I've been thinking lately about America's youth obsession. It used to be just about sex and attractiveness (we think younger is better by definition in both), but over the past decade or two it's migrated into business, and especially into entrepreneurship. We now seem to think it's better to be Mark Zuckerberg or Tony Hsieh, than, say Takichiro Mori, a professor who left academia at age 55 to preside over Japan's real estate boom in the 80s and 90s and became Forbes Richest Man in the World (a kind of Japanese Warren Buffet). Or Nina and Tim Zagat, who didn't leave their jobs in corporate America till they were in their 50s to work fulltime in their restaurant guide business (recently sold to Google for $150M).
It looks like we're developing a strong cultural bias that business success at an early age is not only cooler, more interesting...but somehow realer. Lately, when I tell stories of folks who have built great things over the course of a long career, or who have had remarkable success in a second (or third) career later in life, the reaction is often polite and a little bored. When I talk about people who are tearing up the charts in their 20s and 30s, I get fascination and curiosity.
I just read a good post about this phenomenon by Rich Karlgaard, the publisher of Forbes magazine, called "Why Does America Hate Late Bloomers?" In it, he tells a personal story of his own later-in-life blooming, and then talks about how we're shooting ourselves in the collective foot by assuming as a nation that earlier is better when it comes to achievement.
I completely agree. I think it's bad for kids - as he notes - to feel that they have this limited window to succeed, and that if they're not getting major success points on the board by the time they leave college, they're doomed to be also-rans.
It's also terrible for adults. Let's say you're in your 40s or 50s, and you have a great idea for a business, about which you're truly passionate. You're experienced and realistic enough to know that there's a market and you can take advantage of it. You've got the skills, the work ethic, the connections. You're willing to take the risk - in fact, you're excited about it.
And then you stop yourself. "I'm over the hill," you think. "I'm no Mark Zuckerberg," you think. "I guess I better just stay where I am."
It makes me wonder: How many great new business concepts - ideas that might create jobs, solve problems, meet important consumer needs - are simply never being tried because the person behind the concept thinks they're too old (or too black, or too female, or too uneducated) to be able to make it work?
Put your limitations aside. Find a way to bring your best self to the world. And if you're doing this already, tell us about it - we all need the inspiration.
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