At the 2018 Glamour Women of the Year Summit, The Handmaid's Tale star Ann Dowd opened up about finding success later in life. Her story, below.

I want to tell you a brief story, if I may. When I was a young actress, 30 or so, I was on the way to my waitress job in my black pants and my white shirt and my black tie—glamour is not the word that would come to mind at all. Feminine? No. Nothing. I looked across the street, and there were several limousines parked outside the theater. And I looked at the marquee and it said, "About Last Night starring Elizabeth Perkins," who was my classmate. I was going to wait on tables, and she was going to a premiere of her film that would launch her into stardom.

I got through the shift, and I went home on my porch, and I wept and screamed into the night, "When?! When is my turn?" And it was one of those dark nights of the soul—we're all familiar, I'm sure. And a voice—I'm not kidding—quiet, probably from the inside, said, "It will all be fine. It will all be all right. You will be in your fifties. You will be 56." And I said, "Oh no! No, no!"—missing the whole point of the voice—I said, "I'm not waiting until my fifties. I have no intention, so you can take that message and…"

Keep your love story alive.

Well, as it turns out, I was in my fifties, and I was 56 when I did the film called Compliance, which shifted things for me tremendously. But this story is interesting because what do you do between the ages of 30 and 56? Because, as we know, life is long. Life is short, but really life is long in that regard. So, darlings, I want to tell you a few things that I believe deeply in the hopes that it might, in some way, give you a moment to think.

Keep your love story alive—and by love story, I mean the love you have for the work that you do—for it is a pure and powerful dynamic, and it will sustain you. Pay attention and take care of it. We are here to do the work we are able to do, the work we love to do. It doesn't mean there won't be ups and downs; there will be plenty of them. Keep the love story alive.

For some reason I had an unshakable faith that all would work out. I don't know if it's because of that voice, which I tried to stop and kill, or because I just thought, I am an actress, and that is what I'm going to do. I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about the future. I would suggest that—a little time but not a lot. Pay attention to where you are. Celebrate the small victories. Every time I got a role, I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. I didn't care if I had two lines or if it was a Broadway opening, which was thrilling. I thought, Oh my gosh, someone said yes. Someone said, "I see. I agree with you. Go on now." It's a beautiful thing, but celebrate the small ones, darlings. It may take time.

Stay humble. Stay grateful for every single day and for all that goes on in that given day. I can tell you from experience there is nothing worse than an ego gone wild. When I see it in the business I'm in, I want to say, "Sit down a minute. Who raised you? I don't think your mother and father thought this would be the way to go." Darlings, stay humble and grateful. It will suit you. It will support you. Use your manners. Manners are a wonderful and forgotten thing. Use them.

I can tell you from experience there is nothing worse than an ego gone wild.

Darlings, take many trips out of your head and into your heart and soul. That is where freedom lives. That is where lack of judgment lives. And that is where hope and love thrive. It's a very good compass, that heart and soul. Consider it as often as you can.