Is It To Late For Me

Is it too late for me to become an actress?

I’m going to depart from many of the answers you will get here, which will probably be of the “follow your dreams” variety.Is it too late? No.Do I think you should do it? No.You say a thing so remarkable in your first sentence that, for me, it colors and informs the whole question: you are currently studying something that you love. That is a gift of rare proportion.Acting is a hard career. Not “plucky, but with grit and determination, you’ll get there,” hard; more like “playing the lottery for a living” hard. You can be ambitious, talented and attractive, and still not “make it” as an actor, simply because so much of it is out of your control.I’m not saying this out of a sense of resentment or “sour grapes.” I just finished six years voicing a lead role on an Emmy-award-winning cartoon. I do a great deal of stage work; also film and television. By the standards of my career, I’m successful. That said, I’ve been acting since I was 15 years old - over 35 years - and I can tell you that there is no point at which a journeyman actor can say “There. I’ve arrived. No matter what else happens, I’ll always have work.”There is, in my opinion, only one reason to devote your life to acting: you love it. You REALLY love it, to the point that you can’t imagine doing anything else with your time on earth. That can make all the years of lean times and difficult relationships, all the years of watching your friends with “normal” jobs get houses and children and regular promotions while you don’t, worth it.But you are very, very fortunate, because you’ve already found something you love. You don’t have to go through the endless uncertainty of building a career on quicksand. You can do something else, and for you, it won’t be a compromise.The best advice I ever got was given to me when I was a kid in high school, dying to get out and start my acting career. It was this: if you can do anything else, do. If you can’t - if you just can’t stand the idea of not being on the stage - then acting is probably right for you. It sounds to me like you have an option. If I were you, I’d take it.Best of luck to you, whatever you choose.

I am in my late 20s and feel I have wasted a lot of time. Is it too late for me to achieve something worthwhile?

When I turned 27 I was:Unemployed, had been for a yearSleeping on a friend's couchPainfully singleWondering if it was too lateI had:No hard skillsNo work experience worth repeatingCollege grades that didn't open grad school doors I wanted to walk throughScant motivationNo directionI asked my dad for advice and he said: "You can't steer a parked car."I stopped thinking about what to do and started doing.  I refocused my search on small growing companies and after a dozen rejections I applied for a customer service job at a company I'd never heard of but that seemed interesting. A week later I was working at Bonobos (company) with 25 smart, fun, engaging people. I chipped in on work in different departments and eventually found an application for my natural skills in a career path I hadn't anticipated.  At 29 I'm a beginner in a new role.  It's fantastic.I can only recommend what I've done: Find some fertile ground. You'll figure the rest out later. There are tons of young companies looking for people who are energetic and capable, but most importantly they're looking for people who care.  Startups require hard work and long hours but if you care about the mission and the quality of your work it'll feel more like a lifestyle than a job.You only have to be lucky once. I was. Maybe you will be too. There's only one way to find out: Take the car out of park and step on the gas.