Visualizing a Timeline of Expectations vs. a Timeline of Reality
View(s):The success of the data is interesting because the company clearly defines the expectations for the success of the people. It is not engraved in the marble, but it is expected at the latest before the quarantine crisis with success. It is assumed that you can overcome the quarterly crisis (the quarterly crisis means that you are about 100 years old, about 25 years old).
Are these expectations realistic? Let’s look at the data and assign it to a timeline.
The Data Behind The Success Age
If you look at the biographies of the 100 main founders in the Forbes list, it turns out that 35 years is the most common age to start one of the most important companies in the world. We exclude companies that were acquired by previous companies and companies in which governments were very involved. One of the largest companies in the world, for example, is the Agricultural Bank of China. It was founded by Mao Ze Dong when he was the president of the country. We exclude these types of founders to make sure that the list contains only founders that start automatically.
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
A late bloomer is only “late” to fulfill the expectations of other people. I started Adioma at 29. Would it be better if I started at 19? Or course, and of course not – it would not have been possible then. It would be a completely different website.
So if you ask yourself if it is too late, ask more specifically, “Too late for what?” It’s never too late to start, to learn, and, if you need to, start again. - A.G.Sonalie Silva