\n<\/p>\n
When I was younger, I was always in a hurry.<\/p>\n
Things were never going fast enough. I was impatient. I wanted things to happen immediately and so I pushed and I pushed and I pushed.<\/p>\n
While I\u2019ve never abandoned that sense of urgency, I knew I had to temper it. Keep the fire burning but put a lid on it from time to time. Sometimes the best approach is to lie in wait.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t uncommon in children. I see it in our kids today. I think it\u2019s a good trait, even if it can get irritating at times.<\/p>\n
I wanted to move quickly because I didn\u2019t want to miss out. We are told all these stories of child prodigies and people who achieve so much so quickly. In the 1980s, we didn\u2019t know what could happen to kids who saw success too early (child actors!).<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until much later that I realized how long life can be and that success can come at any age. There\u2019s a bias towards thinking early success is a good thing because it\u2019s notable enough to be in newspapers and on television shows.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a bias towards thinking success is about money, fame, and power.<\/p>\n
It took well into my forties for me to realize that it\u2019s never too late and that you define success however you want. And being able to, and accepting it in the face of what society celebrates as success, is the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n Child geniuses and savants are exciting to write about. So is the startup founder who quit Harvard and started a wildly successful billion-dollar company.<\/p>\n They are the equivalent of Lebron James. Rare, worthy of celebration, but not the only path.<\/p>\n The reality is that it\u2019s far likely to experience great success when you\u2019re much older.<\/p>\n There are many examples of people who switched careers and found success later on.<\/p>\n There are plenty of people who have found career success at a later age, I\u2019ve just named a few who are famous. Many are not famous but you just don\u2019t hear about them often because mainstream media doesn\u2019t decide to focus on them.<\/p>\n Until a few days ago, you probably hadn\u2019t heard of Ed Emerson. The 47-year-old led Goldman Sach\u2019s commodities trading division, made about $100 million in the last three years, and is retiring from his role<\/a>. He joined Goldman in 1999 and has worked there ever since.<\/p>\n The average age of a founder of a highly profitable technology company is 42.3 years old\u2026the media-driven idea that successful founders tend to be young is plainly false\u2026older founders consistently had higher probabilities of success<\/p>\n Don\u2019t Trust Your Gut\u00a0by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz<\/a><\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard about the power of investing early.<\/p>\n But not everyone has the financial ability to invest early. When you first start working, you have a lot of expenses and little income. So it\u2019s understandable that you may not be \u201cup to speed\u201d at whatever age you think you should be \u201cup to speed.\u201d<\/p>\n But the reality is that you can only start when you start. And it\u2019s never too late to start.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s compare three people who start investing each at 25, 35, and 45. We assume they are saving $100 a month and investing it in a market that grows at 7% per year, compounded daily. They all stop at age 65. (we used this calculator<\/a>)<\/p>\n The 25-year-old ends up with $264,689.70 \u2013 after contributing $48,000 over 40 years.<\/p>\n The 35-year-old ends up with $122,820.44 \u2013 after contributing $36,000 over 30 years.<\/p>\n The 45-year-old ends up with $52,365.53 \u2013 after contributing $24,000 over 20 years.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to point out the differences in balances as another point for the \u201cstart late, you lose\u201d argument but then you\u2019re focusing on the wrong thing. The 45-year-old is still up $28,365.53 compared to if he or she hadn\u2019t invested at all.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s not having a quarter million like the plucky 25-year-old, it\u2019s not nothing.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the key takeaway from those calculations. Not that you\u2019re too late and shouldn\u2019t invest \u2013 invest immediately whenever \u201cimmediately\u201d happens to be.<\/p>\n Investing is important and if you are getting a \u201clate start,\u201d whatever late means to you, don\u2019t take unnecessary risks in an attempt to \u201ccatch up.\u201d<\/p>\n First, we\u2019re bad at making these types of bets. It often looks like gambling. It\u2019s the stock market version of the Martingale system<\/a>. <\/p>\n And second, you aren\u2019t late, you\u2019re exactly where you need to be, and you need to follow the plan of slow and steady wins the race.<\/p>\n Investing is a loser\u2019s game<\/a> \u2013 you want to avoid mistakes more than you need to make winning moves.<\/p>\n The goal in life isn\u2019t to \u201cwin\u201d and be done. It\u2019s about constant and continuous improvement.<\/p>\n With victory comes dopamine which comes the desire to win again. It never ends. It\u2019s an infinite game.<\/p>\n Constant and continuous improvement is a sustainable game you can keep playing.<\/p>\n It can be working towards a goal or set of goals, but reaching it doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re done.<\/p>\n This is a challenge many athletes face because they have a singular goal \u2013 win the championship or gold medal. Win a few more. Then they age out of their sport as younger competitors replace them.<\/p>\n Now they have the challenge of learning how to adjust to life after an early retirement.<\/p>\n This happens to everyone<\/em>.<\/strong> Athletes experience it earlier in their life but with the FIRE movement, we\u2019re seeing more and more people \u201cretire early.\u201d With retirement comes a need to rediscover yourself and what drives you.<\/p>\n There is no championship to win. No milliseconds to shave off your time.<\/p>\n What will do you next?<\/p>\n We have all heard about the midlife crisis \u2013 it\u2019s when you reach 40-something and wonder what you\u2019ve done with your life thus far. You have a crisis of identity. A crisis of purpose. Time is running out and we aren\u2019t sure we\u2019ve spent our time all that well. It was thought to be inevitable.<\/p>\n It turns out only \u201conly 15.5 percent of men and 13.3 percent of women reported suffering [a midlife crisis].\u201d (source<\/a>)<\/p>\n It\u2019s not nearly as common as you\u2019d think \u2013 I\u2019d argue it\u2019s uncommon to experience one.<\/p>\n But the narrative still exists because, at some point, you\u2019re likely to have a moment of introspection and not be 100% thrilled with how life turned out so far<\/em>. That\u2019s OK, we could all use a bit more introspection, but having a full blown crisis is not the answer.<\/p>\n And the best way to avoid it is to do two things:<\/p>\nTable of Contents<\/summary>\n
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Greatness Doesn\u2019t Care About Your Age<\/h2>\n
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Start Investing Today<\/h2>\n
Don\u2019t Take Unnecessary Risks<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s About Incremental Improvement<\/h2>\n
Myth of the Midlife Crisis<\/h2>\n