Peak age for entrepreneurship? As an entrepreneur, I don’t care

http://jasoncrawford.org/2012/02/peak-age-for-entrepreneurship-who-cares/

by jasoncrawford • 14 years ago

53 15 14 years ago

I think a better question is: what's the best time for your business?

    There is a tide in the affairs of men.
    Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
    Omitted, all the voyage of their life
    Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

Julius Caesar was 51 when he crossed the Rubicon.

jasoncrawford• 14 years ago

Great quote; I didn't know that one.

jacques_chester2• 14 years ago

I keep it close and think about it often. I think that the companion quote is:

    I returned, and saw under the sun, 
    that the race is not to the swift,
    nor the battle to the strong, 
    neither yet bread to the wise,
    nor yet riches to men of understanding, 
    nor yet favor to men of skill; 
    but time and chance happens to them all.

I used both in an essay I wrote about the role of luck in leadership. Email me if you want a copy.

j45• 14 years ago

There is no peak age, only peak learning ability, which is tied to your capacity to continually be re-learning

So, I say, define entrepreneur. I certainly don't consider web entrepreneurs to be completely comparable to the majority of entrepreneurs.

Too many web entrepreneurs don't focus on having to learn how to make money, when almost all other entrepreneurs have to figure that out first to make businesses fly.

The entrepreneurs that you're speaking about might look at funding as their payday, or selling as their payday. They might be looking for funding to pay for some run way to find the time to build a business, or "get traction"... but traction doesn't always mean it's making money. It's a little different, imho.

I'd put this type of development akin to finding things that are popular, but not necessarily profitable, or the underpinnings of a business with a business model that can be self sustaining and profitable.

But, the entrepreneur learning how to sell something to a customer, instead of an investor..? Someone who's learnt to learn to recognize and develop opportunities to make money and do it? That's rare. I don't think you're ever old enough to fully learn that, or be past it.

Old enough to work for nothing and give your company away? maybe .. Never young enough :)

einhverfr2• 14 years ago

I think there are peak ages. Note the plural. And we are always in transition. But then the question becomes what you can do with what you have.

Compared to when I was 20, my ability to solve highly technical problems is slowly fading. However my ability to solve most problems is still getting stronger.

einhverfr2• 14 years ago

Great thoughts. Also I have been wondering if there are differences in the kinds of startups that younger and older entrepteneures can most effectively start. As we age, we think in different ways and this may both good and bad. However in the end this shouldnt sop anyone from trying.

mitchie_luna• 14 years ago

I think the advantage of being young entreprenuer is being bold, fearless, and idealist.

For the not so young, they are more cautious, and got more wisdom from the previous experiences.

The success of a business does not depend on the age of an entreprenuer. The idea, the passion, the creativity and, the determination will matter.

thegyppo• 14 years ago

For me the main issue is that as you get older the barrier to entry for you to move from Job -> Startup gets greater.

I'm 29, have 2 mortgages & an amazing son (that my wife looks after - therefore she isn't working anymore). So my responsibilities as a husband & father are to ensure I can continue to provide for my family.

This hasn't stopped my entrepreneurial side at all, but it means that in order for my company to support myself & my cofounder we have to pay ourselves a significant salary compared to renting/working in a house together & not worrying too much about bills/salary.

timjahn• 14 years ago

I can relate and I wish there was a place where more attention was drawn to these types of entrepreneurs, instead of constantly focusing on the 22 year old funded males living 10 to a house.

fightingfit• 14 years ago

+1 Running savings to zero right now. Running out of runway means international relocation and more for the family. No pressure ;)

aresant• 14 years ago

If you're an entrepreneur, you're an entrepreneur.

In your 20s you've got nothing to lose and that's the time to cut your teeth and shoot for the moon. If you fail, it's ok.

In your 30s you'll likely be married with a young family and either have made it far enough to keep on swinging for the fences, or you'll have to take a job and dabble on "side projects". If you fail, it's ok.

But man do I know a lot of people kicking ass in their 40s that just came out of 10 years of "working for the man" with slightly older kids, maybe a spouse back at work, and some savings to prop themselves up on.

By leaping off the cliff you're officially part of the club and there's nothing better in the world.

kamaal• 14 years ago

There is no age limit to when you can create value. Or 'wealth' and also you don't have to be an entrepreneur to create wealth. Being an entrepreneur is one of the ways to create value and wealth. So age doesn't matter. You can create a dent in the universe at any age any time.

What matters at any stage in your life your willingness to go the length, undergo pain through a tough regime, make so many sacrifices and endure the other difficult aspects to achieve what you consider as goal.

And that can be done at any age.

jvandenbroeck• 14 years ago

This was such an informative post, I wonder when posts like "do you have blue eyes as an entrepreneur?! I don't care!" start trending, Djeez

demallien• 14 years ago

As jacques_chester has already pointed out, being an entrepreneur is all about leadership. It's about recognizing that you are free to do what you want, and that the things that you think are stopping you are just problems to be solved, not immovable barriers.

I think that many entrepreneurs are young because they learned this lesson early in life from their parents. I see kids doing amazing things whilst they're still in high school, things that I would never have tried because I thought that I was "supposed" to just study and do well on my report cards. I hadn't understood that I could start doing things, real things, already. To quote Pink Floyd:

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain. You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

That realisation, that you are free, is key to being an entrepreneur, and I think that there are not many people that manage to make that realisation once they are already an adult, and it is this that keeps the number of older entrepreneurs down. All of the usual reasons "Oh, I have a family that I need to spend time with", "But I have a mortgage that I have to keep paying" are not real barriers - or at least they are no more difficult than the other barriers that an entrepreneur is going to be confronted with. The more I look at these reasons, the more I see them as a manifestation of the fact that the person suing them has not yet had the key enlightenment that they are free, and that problems are there to be solved.

Peak age for entrepreneurship? As an entrepreneur, I don’t care

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