Honest opinions, am I too old...

[nothingbutsnow]

To go into a new career at 47?

I am a self employed digital designer/artist of 17 years. I do relatively well with this but would love to branch out some of my other interests.

My particular choice would be person centred counselling. Something I had always wanted to do but never got around to it. I have a family member who does this, although he lives quite a distance away now and I don't see him often (he was also in 40's when he first began) and have known quite a few people study/work in this field throughout my life, so it is something I know would suit me and I would hope to be able to benefit others also, of course.

But is this a good enough age to begin? I am financially well placed to afford it and have the time to offer to it also. I am currently in a long term relationship, all is well, and there are no other demands on my time.

I know it seems silly to ask about age, but just having a wobble!

Counselling is a good second career because you can work flexibly in private practice so see as many or as few clients as you like and private practice can be quite lucrative once you build your practice. Paid employment isn’t easy to come by and isn’t particularly well paid but if you’ve got a good business mind private practice is relatively easy to set up and can bring a steady income.

I tried a new career at 46 and failed, but failing seems to have made me a lot smarter and that's backed up by research - increases in intelligence can occur if you fail. Obviously you don't want to jump out of a plane and fail but you get the idea, so whatever happens it doesn't matter what would matter would be your response.