Momofuku Ando — Age 48, a Garden Shed, a Lab of One

Through cascading business failures, Momofuku Ando lost nearly everything in his late forties — only his house in Ikeda, Osaka, remained. From there he changed the world.

At forty-eight he built a small shed in his garden to develop "ramen you could eat just by adding hot water," haunted by the long postwar lines for a single bowl at black-market stalls. He worked alone: four hours of sleep, no days off, one full year.

Watching his wife fry tempura, he hit upon flash-frying, which riddled noodles with pores that hot water could revive. In 1958, Chicken Ramen was born — instant noodles, which transformed global food culture, from a forty-eight-year-old's comeback. He remained active past ninety, saw ramen developed for spacecraft, and died at ninety-six.

To anyone who calls forty-eight "too late," I offer this shed: life has no too-late comeback, only excuses not to begin.

What do you work for?