Growing Older is Where the Fun Begins
You need to learn the rules before you can break them
Many look at aging and cast it away as nothing more than wrinkles and a few grey hairs.
Others see it as something to avoid at all costs, and some see getting older as just plain boring.
The first one, maybe, but the second two —
Whoever is saying these things needs to grow up a little (pun intended).
Its time to put an end to the FOGO (Fear Of Growing Old), and set into motion the FOSY (Fear Of Staying Young).
Here’s why.
Growing Up
Kids are like sponges.
They absorb all kinds of messages and ideas from others, for better or worse.
Ideally, this messaging teaches you how to be a relatively normal person (although let’s be honest, what’s normal these days).
Nonetheless, to not go through this sponge-like phase where you learn the ways of adulthood means you increase the risk of being ostracized, making an irreversible blunder, or worse — having it take till high school to learn that Santa Claus isn’t real.
But as you grow older, there comes a day where you have learned enough.
You learn not to burp in public, you learn not to budge ahead of people in line, and you learn not to take the last piece of pizza without asking first.
Its at this point that you take a step back and say:
“Ok, I think I’m getting a handle on this adult thing. I know the rules, and what I can and can’t do.”
And its at this point that life gets interesting.
Here’s how.
Entrepreneurs
A study completed by professors at Wharton, MIT, and Northwestern showed that the highest growth ventures were made by founders who were 45 years old. This comes to a surprise to most people,
But Wharton professor Daniel Kim states that —
“When you look at just the Zuckerbergs and Gates of the world, you’re really cherry-picking the examples that the media likes to show.”
The reality is that the vast majority of successful businesses are started by those who have been through the game, understand how the world works, and then can put their own spin on it.
Even when looking at the Jobs, Gates, and Zuckerberg’s of the world, consider that the peak five year stock prices for Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon occurred when Bill Gates was 39 years old, Steve Jobs was 48, and Jeff Bezos was 45 (source).
To be an entrepreneur means you are comfortable going against the norm, being a pariah, and breaking the rules. And to do these things, you must have the experience to know where you can and cannot step.
Comedians
Comedy is a perfect example of how someone learns the kinks within society overtime, and makes a living by calling attention to them.
Legend Rodney Dangerfield was late into his 40 before he started his masterclass career, Ricky Gervais started his coming out party with The Office at the age of 40, and Larry David co-founded Seinfeld at 42 (source).
The older we get, and the better we get at understanding the norms of human behavior, the better we become at poking holes in those norms.
Children are humorous because they are random. Their inexperienced minds make associations that nobody would ever think of.
But clever and well thought out humor can only happen once you have had experiences to shape you. Only when you have gone through the shitter and come out the other side can you look back and smile at the ridiculousness of it all.
Growing Older is Where the Fun Begins
Look at the first two and a half decades of your life as an orientation, your training.
Once you go through your training and learn the rules to the game, that’s when you can go out and actually start playing it.
Growing older is where the fun begins people, and its a privilege denied to many.
I’ll see you out there on the field, and by the way, you’re going down.
Thanks for reading
