training and experience have been able to navigate through easier! But that doesn’t stop me from doing my best and working harder! Read more>>

Kerima Richardson

I often find myself wishing that I had started my career earlier because, in my younger years, I had more energy and felt capable of delivering better performance. The abundance of energy and vitality that accompanies youth can make us feel like we could have accomplished more if we had begun our careers sooner. Read more>>

Gabriela Cabeza

I’m sure I started my career at the right time. Despite being over 50 and having never painted before. It is a gift that saved my life. Art is an infinite space where one can submerge and express everything that the soul keeps. Discovering that place is magical, indescribable. It does good for oneself and it does good for those who appreciate it and feel it when they look at a work of art. After a period of great uncertainty in my life, 4 adolescent children, no formal job, no partner, and pre-menopause, I was not having a good time. I felt that I had achieved nothing in this life. I lived with that discomfort for a long time, wondering and blaming myself for not doing things differently, until one day I looked at the sky and asked God for a passion. And that’s how the right doors were opened for this wonderful experience that is painting to begin, never imagined by me. Read more>>

Katherine-Mary Pichulik

I began my business www.pichulik.com at the age of twenty-six years old. I felt that I took on too much responsibility too early on. I had payroll, and operating costs that I needed to meet monthly, and in retrospect meant that I missed out on the natural exploration of your mid-twenties of travel, frivolity and play. I would advise creatives to not operationally expand to soon, keep asset-light and agile as long as you can whilst you figure your self out. Read more>>

Traci Blasko

I believe that our lives are a series of decisions and choices. Sure there are moments when I wish I would have begun my art career decades ago, although I know there are reasons why I chose not to. Instead, I’m choosing to embrace today and all that tomorrow will bring! Read more>>

Lily Murray

For years my family has lived in this house only when the world forced us to slow down did we quite literally start putting down roots. I am from a farming family. My dad has been in Organic agriculture for over 40 years he introduced my mom to it and the rest was history. We have always grown food, be it large or small scale. In the past few years we slowed down and didn’t have as much growing here at the farm. Then the world shifted and we were forced to be home. We thought about it and talked as a family and decided to put down some more permanent roots. In the end of 2020 we ordered 55 bare root fruit trees ranging from apples, apricot, cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums, and pluot. Read more>>