Turning thirty is a gift and a curse. For some of us, our thirtieth birthday is a milestone that calls for great celebration. For others, it is a reminder of just how much time has elapsed since their youth. Fortunately, your thirties is a period during which the balance of your life is restored to full order.

Regardless of whether this period is welcomed with open arms or the source of all your anxieties, it is an inevitable transition into full adulthood and total stability. Let’s face it: your 20′s are filled with fun, excitement, alcohol and loud music, but very few 20-somethings are sure of where their ambitions will take them.

Age is not a consequence. Each new day should serve as an opportunity for individuals to inspire themselves once more. Having a new dream and aligning it with previously established goals will prevent your personal growth from becoming stagnant.

Here are some inspiring individuals that saw new heights after they embarked on their journey into their thirties:

Ken Jeong: Doctor

It was a nude Jeong (pronounced Jung) that Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms discovered in the trunk of their convertible in a Las Vegas impound lot in The Hangover. And it was his decision to bare all while playing the Chinese gangster Mr. Chow.

Sylvester Stallone: Deli Counter Attendant

After receiving no career attention as an actor in his 20′s, Stallone attacked his 30′s like any 5’3 man should: he wrote a movie where he was an all-American hero with unbelievable success in sports.

That movie was Rocky. He even banged out the Rocky screenplay in three days while in between working at a deli counter and as a movie theater usher. Little did he know, the movie launched his career with an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Rob Riggle: Marine

Rob Riggle is best known for his comedic roles in films, like The Hangover, The Other Guys and Step Brothers. But in real life, the actor plays an even more important role: Marine Corps Reservist.

Lt. Col Riggle, as he is formally known, joined the Marine Corps in college at the University of Kansas and is proud of his service. “One – I earned the title Marine, no one gave it to me. I’ll be proud of that as long as I’m alive,” Riggle said in an interview in Marines Magazine. “Two – Marines are loyal to each other. I like loyalty. Three – Marine Corps history and tradition is something to be proud of, and I’ve been part of that history for the last 19 years. And four – honor, courage and commitment. Those words really do mean something.”

Riggle, who has been stationed in areas as far-flung as Liberia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, says that his service in the Marine Corps readied him for the rigors of Hollywood. “It made me mentally tough, which is what you have to be in show business,” says Riggle. “Show business is brutal. For seven years I worked every day and night to catch a break. I heard ‘no’ at least 5,000 times – literally.”

Andrea Bocelli: Lawyer

He loved music and singing throughout his life, but did not really see it as a career possibility. So, after school, he got a law degree at the University of Pisa. At age 30 he was working as a lawyer and moonlighting in a piano bar for fun and extra cash. He did not catch a break as a singer until 1992, at age 34.

Martha Stewart: Stockbroker

When she was 30, Martha Stewart was a stockbroker. She was undoubtedly well versed in finance and the ethics involved therein. Two years later, she and her husband purchased a dilapidated farmhouse in Connecticut. Stewart led the restoration, transitioning into a domestic lifestyle and eventually parlaying that lifestyle into a business. Thus, she started her evil, evil career.

Mao Tse-Tung: Elementary School Principal

At age 30, Mao was involved in communism. He was a young star of the Chinese Communist Party, but did not realize it could be a career.

Instead, he was working as the principal of an elementary school. Where, no doubt, hall passes were decadent. Four years later he started a communist group that eventually became the Red Army that put him into power.

Julia Child: International Woman of Mystery

At age 30, Child was not cooking; she was working for the U.S. government as a spy. She went on clandestine missions to China and Sri Lanka (which, at the time, was called Ceylon) to get intelligence documents to agents in the field. She did not enter culinary school until age 36.

Why it took until recently to make a movie about her life is mind blowing. They made a movie about the life of MC Hammer. They made a sitcom out of the Geico cavemen. Someone even bought the rights to make a movie out of “Where’s Waldo?” Waldo’s more interesting than female spy-turned-TV cooking superstar? Just because Waldo traveled to a bunch of exotic places where he managed to mingle with lots of other people wearing deceptive red-and-white striped shirts does not make him movie-worthy.

Colonel Sanders: Blue Collar Working Man

While the first half of his life garnered countless of blue collar jobs, when Harland Sanders was turning 30 he was still switching from one career to another: steamboat pilot, insurance salesman, farmer, railroad fireman, and gigolo. He did not start cooking chicken until he was 40, and did not start franchising until age 65.

Michael Jordan: Basketball Player

Michael Jordan the baseball player. At age 30, Michael Jordan was the biggest star in the world. He had just led the Chicago Bulls to three straight NBA championships and promptly quit to become a minor league baseball player.

This remains one of the most suspicious moves any celebrity has made in our lifetimes. If this happened today, the Internet would actually explode with people debating the real reason why Jordan quit.

Rodney Dangerfield: Aluminum Siding Salesman

He started doing stand-up at age 19, but gave up on it in his mid-20′s. He started working as an acrobatic diver (that was the influence for the Triple Lindy) and then as an aluminum siding salesman. He did not start getting back into comedy until he was 40.

Harrison Ford: Carpenter

When Ford was 30, he starred in American Graffiti which was a huge hit. But he got paid a pittance for acting in it, so he decided he was never going to make it as an actor. He quit the business to get back into the more financially dependable world of construction.

Four years later, he met up with George Lucas again – director of American Graffiti – and Lucas cast him as Han Solo.

Elite.