5 Midlife Millionaires

We all know the stories of entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, who made it big at a ridiculously early age.

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We all know the stories of entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, who made it big at a ridiculously early age. But for most entrepreneurs, success comes much later in life. Some must learn the ropes first, gaining valuable experience in their respective fields with more established companies. For others, it takes hitting rock-bottom professionally during their younger years, coming to terms with what went wrong and mapping out a plan to avoid it the second time around. Then, there are those who, by chance, come up with an idea that's almost an immediate commercial hit.

Take Harland Sanders, best known as "Colonel Sanders" of KFC fame. He was 62 when he opened his first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise location. Or how about Dietrich Mateschitz, co-founder and CEO of Red Bull, who took ten years to complete his bachelor's degree and worked a string of ho-hum corporate jobs before launching his energy-drink company at 43? Their experiences prove that age is nothing but a number when it comes to creating a multimillion-dollar success.

Here are five entrepreneurs who didn't make it big until middle age. Find out how they did it, and what advice they have for other entrepreneurs.

Andrea Browne Taylor
Contributing Editor

Browne Taylor joined Kiplinger in 2011 and was a channel editor for Kiplinger.com covering living and family finance topics. She previously worked at the Washington Post as a Web producer in the Style section and prior to that covered the Jobs, Cars and Real Estate sections. She earned a BA in journalism from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She is Director of Member Services, at the National Association of Home Builders.