Forty Is the New Twenty for Success

Starting your own thing, or a sudden leap up the ladder — it’s the dream of many. The media and social feeds show us younger and younger faces living more and more lavishly, every single day. But the pressure and the expectations that come with the idea that you have to make it while you’re still young can be quietly destructive.

That’s exactly how it was for me! I kept worrying that I was missing my “best” years, and I felt this need to be “stronger, faster, smarter, richer, and more successful” than my peers in comparable circumstances. I did reach a few things along the way — but in that race I made plenty of mistakes, and the stress and anxiety at times felt simply unbearable.

Now, looking back, I see how wrong I was to think the odds of success melt away with age.

Here’s what the numbers say:

— At 40, a person is 2.1 times more likely to found a successful business than at 25.

— Across 2.7 million founders, the average age at the founding of a startup is 41.5.

— For founders whose startups make it all the way to an IPO, the average age is higher still — 46.5.

— Even in the tech industry, the average startup founder is 39.

On the 2024 Forbes list, the average billionaire is sixty-six, and for the first time in fifteen years, every billionaire under thirty inherited their fortune — not a single self-made name among them.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can sit on your hands until some imaginary fortieth birthday. But beating yourself up for not having reached dizzying heights by then isn’t worth it either.

Now, at forty-one, I feel that my whole life until this point was just preparation for this moment — when goals, knowledge, and experience converged into a single point of singularity, and now everything is possible!

It’s never too late.

Everything happens in its own time.

Experience may turn out to be our greatest advantage! 😎