Late Bloomers

Late Bloomers
In The Garden Of Life Late Bloomers Are Especially
Beautiful

Introduction
• A late bloomer is a person whose talents or
capabilities are not visible to others until later
than usual.
• The term is used metaphorically to describe a
child or adolescent who develops slower than
others in their age group, but eventually catches
up and in some cases overtakes their peers, or an
adult whose talent or genius in a particular field
only appears later in life than is normal – in some
cases only in old age.

Late Bloomers
Thomas Edison
People often say Edison was a genius. He answered,
"Genius is hard work, stick-to-it-iveness, and common sense.”
As a boy, went to school only a short time.
He did so poorly that his mother, a former teacher, taught her son at home.

After Thomas Edison’s school teacher called him addled or
mentally ill in a letter, Edison’s mother hid the letter from the
young inventor and homeschooled him so that Edison could
reach his full potential.

Introduction
• A late bloomer is a person who appeared to be
of average ability throughout childhood and
often into adulthood.
• Throughout early school years, the grades of the
late bloomer are mediocre. The late bloomer does
not stand out in other ways either.
• He doesn't demonstrate any particular talents or
abilities in academics or any of the arts.
• The late bloomer who goes to college may not
stand out or excel there, at least not for the
first couple of years

Einstein slow development was combined with a cheeky
rebelliousness toward authority, which led one schoolmaster
to send him packing and another to declare that he would
never amount to much
Einstein was slow in learning how to talk.
“My parents were so worried,” he later
recalled, “that they consulted a doctor.”
Even after he had begun using words, sometime
after the age of 2, he developed a quirk that
prompted the family maid to dub him “der
Depperte,” the dopey one.
Whenever he had something to say, he would
try it out on himself, whispering it softly
until it sounded good enough to pronounce
aloud.

Introduction
• At some point, however, the late bloomer
begins to do well.
• If in college, he will go from C average grades to
straight As.
• If at work, the late bloomer will go from a barely
noticed employee to a star employee.
• The transformation is not due to overnight
magic, however.
• Instead, it can be triggered by some event that
happens one day or in a specific period of time.

Stan Lee started drawing his legendary
superheroes at age 43

Introduction
• A mediocre student might attend college, and
as he takes courses in different subject areas,
he takes one that sparks his interest.
• It could be one that he never had the opportunity
to study in high school or one that covers a topic
in more depth than it was covered in high school.
It is the interest that leads the student to excel.
• At work, it might be a new project that triggers
a person's interest. It may even be an
opportunity to compete that had been missing
before.

The Motivation of a Late Bloomer
• Late bloomers do not suddenly become smart
or talented. They are most likely intrinsically
motivated, which means that they are
internally motivated.
• Their motivation comes from within them. They
are not motivated by grades or praise, which are
external rewards.
• Their reward comes from the pleasure of
learning or achieving. A late bloomer "blooms"
when he finds something that interests him
enough for him to pursue that interest.

• Because discovering a passionate interest can
motivate a child to work hard and excel, it's a
good idea to introduce your child to many
different topics and activities.
• This doesn't mean that you want to enroll your
child in so many activities that he has no time for
himself.
• It just means that you want to provide
opportunities for your child to be aware of
different subjects.

• Ideally, all children would be challenged in
school, but that doesn't always happen.
• If your child is not doing well in school, take
heart.
• She may be a late bloomer.
• You might even be able to help her bloom.

Late Bloomer
• Children who experience developmental delays
in speech or in physical or social development
are also referred to as late bloomers.
• These would include children who experience
late-onset puberty or children who have a
disability such as ADHD or dyslexia.
• Any child who lags behind in development but
who eventually catches up is a late bloomer.

Children who experience developmental delays in
speech or in physical or social development are also
referred to as late bloomers

Children who experience developmental delays in speech or
in physical or social development are also referred to as late
bloomers

Late Bloomer
• "Late Bloomer" is commonly used to refer to
young children who develop skills such as
language, reading, or social interaction later
than others of their age.

Late Bloomer
• There are many theories of the way in which
children develop, proposed by authorities such
as Urie Bronfenbrenner, Jerome Bruner, Erik
Erikson, Jerome Kagan, Lawrence Kohlberg,
Jean Piaget, and Lev Vygotsky.

Urie Bronfenbrenner,
American Psychologist

Jerome Bruner,
American psychologist

Erik Erikson,
American-German psychologist

Jerome Kagan,
American psychologist

Jean Piaget,
Swiss psychologist

Late Bloomer
• Although they disagree about how stages of
development should be defined, and about
the primary influences on development, they
agree that a child's development can be
measured as a predictable series of
advances in physical, intellectual and social
skills which almost always occur in the same
sequence, although the rate may vary from
one child to another.

Late Bloomer
• When a child falls behind their peers at
some stage of development, their teacher
may perceive that the child is "backward".
• There is strong evidence that this perception
may become self-fulfilling: although the child
catches up, the teacher may continue to rate
their performance poorly, imposing a long-
term handicap.

When a child falls behind their peers at some stage of
development, their teacher may perceive that the child is
"backward".

Late Bloomer
• Thomas Edison's mind often wandered and
his teacher was overheard calling him
"addled." This ended Edison's three months
of official schooling.
• His mother then home schooled him.
• Edison may have had some form of
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD), which the American Psychiatric
Institute says affects about 3 – 5% of children

On the 10,000th try there was light.
Edison may have had some form of
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD)

Late Bloomer
• Notable example of a child who overcame
early developmental problems is Albert
Einstein, who suffered from speech
difficulties as a young child.

Albert Einstein, who suffered from
speech difficulties as a young child

Late Bloomer
• Other late-talking children who became
highly-successful engineers, mathematicians,
and scientists include the physicists Richard
Feynman and Edward Teller.

Edward Teller,
American-Hungarian theoretical physicist

Late Bloomer
• Neuroscientist Steven Pinker postulates that
a certain form of language delay may in fact be
associated with exceptional and innate-
analytical prowess in some individuals.

Late Bloomer
• Dyslexia is a learning disability that may
affect 3–10% of children.
• It is thought to be the result of a genetically
inherited neurological difference from
"normal" children, and has been diagnosed in
people of all levels of intelligence.
• Studies indicate that 20% to 35% of U.S.
and British entrepreneurs have the
condition: by definition, late bloomers.

Dyslexia is a learning disability that may
affect 3–10% of children

Late Bloomer
• Researchers theorise that dyslexic
entrepreneurs may attain success by delegating
responsibilities and excelling at verbal
communication.
• Richard Branson, known for his Virgin brand of
over 360 companies is a notable example, as is
Charles R. Schwab the founder and CEO of the
Charles Schwab Corporation.
• Pablo Picasso, Tom Cruise, and Whoopi
Goldberg are other examples of dyslexics,
considered "slow" as children.

Pablo Picasso, Tom Cruise, and Whoopi Goldberg
are other examples of dyslexics, considered "slow"
as children

Late Bloomer
• The autism spectrum of psychological
conditions affects about 0.6% of children,
characterized by widespread abnormalities of
social interactions and communication, severely-
restricted interests, and highly-repetitive
behaviour.
• Notable individuals with autism spectrum
disorders include Tim Page, a Pulitzer Prize-
winning critic and author and Vernon L.
Smith, a Nobel Laureate in economics.

Notable individuals with autism
spectrum disorders

Adolescents
• During adolescence a child goes through
physical and mental changes that lead to
them becoming an adult.
• Adolescence is usually considered to start with
the first stages of puberty and to continue until
physical growth is complete, although the
World Health Organization defines
adolescence simply as the period between ages
10 and 20

Adolescents
• "Late bloomer" can refer to children who
suffer from delayed puberty, who are late in
reaching their full height.
• W. B. Yeats (age 30), Pierre Trudeau (age at
least 28), Mark Twain (age 34), and Johann
von Goethe (age 39) are all "late bloomers"
in this last sense.

Poetic Late Bloomer
William Butler Yeats

Adults
• A late blooming adult is a person who does not
discover their talents and abilities until later
than normally expected.
• In certain cases retirement may lead to this
discovery.

A late blooming adult is a person who does not
discover their talents and abilities until later than
normally expected

Adults
• Although there is a common perception that
intellectual development peaks in a young
adult and then slowly declines with increasing
age, this may be simplistic.
• Although the ability to form new memories and
concepts may indeed diminish, the older person
has the advantage of accumulated knowledge,
associations between concepts, and mental
techniques that may give them an advantage in
some fields.

History’s greatest “Late Bloomers”
McDonald’s and Ray Kroc
• McDonalds was started by Ray Kroc, when
most people his age were retiring.
• Ray Kroc was 52 years old in 1954.
• He was a milk shake machine salesman.
• One day he happened on a hamburger stand in
San Bernandino, California and instead of
selling the McDonald brothers his machine, he
bought their business.

McDonald’s and Ray Kroc
• After 6 years, by 1960, Kroc had more than
200 McDonald franchises in the U.S., but he
still barely earned a profit.
• He started to prosper when he started the
Franchise Realty Corporation which bought up
property and leased it to franchisees. With the
profits from real estate, Kroc started advertising
to support the franchises, and expanded in the
1970’s across the globe.
• The rest is history, creating one of the greatest
global conglomerate of our industrial age.

Soichiro Honda — Founder of the Honda
Motor Company
Soichiro Honda — Founder of the Honda Motor
Company
• At 15, without any formal education, Honda left
home and headed to Tokyo to look for work.
• He obtained an apprenticeship at a garage in
1922, and after some hesitation over his
employment, he stayed for six years, working as a
car mechanic before returning home to start his
own auto repair business in 1928 at the age of 22.

Motor Company

Motor Company
• In 1940s, he created the motorbike by
attaching a small engine to a bicycle. This
success led him to designing a small
motorcycle.
• He was 42 years old when he formed the Honda
Motor Company in 1948, and within 10 years of
starting Honda, he was the leading motorcycle
manufacturer in the world.
• By 1988, at the age of 82, he and his company
already entered in the world’s Automobile Hall
of Fame.

Soichiro Honda — Founder of the
Honda Motor Company

Harry Potter and J. K. Rowling
• Today many people know her as the woman who
created Harry Potter.
• But, what most people don’t know is what she went
through prior to reaching stardom.
• By 1993, at the age of 28, after a very short-lived
marriage, a miscarriage, and then becoming a single
mother, she was a failure by all common standards.
• She was jobless, divorced, penniless, and with a
dependent child. She suffered through bouts of
depression, eventually signing up for government-
assisted welfare.

• However, at that bottom-most point, to quote
her own words — she thought to herself
• “I still had an old typewriter and a big
idea”.
• (This speech by Rowling at Harvard University
Commencement event, personally for me, has been
the emotional refuge, that I go back to again and
again).

• In 1995, Rowling finished her manuscript for “Harry
Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” but all 12 major
publishers rejected the Harry Potter script.
• A year later a small publishing house, Bloomsbury,
accepted it and extended a very small £1500 advance.
In 1997, when she was 32, the book was published
with only 1000 copies, 500 of which were distributed
to libraries.
• And after that, over the following years, a truly fairy
tale saga unfolded in front of our very eyes.
• Harry Potter captured a permanent place in the
heart and imagination of billions and making her a
billionaire in the so called “real” world.

Colonial Sanders and KFC
• Harlan David Sanders was a failure who got fired
from a dozen jobs before starting his restaurant,
and then failed at that when he went out of business
and found himself broke at the age of 65.
• In his early years, he drove around in a Cadillac with
his face painted on the side before anybody knew who
he was, pleading with the owners of run-down diners to
use his recipe and give him a nickel commission on
each chicken.
• He slept in the back of the car and made handshake
deals. His first marriage was a difficult one, so he
divorced his wife after 39 years.

• He was 65 years old when he started Kentucky
Fried Chicken. In his youth, Sanders worked many
different jobs from farming to steamboat pilot, to
insurance salesman.
• When he turned 40 years old, he started a service
station and sold chicken dinners to his patrons. Over a
number of years developing the way he pressure-fried
the chicken.
• As the demand for his special chicken grew, he
opened a restaurant. As fate would have it, a major
interstate was built, which diverted traffic away
from the road his restaurant was on.

• So, at age 65, the restaurant was bankrupt.
• Now retired from his jobs, he cashed his first ever
Social Security check and Kentucky Fried Chicken
(KFC) was born. He was so confident in his ability to
fry chicken that he used the last money he had in the
world and invested it in his restaurant.
• Less than 10 years later, Sanders had more than 600
Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises in the U.S. and
Canada.
• Today, more than 12 million people eat at KFC each
day in 109 countries. There are more than more
than 20,000 restaurants locations worldwide. His
face continues adorning buckets of chicken.

Grandma Moses
Grandma Moses
• Anna Mary Robertson Moses, one of the
most celebrated name in American fine arts
and folk arts, and she didn’t even pick up a
brush until she was well into her late
seventh decade.

Grandma Moses
• Grandma Moses was originally a big fan of
embroidery, but once her arthritis grew too painful
for her to hold a needle, she decided to give painting
a try in the mid-1930s.
• She was 76 when she cranked out her first canvas, and
she lived another 25 years as a painter. Her works have
been shown and sold in the United States and abroad
and have been marketed on greeting cards and other
merchandise. Moses’ paintings are among the
collections of many museums. The Sugaring Off was
sold for US$1.2 million in 2006.

The Sugaring Off was sold for US$1.2
million in 2006

Kathryn Joosten
Kathryn Joosten
• In 1995, Kathryn Joosten moved in with a family
member in Los Angeles because she wanted to
make it in Hollywood.
• Like most girls following the same hopeless
dream, she had no agent, no contacts and close to
nothing on her resume.
• A very classic story of a struggling actor or
actress in the beginning of their movie career.
But unlike most girls, however, Joosten was 56.
The family member was her son.

Kathryn Joosten
• In the 60’s and 70’s, Joosten had a promising
career as a nurse in Chicago, which she left after
marriage.
• Following her 1980 divorce, Joosten found herself
to be a 40-something single mother with two kids
and three jobs, struggling to make ends meet.
• So, she did the sensible thing and decided to
drop everything to become an actress. Joosten
started auditioning for parts and nothing
happened.

Kathryn Joosten
• For several years. In the meantime, she
supported her family by hanging wallpaper and
painting houses, among other gigs.
• In 1992, she was finally cast by Disney.
• Over the following years, Kathryn Joosten
has won two Emmys for her role in
Desperate Housewives, and it’s all because
of her unstoppable perseverance.

Julia Child
• Julia Child the famous author of
“Mastering the Art of French Cooking”
• Julia Child was 49 years old when her 1st
cookbook Mastering the Art of French
Cooking, was published.
• At 51 years old she gained television fame
cooking show, which premiered in 1963.

Julia Child
• At the age of 69, she became co-founder of
the American Institute of Wine and Food to
help advance the knowledge of food and wine
through restaurants.
• In 1984, at the age of 72, she completed the
series of 6 videotapes about “The Way to
Cook”.

Julia Child
• By the end of 1965, the French Chef was carried
by 96 PBS stations.
• Sales of “Mastering the Art of French
Cooking” were picking up speed — 200,000
copies sold.
• In 1966, she won an Emmy.
• Time put her on the cover in a feature article on
American food “Everyone’s in the Kitchen.”
• In recent years, Hollywood movies were made
based on her life.

Takichiro Mori
• Takichiro Mori - You don’t have to start
early to become the richest man in the
world
• Mori was an economics professor until he left
academia at age 55 to become a real estate
investor in 1959.
• Mori had recently inherited a couple of
buildings from his father, and he jumped
headfirst into Tokyo’s real estate scene.

Takichiro Mori
• Mori started his second career by investing in the
Minato ward where he spent his childhood, and
within a matter of years he was presiding over
Japan’s real estate boom.
• When Mori died in 1993, he was Forbes’ two-time
reigning world’s richest man with a net worth of around
$13 billion.
• He was something of a Japanese precursor to Warren
Buffett, though. Mori never seemed totally comfortable
with the fame and fortune his second career won him.
• He dressed traditionally, abstained from alcohol,
and lived a fairly modest life.

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada - the
founder of ISKCON
• The founder of the Hare Krishna movement to the
western world was 69 years old before he started the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
(ISKCON).
• In his native India, Prabhupada had been a chemist and
a Sanskrit scholar in Calcutta, but in 1965, at the age of
69, he came to New York City with just fifty bucks, a
pair of cymbals (a small musical instrument), and a
desire to spread the teachings of Lord Krishna.
• His trip was not sponsored by any religious
organisation, nor was he met upon arrival by a
group of loyal followers.

founder of ISKCON

founder of ISKCON
• Prabhupada got off to a modest start by sitting
on a sidewalk in the East Village and chanting,
but by the time of his death in 1977 he
emerged as a major figure of the Western
counterculture, initiating thousands of
young Americans.

founder of ISKCON
• In the twelve years from his arrival in New
York until his final days, he: circled the globe
fourteen times on lecture tours, initiated
thousands disciples, founded the religious colony
New Vrindavan in West Virginia, authored more
than eighty books, watched ISKCON grow to a
confederation of more than 550 centres,
including 60 farm communities, some aiming
for self-sufficiency, 50 schools and other
activities around the world.

ISKCON grow to a confederation of more than 550 centres,
including 60 farm communities, some aiming for self-
sufficiency, 50 schools and other activities around the world

Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
• Churchill should be the greatest light of hope
to every politician who’s ever ended up with a
case full of unopened champagne on election
result night.
• Failed high school three times, he spent his entire
adult life as a political failure, losing every bid for
public office until he finally became England’s
prime minister at the ripe old age of 62

Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire, one of the most celebrated,
American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer
and television presenter, spanning a career of
76 years, named the fifth Greatest Male Star of
Old Hollywood by the American Film
Institute, famously if somewhat apocryphally
described after an early screen test:
“Can’t sing. Can’t act. Balding. Can dance a
little”;

Walt Disney
Walt Disney was sacked from an early job for
not having any good ideas.
Elizabeth Jolley didn’t publish her first novel
until nearly 60.

Walt Disney & Elizabeth Jolley

Terminology
• Developmental Psychology
• Developmental psychology is the scientific study
of how and why human beings change over the
course of their life.
• Developmental psychologists aim to explain
how thinking, feeling, and behaviours change
throughout life.
• This field examines change across three major
dimensions: physical development, cognitive
development, and socio-emotional development.

ADHD
• ADHD
• ADHD stands for attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder. It is a medical condition.
• A person with ADHD has differences in brain
development and brain activity that affect
attention, the ability to sit still, and self-control.
• ADHD can affect a child at school, at home, and
in friendships

Child Development
• Child development entails the biological,
psychological and emotional changes that occur
in human beings between birth and the conclusion
of adolescence, as the individual progresses from
dependency to increasing autonomy.
• It is a continuous process with a predictable
sequence, yet having a unique course for every
child.
• It does not progress at the same rate and each
stage is affected by the preceding
developmental experiences

Puer Aeternus
• Puer aeternus (sometimes shortened to puer),
Latin for "eternal boy", in mythology is a
child-god who is forever young.
• In psychology it is an older person whose
emotional life has remained at an adolescent
level, also known as Peter Pan syndrome.

Puer Aeternus
• The puer typically leads a provisional life due
to the fear of being caught in a situation from
which it might not be possible to escape.
• He or she covets independence and freedom,
opposes boundaries and limits, and tends to
find any restriction intolerable

Peter Pan Syndrome
• Peter Pan syndrome is an inability to grow up
or to engage in behaviour usually associated
with adulthood.
• The term comes from the fictional children's
character Peter Pan, who never ages.
• The concept gained popularity through Dr.
Dan Kiley (psychoanalyst) in his book
• The Peter Pan Syndrome: Men Who Have
Never Grown Up first published in 1983.

Peter Pan Syndrome
• A prominent example of a celebrity with Peter
Pan syndrome was Michael Jackson, who said,
"I am Peter Pan in my heart."
• Jackson named the 2,700-acre Los Olivos,
California property, where he lived from 1988 to
2005, Neverland Ranch after Neverland, the
fantasy island on which Peter Pan lives.
• He said that it was his way of claiming a
childhood he never had, having started early as
a performing artist with his family

A prominent example of a celebrity with Peter
Pan syndrome was Michael Jackson

Pygmalion Effect
• The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, is the
phenomenon whereby others' expectations of a
target person affect the target person's
performance.
• The effect is named after the Greek myth of
Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a
statue he had carved.
• Rosenthal and Jacobson, in their book, applied the
idea to teachers' expectations of their students
affecting the students' performance, a view that
has been undermined by subsequent research

The Ugly Duckling
• "The Ugly Duckling“ is a literary fairy tale by
Danish poet and author Hans Christian
Andersen (1805–1875).
• The story tells of a homely little bird born in a
barnyard who suffers abuse from the others
around him until, much to his delight (and to the
surprise of others), he matures into a beautiful
swan, the most beautiful bird of all.
• The story is beloved around the world as a tale
about personal transformation for the better

Conclusion
• A late bloomer is a person who fulfills their
potential later than expected; they often have
talents that aren’t visible to others initially.
The key word here is expected.
• And they fulfill their potential frequently in novel
and unexpected ways, surprising even those
closest to them.
• They are not attempting to satisfy, with gritted
teeth, the expectations of their parents or society,
a false path that leads to burnout and brittleness,
or even to depression and illness.

Conclusion
• As Oprah Winfrey says, “Everyone has a
supreme destiny.”
• Late bloomers are those who find their
supreme destiny on their own schedule, in their
own way

“Everyone has a supreme destiny.”

Conclusion
• Up to now, little formal research has been done
on late bloomers.
• Much of academia seems to have ignored this
particular aspect of human development, except
in rare cases in which it is connected to a
developmental disorder.
• In other words, late blooming is usually
explored through the lens of dysfunction or as
an abnormality.
• Even in academic research, the late bloomer
gets little respect.

Conclusion
• Think about the starting point of a late bloomer.
In all probability, his or her talents and
passions were overlooked by culture and the
educational system that measures for a cruelly
narrow range of skills.
• It closed off the person’s paths of discovery and
encouragement and potential.
• It did not open the doors to a successful future
for them because it didn’t even see them.

Think about the starting point of a late bloomer.
In all probability, his or her talents and passions were
overlooked by culture and the educational system

Conclusion
• So it makes little sense for the late bloomer to
climb back aboard the early bloomer conveyor
belt with renewed determination, hardened
resolve, and more training and college debt.
The conveyor belt is going in only one
direction.
• What potential late bloomers have to do is
to get off the conveyor belt and find a new
path of discovery.

What potential late bloomers have to do is to get off
the conveyor belt and find a new path of discovery

Books
Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World
Obsessed with Early Achievements

Successful Late Bloomers, Second Edition: The Story of Late-
in-life achievement — The People, Strategies And Research

References
• Confessions of a Late Bloomer
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/200811/confessions-late-bloomer
• Late bloomer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_bloomer
• Late Bloomers: Why Good Things Come to Those Who Wait
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/do-good-things-come-to-late-bloomers/
• The Art of Blooming Late
https://hbr.org/2019/05/the-art-of-blooming-late
• The Power of Patience
https://www.latebloomer.com/
• Ten of history’s greatest “Late Bloomers”
https://medium.com/@paulrohan/ten-of-historys-greatest-late-bloomers-people-who-found-
their-purpose-and-went-for-awe-6b733c6fa154
• What It Means to Be a Late Bloomer in Today’s World of Early Success
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/what-it-means-to-be-a-late-bloomer-in-todays-world-of-early-
success/

Late Bloomers

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