At your own pace, friend!

I'm a 28 year old unemployed autistic epileptic who epitomizes the concept of a basement dweller so this speaks to me.

It's never too late to start doing something you love.
Apart from that: fuck capitalism. It suffocates the (non-capitalistic) personal development and freedom of virtually everyone.

It's not like he sat on his ass before then: He went to Oxford until his early 20s, then WW1, illness, working on the OED, working at Pembrooke, translating the Green Knight, Sir Orfeo, etc. his work on translating Beowulf drastically changed how it was percieved(before he pointed out the poetic nature, it was viewed as a childish tale of monster battles).
Not to mention that he was writing LOTR in stages during WW2, and he was a lecturing professor at the time.
- Shh... don't make us feel bad about our pathetic lifes.
- What a show off
- So now I have Tolkien to hate for being forced to study Beowulf?!

I'm 41, and you're putting a lot of pressure on me for the next 3 years.
- He didn't finish LOTR at 45, and arguably he never finished them as he was always fiddling with some story or another.
  I'd say you're still doing quite well
  
  He finished LotR as well as the Hobbit while he was alive.
  He didn't finish all of his other stories in the same setting before he died though.
- I‘m 43 and will just wing it at the last minute.

Yeah… but he was a professor at Leeds university at the age of 32 and started teaching in Oxford at 33.
Sorry.
- Yea this is like the "Alan Rickman did his first movie at 45". Like sure, but he was a mega accomplished stage and British TV actor for 20 years prior.
  
  Aha but Alan Rickman is dead and I'm not so point me.
  RIP Alan.

How about “You don’t have write a bestselling book at any age for your life to have value”?
- Baby steps

But by that time he was a university professor.... And had fought in the Great War.
- Can we just have one nice moment where we think we might succeed in something please!? Just one!
  
  Don't worry, you might have to fight in a great war soon. Im sure its all uphill from there.
  
  While typing out that sentence, you probably had one nice moment where you thought you might have one nice moment to think you might succeed in something.
  Probably.
  
  If it's anything to ya, Gaius Julius Caesar saw a statue of Alexander the Great and had an emotional breakdown -- Alexander the Great had conquered "the entire world" (or, well, the world as ancient greeks understood it) in his 20s and Caesar was 30 going on 40, and he was "just" a Roman General. -- He eventually did scorch his name into the annals of history, but he was over 45 when he did.
  And like. We don't need to be Julius Caesar or JRR Tolkienn. It is more than enough if by the age they became legends you have figured yourself out just enough to be living instead of surviving, especially if, unlike them, you didn't get a head start by having rich parents. :P
- Yeah, but has he dealt with gestures wildly to everything? Didn't think so. Tolkin's father was a bank manager, he was well off. Who here can say the same?
  
  World War 1 was a pretty shit time to be alive. Sure, his family had dosh, which probably protected him a bit.
  ... But when the world is going to shit (and it HAS gone to shit, many times before), it goes to shit universally.
  After WW1 there was the Great Depression and a lot of people (including plenty of old money folks) lost their everything. -- And right after that there were the Nazis. Y'know, the original Nazis, the ones that the current US government is trying to imitate. They seem to respawn whenever a capitalist nation is in crisis, I'm sure that's just a coincidence.
  Do not fall into the trap of "the good old days" because that is, ironically, how fascists get you. The past was awful, in different ways but awful.

Can you really call yourself a person if you don't write a profound fantasy novel which will influence the medium for the next century? Big L vibes if you don't.
But seriously, while we are on the subject... I kind of thought when society would get more accepting of others, it would also become more accepting of different ideals, but that hasnt changed. While other sexual orientations, races, disabilities and the like have been accepted more than they were in history, we still seem to not be accepting of failure and small dreams. Why do we have to earn a lot of money to be successful? Why do we need to leave an impact on the world at all? Why does success even matter? Can I not just live in a small cottage in the middle of the forest doing nothing all day and have the smallest affect on the environment be enough? Why the hell do I need to strive towards writing the lord of the rings to be considered successful in the eyes of my fellow man?
I feel like if we changed our attitude towards what our goals should be and accept that not achieving anything and just living is enough, we'd all be in a better place.
- I think most people here are missing the point of the meme. Interpreting it as “you too can write a culture-defining fantasy novel at 45!” is naive at best and intellectually dishonest at worst.
  The message here is that you shouldn’t feel bad about yourself if you haven’t started on your plans yet. I can say this from experience because I didn’t finish high school until my 30s and then finished university just when I hit 40. I’m starting my first job post-graduation this Monday after a year and a half of searching for a job.
  I still have so much I want to get done. None of these things involve fame or fortune. These are basic things like learning how to mix a drink, learning how to make a great hot sauce from home grown peppers, learning aquascaping and how to keep a Walstad aquarium, learning how to play a musical instrument, learning how to repair vintage electronics (especially vintage computers and game consoles), learning how to use a telescope to make deliberate observations, learning how to cook Chinese food…
  On and on and on it goes. No one should feel bad for taking as long as they need to accomplish their goals. No one should feel bad for having modest goals. Whether you’re 15 or 45 or 65, you shouldn’t feel like it’s too late to do the things you want to do!
  
  And I thought I got screwed over. We will win though
- I think the issue is people's idea of impact and success.
  Some people believe you need to accomplish a grand lasting thing seen by millions for years. Others recognize you can be successful by simply being a hood person and occasionally having a positive impact on others when able. Even in small ways.

Aight, ima weigh in because I want to, not because I need to.
But I didn't write my first piece of fiction for myself until I was in my thirties.
I didn't write the first the public to read until I was almost 40.
The first two kinda sold, but didn't. Like, I had a publisher, and it flopped because zero marketing, and mid tier writing. I never said it was good, just that I did it.
Since then, I've finished another novel, am partway into the sequel, have a short story collection I'm editing for self publication, and I still haven't made more than twenty bucks on anything published.
However, like Tolkien, that first story I wrote for the public was after years of writing stuff in general. Custom fiction, little stories for individuals in my life, that kind of thing that wasn't for me.
So, if you expect to crank your first story out at 45 and have a hit, keep dreaming because you'd need a shit ton of luck and connections. But from 45 to 50 (my age), you can get a fuck ton better, and have fans, if you choose to share your work.
It's never too late to start. It might be too late to get good, and even if you do there's no guarantee it'll sell, but don't let that stop you

Well, shit. I'm 55.
- HAAAAAA!!!! You've got grey hair!!!
  looks in mirror
  Oh shit! I have grey hair too!
  cries over getting old
  
  I think you meant to say wiser? (Or was it wizened? wizardacious perhaps? 🤪)
  Edit: maybe... wizardlicious?
- on a positive note, you're likely to be president in 40 years
- The extra years past 45 increase the story's potency, you're good!

Sure but hadn't he been basically telling the story to his kid long before he actually wrote it down?
- Honestly just start DMing a local D&D group and you’re half way there.
  
  I roll to seduce the balrog
- Tom Bombadil started as his children's toy who became the narrator of his children's bedtime stories.
  Out of those, grew The Hobbit.
  LotR was an intentional effort to turn the setting of the Hobbit into an epic fantasy.
- The Hobbit wasn't originally set in middle earth. He started working on the Silmarillion in 1914 at 22, but didn't start Lord of the Rings till much later. I don't know if he began to set the Hobbit in middle earth before or after starting on Lord of the Rings.

But Pagliacci, I’m a doctor.
I mean: but doctor, I am 45!

Well fuck… I’m 54.
- Then get to work!
- no worries, you only need to invent a time machine now.

Oh shit I haven’t started anything yet.

What about just, you know, being happy without any big goals ahead?

You got to just do what you do & let the future decide if you're actually any good.

Hone your craft though. Tolkien spent those years actively making himself a better writer and building a world.
Two of his friends who he said were better writers than him didn't make it through the war.

Didn't he and his pals basically create that world during WW1 and they said whoever made it out alive was to put it to pen?

Yeah, but I'm offing myself when I hit 70, so the clock is ticking