Am I Too Old or Too Young for...

I searched the phrase "too old" on WSO today and it returned 25,425 results. So many questions... All genuine and normal, but volume tells me that the subject of age and questions about whether or not we're on the right track at the right time are clearly sources of curiosity and concern here on WSO.
This (WSO) platform provides solid support for those in the financial services sector, so this kind of discussion makes sense. So I'd like to share a few thoughts that I hope will help a fellow member or two with questions.
For background/context: I've been interested in the subject of human growth and development for a long time. By way of example, I wrote an article in 2012 titled "An Old Man on a Bus" for GovLoop.com. GovLoop is a para-government social media platform where young government professionals gather, chat, find mentors, etc. It's similar to WSO, but for government and without the monkeys. The Old Man on a Bus article describes a personal experience I had as an undergrad sitting next to an old man in his 80's for 10 hours while on holiday break from school. The conversation with that old bald man was life-altering.
Back then, conversations like these were old school. They happened face-to-face and between two people. In this story, I was headed home on a Greyhound to see my parents in my childhood home in New York. I asked the old man to describe for me what he knew about what was on the bridge of life. This was something I thought he could see clearly in his rear-view mirror, while I could only imagine what was over the incline in front of me. I listened for hours as he recounted his life, his career, his experience with the deaths of all of his friends and family, and the regrets he still carried with him. Having this kind of chat is a fascinating and magical journey that I highly recommend. Choose your bus, train, and plane seats with care.
GovLoop paid me $21k at the time, to write one article per month and stimulate conversation in that venue around leadership, customer engagement, and communication. I was well known in some circles and had just left a 20-year Federal career as a "maxed out" Supervisory Management and Program Analyst GS-343-15 - the rank equivalent of an Army Colonel or a Navy Captain. I recently left behind my government career the year before to focus on a new business committed to buying apartment buildings in Texas via Reg D 506 Syndications - with capital of my own invested alongside other LP's, of course. That's a story for another day.
Here's what I would like to share with you: You're right where you're supposed to be. We all are, and we each bring something different to the game. If you're interested, like I was, in seeing what life is about at each of the major stages, I recommend a look at Erik Erickson's work around the stages of Development:

Erickson Sample Page one

Erickson Sample Page 2

You can find his book here.

If you're interested in career or leadership development in general, I recommend Ram Charan's book The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company. This book describes the leadership journey from learning how to manage yourself to managing others, to managing others who manage others, to managing functions, etc all the way to CEO.
As a guy who's done a fair amount of management consulting and change management initiatives, I can attest to the fact that knowing how successful people think and spend their time at each level is useful. It helps you not only with your own career, but also for when you're evaluating others in leadership positions for common stumbling blocks, or if you're wondering how to climb into someone's shoes and communicate more effectively. I've taken this book with me for hotel reading/refresh on many jobs over the years. It's a good resource.

 

Really good write up and interesting article. It's a good way to live life. Somewhere I heard a quote something along the lines of, "The pain of regret is greater than any other pain."

Steve Jobs (although I truly dislike him as a person, he had some good quotes) has a quote that goes, "If you live each day as if it is your last, one day you will certainly be right."

Edit: Also, thanks for posting this. I can be a bit ridiculously hard on myself. My birthday is in

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 
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Don't say "I'm too old", Don't say "I'm too young" - Matthew Kelly - The Rhythm of Life

Don't say, "I'm too old." Don't say, "I'm too young."

Tiger Woods was three years old when he shot 48 for 9 holes on his hometown golf course in Cypress, California.

Julie Andrews was eight years old when she mastered an astounding four-octave singing range.

Mozart was eight years old when he wrote his first symphony.

Charles Dickens was twelve years old when he quit school to work in a factory, pasting labels on bottles of shoe polish, because his father had been imprisoned for debt.

Anne Frank was thirteen years old when she began her diary.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was fourteen years old when he enrolled at Harvard.

Paul McCartney was fifteen years old when John Lennon invited him to join a band.

Bill Gates was nineteen years old when he co-founded Microsoft.

Plato was twenty years old when he became the student of Socrates.

Joe DiMaggio was twenty-six years old when he hit safely in fifty-six consecutive games.

Henry David Thoreau was twenty-seven years old when he moved to the shore of Walden Pond, built a house, planted a garden, and began a two-year experiment in simplicity and self-reliance.

Ralph Lauren was twenty-nine years old when he created Polo.

William Shakespeare was thirty-one years old when he wrote Romeo and Juliet.

Bill Gates was thirty-one years old when he became a billionaire.

Thomas Jefferson was thirty-three years old when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Coco Chanel was thirty-eight years old when she introduced her perfume Chanel No. 5.

Mother Teresa was forty years old when she founded the Missionaries of Charity.

Jack Nicklaus was forty-six years old when he shot 65 in the final round, and 30 on the back nine, to win the Masters.

Henry Ford was fifty years old when he started his first manufacturing assembly line.

Ray Kroc was a fifty-two-year-old milkshake machine salesman when he bought out Mac and Dick McDonald and officially started McDonald's.

Pablo Picasso was fifty-five years old when he painted Guernica.

Dom Pérignon was fifty-six years old when he first produced champagne.

Oscar Hammerstein II was sixty-four years old when he wrote the lyrics for The Sound of Music.

Winston Churchill was sixty-five years old when he became Britain's Prime Minister.

Nelson Mandela was seventy-one years old when he was released from a South African prison. Four years later he was elected president of South Africa.

Michelangelo was seventy-two years old when he designed the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Auguste Rodin was seventy-six years old when he finally married Rose Beuret, whom he met when he was twenty-three.

Benjamin Franklin was seventy-nine years old when he invented bifocal eyeglasses.

Frank Lloyd Wright was ninety-one years old when he completed his work on the Guggenheim Museum.

Dimitrion Yordanidis was ninety-eight years old when he ran a marathon in seven hours and thirty three minutes, in Athens, Greece.

Ichijirou Araya was one hundred years old when he climbed Mount Fuji.


Whether you are sixteen or sixty, the rest of your life is ahead of you. You cannot change one moment of your past, but you can change your whole future. Now is your time.

 

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