Lifestyle

Linda Said Yes to a Design Job She Had No Training For and Built a Company at 70. Then, at 82: “It’s Never Too Late”

By Mike Harper · November 7, 2026

Linda did not plan a second career. She said yes to one, then figured out the details.

In a January video on her channel, NEXT with Linda (@nextwithlinda), she explains how it happened. Years ago, a longtime partner told her he needed to move to Las Vegas. She did not want to go. She does not gamble, she says, and she went anyway.

There, the couple bought an apartment, and Linda redid it with her own touches. She had decorated her own homes and family members’ homes, but never for pay. In her telling, she had no training, no schooling, and no diploma, only an eye and a belief in herself.

The woman who sold them the apartment noticed. If she had a sample unit that looked like Linda’s, she said, she could sell out a building full of empty condos. She offered to take photos to a large developer. The developer hired Linda to do one apartment, then asked for a storyboard. Linda says she did not know what a storyboard was, so she called people until she found someone who could show her.

“I was 70 years old when I started that company,” she says. She tells the whole story in her video on YouTube.

The second beat is the reason she is on camera now. Linda says that over the last 12 years she has been a little too idle, and that she feels she is at that point in her life again where she has more to show the world. She says she had never done a podcast before and was not even sure what one was. Now she is building one.

“There’s nothing magical about me. I’m 82,” she says. She adds that she is in good health. “But it’s never too late. Never too late.”

Her case is unusual, but the broader idea is not. A 2025 labor force snapshot from the Society for Human Resource Management, based on Current Population Survey data from May 2024 to April 2025, found that 23.4% of workers age 65 and older were self-employed, compared with 9.4% of workers ages 16 to 64. The report says older workers may lean toward self-employment for reasons that include wanting to set their own schedules.

Linda is careful not to promise anyone her results. She acknowledges that some physical things are harder for her now and that she cannot see as well as she used to. Her answer, she says, is to find different ways of doing things. Much of her message is about thinking. She pushes back on what she describes as a message from society that people in their 70s and 80s are finished.

If her story makes you wonder about your own next thing, a few questions to start with:

What have you already done for free? Linda’s business grew out of work she had done for her own homes and her family.

Who can teach you the missing piece? She did not know how to make a storyboard, so she found someone who did.

What would a small yes look like? Her first yes was one apartment, not a company.

Is the money side clear? Before taking on costs, talk with a tax professional or financial adviser about how new income could affect your taxes or benefits.

Linda’s own advice is short. At 82, she says she is recreating herself again, and she wants other people to know the door is still open.

This article is for general information and is not financial or legal advice. This article was produced with the assistance of AI and fact-checked against the sources cited by LightWave Reports.