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“The Critical Period” – Do It Early or Bust?
Language, it is believed, cannot be learned without an accent after
the critical age (usually 16). Musical talent is usually apparent in the
first ten years of life. Most people we know as successful programmers
started coding as children, and successful athletes commonly celebrate
their twentieth birthday already celebrities. This can make one look
like a failure at 27 if all you got is a college degree. But that may be
a false impression.
The Data Behind The Success Age
Looking at the biographies of top 100 founders on the Forbes List
shows that 35 is the most common age to start one of the top companies
in the world. We excluded the companies that were inherited from
previous ones, and the companies where governments were heavily
involved. For example, one of the largest companies in the world is
Agricultural Bank of China. It was founded by Mao Ze Dong while he was
the country’s chairman. This types of founders we excluded, to make sure
the list only contains self-starting founders.
The Middle Of Life or Mid-Life Crisis
The result is a bell curve, just like in school most people get
grades somewhere in the middle, in life most people succeed mid-life,
that is about 35, for the current generation.
Intuitively then, we expect some major life achievements to happen around the middle age, otherwise – the mid-life crisis.
The Quarter-Life Crisis
When you graduate college, with expectations from parents on your
shoulders, seeing teenage CEOs in the news can make you feel like a late
bloomer. Even at 25. Since today we expect to live longer than today’s
average life span of 78 years, at 25 you can reasonable think you are
through a quarter of your life. This is a newer term than the good old
mid-life crisis.
Late Bloomers, Not Losers
So what about those who succeed later in life – the late bloomers. Is
it better to be an early achiever or a late bloomer? That’s the same as
asking if it is better to start Facebook at 19 or IBM at 61?
For the world at large it does not matter. Perhaps Facebook could never
happen if IBM did not exist. Should Charles Flint have felt himself a
loser when he organized IBM out of a time-card punching technology firm
at the ripe age of 61? Those time card punchers turned out to be early
prototypes of computers.
Perhaps you have not heard much about Flint, but the device you are
looking at right now is possible in part because of what Flint started
at 61. He even lived another 24 years, working and enjoying the fruits
of his late-in-life success. A later bloomer? Perhaps. Too late for him
at 61? Never too late.
