I was sitting in the audience at an Albright event in March when a room full of women started cheering. Not politely. Properly.

Eliana Sydes had just told them that at 60 she was invited to join a board as the only non-founder executive director. And every woman in that room understood exactly what that meant - because most of us have quietly absorbed the idea that if it hasn't happened by 30, it isn't going to.

Eliana is 61. She is a financial planner who qualified later in life after changing career entirely. But she started out wanting to be an actress, in a family where her mother was a singer, dancer and ballet examiner and her sister trained at the Royal Ballet School. She wasn't the dancer. She couldn't sing. And when her grandmother (her mother figure) died in an accident Eliana was just 19, it took over a decade before she could put any of it into words.

At 25 she genuinely believed her life was over because she hadn't achieved anything remarkable yet.

She has thoughts about that now.

Fifteen years ago she wrote her own obituary - a strange exercise that made her realise what she actually wanted to be remembered for, and it had nothing to do with the version of success she'd been chasing. Four years ago, after doing the conga in the street at the Platinum Jubilee, she walked into a ballroom dancing class after a 38-year gap. Completely terrified. Unfit. Unable to remember a single step.

She still goes every week.

We talk about why ordinary life has been wrongly framed as failure, what the Forbes 30 under 30 does to everyone who isn't on it, and the difference between visible success and actually being happy. Eliana shares what she has learned about who you let close to you, and what she is still figuring out at 61 - which turns out to be the same thing most of us are.

If you have ever quietly wondered whether you've missed your window, this one is for you.

Every Thursday at 3pm. 🌼

In this episode we discuss:

• Changing career later in life
• Why you don't have to achieve everything by 30
• Losing a parent young and grieving without support
• The pressure of the Forbes 30 under 30 list
• Redefining what success means to you
• Writing your own obituary as an exercise
• Starting a new hobby in your fifties
• Financial planning and why women need to plan
• Who to trust with advice in difficult times
• Balancing work, family and your own life

What found us - Links & Mentions

Eliana:

• The Luck Factor — Professor Richard Wiseman (she refers to it as The Luck Project in the episode)

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Guest: Eliana Sydes

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