Sheryl Lee Ralph is getting her Hollywood Walk of Fame star at the end of January. Most people got to know Sheryl as an actress thanks to Abbott Elementary, but she’s been working as an actress and activist for decades. In 1990, she founded The D.I.V.A. Foundation and she’s been involved with Project Angel Food since the 1980s. Both are non-profit organizations that work with LA residents that have HIV/AIDS and/or other serious illnesses. Sheryl’s also a really positive influence on her fellow actors: On the Abbott set, she has a “no negative body talk” rule. So, needless to say, Sheryl deserves all of the accolades that are coming her way.

To celebrate getting her star, Sheryl did an exclusive cover story with People. Despite not looking a day over 48, she turned 68 on December 30. During her interview, Sheryl talks about her long career and all of the hard work that she put in to get where she is today. She also drops some wisdom and perspective about her road to success, including the support and advice she got along the way.

So many symbols to choose from: “It’s not as if they just hand these things out like candy,” she says of the ceremony, taking place on Jan. 29. Still, the multi-hyphenate star, who graces this week’s cover of PEOPLE, has no idea which entertainment symbol will be used to denote her life’s work. “Oh my goodness, I don’t know. I should ask,” she says. “It could be for the Tonys, for the Grammys, the Emmys and who knows what’s next.”

Cicely Tyson predicted her success: “One day I was on a plane, and Cicely Tyson said, ‘Many great things are going to happen to you. Many, many, many,’ ” Ralph recalls. “The elders have been good to me, and they would not be surprised.”

Hard work pays off: “I’m in a show that is literally lightning in a bottle,” Ralph says. “But it was not given to me. I worked towards this moment, and it took a young person to see and value the work and offer me this way forward. That doesn’t happen a lot, but it happened to me.”

She loves being busy: “I love a full plate,” she says. “My team says I’m always on the go, but that’s what I’ve known. There was a time where if you didn’t strike while the iron was hot, it wasn’t happening for you. You had to go and get it.”

The road to success wasn’t always paved: “It’s easy to look at the highway and think it’s always been like that, but no, there was a time when it was a dirt road, and somebody had to bust rocks to clear it, and it wasn’t easy.”

Her big break was playing Sidney Poitier’s daughter: After graduating as a member of the first class of women to attend Rutgers College in New Jersey and facing “no after no” in her pursuit of an acting career, Ralph stumbled upon success when she moved to Los Angeles on a whim and landed an audition opposite Poitier at age 19 and won the role over his own daughter [in A Piece of the Action].

What Poitier taught her: Poitier, who also directed the film, gifted her a box of makeup and hair products along with this advice: “I’m sorry the industry doesn’t have more to offer you, because you deserve it. You better learn how to take care of yourself, because there are not too many people out there that can,’” Ralph recalls. “That’s how I started learning the things I needed in an industry that didn’t know what to do with me.”

On her 2022 Emmy win: “It was a complete shock,” she says of the moment. “I was there to be supportive of my cast. I did not think it was going to be me. When they said my name, it was as if every angel in my life flew up and said, ‘Come on, come on. This is the moment. This is the time.’ When I got up there and did what I did, sang what I sang, said what I said, it was my whole life speaking for me, and it was never just for me, it was for others, because if it had not been for others, I wouldn’t be there.”

The best is yet to come: In all, Ralph says achieving what she has at this stage of her life proves one thing: “Don’t give up. If you don’t make it at 20 or 30, so what? Hold on to your dreams, because you can make it at 40 or 50, and it ain’t over when you’re 60. The best is yet to come, and I’m here to receive it.”

[From People]

I really like her analogy about the road not always being smooth, even if it’s easy to take the tough times for granted once things are easier-going. I absolutely love what she says about how you can be successful at any age. We know that society tends to write people – especially women – off as they get older. It feels harder to reinvent yourself and like less people are paying attention to give you any chance or consideration. So, Sheryl reminding us of her later-in-life success inspires me. She’s not wrong! Vera Wang didn’t design her first dress until she was 40, Toni Morrison was 39 when she wrote The Bluest Eye (her first novel), and although, like Sheryl, she’d had success before, Betty White wasn’t a household name until she joined the Mary Tyler Moore Show at age 51. Heck, Martha Stewart’s career as a lifestyle mogul didn’t take off until she was in her 40s and Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t publish her first book until she was 65. Congrats to Sheryl on her star and career.

IMAGO/Jennifer Bloc/Faye Sadou/Avalon, Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, Backgrid and via Instagram/People