Perseverance has no age limit

There are many reasons why we don’t move ahead with whatever might fulfill our dreams:  time, money, the kids, our job, fear of failing, even a fear of succeeding.  Some might actually believe they are too young or too old.

But there shouldn’t ever be an age limit where perseverance is concerned.  Whether you’re in your teens, middle-aged or can’t remember how many grandchildren you have, age is never a good reason to give up on yourself.

I bring this up after reading an article about a couple of local ladies who tried again and again to start businesses together and wouldn’t you know it?  Where one or more businesses weren’t exactly what they were hoping for, they finally found their niche and are successes and local celebrities in their own right.

Meet Bev Vines-Haines and Charlotte Clary, both from a small local town and the co-owners of Ice Chips, a delicious sugar-free hard candy available in multiple flavors.  The women are 72 and 58 years old and have more than three dozen grandchildren between the two of them (wow!).  Friends for many years, the two have tried their hands at various sorts of businesses over the years but it was their most recent endeavor, launched with the goal to create sugar-free candy for their grandchildren and provide relief from grueling construction jobs for their husbands, which helped them earn the label as one of the most successful business startups in the county.  Here’s a recent article in a local paper about the two and their business (I'll apologize ahead of time for the pop-up ads) – from the sound of this article, the future for these women and this business is looking very bright.

Why am I sharing this information with you? 

Well, for one, it’s a great story about local people.  That’s never a bad thing.  However, I don’t know either of these women and I have no interest in their business other than the fact that I do hope they continue to succeed after all the hard work they’ve put into it.  The other reason I’m sharing their story is because I believe they are both great examples of why no one should ever give up on themselves, no matter what their age may be or how many times they’ve tried to succeed at something in the past.  If I were to look up the word ‘perseverance’ in the dictionary, I believe I might actually find a photograph of both Bev and Charlotte.  Perseverance is what these ladies are all about.

Rather than looking at past startups or unsuccessful goals as failures, it’s best to look at them as stepping stones towards what we’re really meant for in life.  What’s the saying?  When one door closes, another door opens?  Perseverance is what will help us walk through the open door rather than stay behind to gaze longingly at the closed door.  That trait along with our desire to achieve, our ability to believe and our willingness to move forward with the knowledge we have learned from the past can only move us ahead towards success.