The problem with articles like this is they actually contribute nothing. What is one supposed to do in response? Work harder?
Real entrepreneurs pay no heed to the arbitrary limitations implied by this sort of BS. Carry on.
Entrepreneurs, The Clock Is Ticking On Your Career
31–40 of 71 posts
Re: Entrepreneurs, The Clock Is Ticking On Your Career
#32I think the whole article boils down to this (note my emphasis)
--------------------------------
The scary thing is, if you're an entrepreneur, your days of starting companies from scratch are probably over by age 45.
I'm not happy about this; in fact, that particular deadline will loom in my career all too soon. But it's based on a realistic assessment of the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
Like it or not, the startup world is full of a pervasive and unacknowledged ageism
------------------------------------------------
* He doesn't provide any data to back up his claim that starting a company from scratch is over once you hit 45, and I've read enough outside of HN to know this is not true especially when you get outside of Software technology.
* Noting how he mentions the 'Silicon Valley ecosystem' should give you further notice that you can safely ignore this article if you don't live in Silicon Valley. Just because things happen a certain way in one place doesn't mean that it happens like that everywhere ... There is ageism in the software industry and that probably manifests itself in the startup world, but we haven't even matured as an industry ... Do you think Mark Zuckerberg is going to get turned down for VC money at 50 because he's over-the-hill? I'm thinking not.
The industry is still young (we have what ... 10, 20 years of data to back this up?), extrapolating things like this while we're in the middle of one of the most fascinating periods of technological change is kind of silly, history has shown that resolve more than anything else determines success in areas such as this ... its not like sport where your body gives out long before your mind is willing to.
Re: Entrepreneurs, The Clock Is Ticking On Your Career
#33The scary thing is, if you're an entrepreneur, your days of starting companies from scratch are probably over by age 45. Bullshit, as evidenced by reason and by actual example (google for it).
Vivek Wadhwa has done a great job of writing about how older entrepreneurs are an important part of the economy:
http://wadhwa.com/2011/12/02/washington-post-the-case-for-ol...
The ageism really is a strong part of Silicon Valley culture. Just look at the quote with which Wadhwa begins his article:
“People under 35 are the people who make change happen,” said venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, “People over 45 basically die in terms of new ideas.”
Re: Entrepreneurs, The Clock Is Ticking On Your Career
#34This really reeks of the thick-walled Silicon Valley echo chamber.
If "entrepreneur" to you means "founder of a hot VC-funded tech startup", then yeah, there's some evident ageism and it'll be tougher -- but not impossible -- in your 40s and beyond.
But, if "entrepreneur" to you means "person who starts and runs businesses", well, there are plenty of those doing that up until the day they die. Heck, your 60s is a great time to start a new business: you will probably have more resources, more wisdom, better business acumen, and more free time than you did in your twenties or thirties.
If at that age you decide you want to play in the SV startup scene, then cool, put some of your savings behind a couple of young hackers and do it that way if you must.
Re: Entrepreneurs, The Clock Is Ticking On Your Career
#35A lot of people seem to think this article is full of BS. Maybe. But I'm only 30 and felt that I've pissed away a lot of my younger years trying to become successful with 80 hour weeks. Maybe, by some slim chance, I will be successful when I am 40, but at that point I've already lost my youth. Is it worth it? I suppose it depends on your priorities.
I think a lot of that is because of an overly narrow and idealistic picture of success.
I remember thinking in college that I'd half-ass my coursework so I could go do a major open-source project so that I'd have a kick-ass resume when I entered the working world. The project was nowhere near as kick-ass as I hoped (I did the software for fictionalley.org), but it did serve 100k people or so, and I didn't have any trouble getting jobs. So that was something, at least.
Then I thought I'd work my tail off for a few years so I could found a startup and get rich. Well, I did work my tail off, and I founded a startup, but I just didn't have the skills yet to take it across the finish line. It didn't make me rich, it failed without accomplishment. But I did get hired by Google afterwards, and I guess that's a decent consolation prize. So that was something, at least.
And then once I'd been at Google for 9 months, I heard about this cool new project to completely redesign the search page from the ground up. At the time (2009), this was viewed as crazily ambitious: remember that the main Google SRP basically had not changed in look & feel since 2000. We launched in May 2010, after a long hard slog, and we felt really good about ourselves for a while. But then Google Instant launched that summer and completely overshadowed us, and the page was completely overhauled again in the summer of 2011, so the UI we slaved over lasted barely a year. We each got reputations internally as kick-ass devs that got stuff done, though, and were given a fair amount of latitude to pick our next projects, and had our pictures in BusinessWeek, and once in a while somebody even remembers the Google Search UI from 2010-2011. So that was something, at least.
I'm still looking for the big success that'll make it all worthwhile. I'm beginning to think that it doesn't really exist, that no matter how "successful" I am by external metrics, I'll always be chasing the next big thing. And increasingly, I'm beginning to think that the real big success was just the fun I've had hanging out with other people. That can sometimes be in the context of work, or it can sometimes be in the context of play. But somehow I think it matters a lot more than 80 hour weeks that usually go for naught anyway. (Luckily, I haven't really put in that many 80-hour weeks. In crunch time I might do up to about 60, but for the most part I work reasonable hours and spend my free time with friends.)
Re: Entrepreneurs, The Clock Is Ticking On Your Career
#36I think the whole article boils down to this (note my emphasis) -------------------------------- The scary thing is, if you're an entrepreneur , your days of starting companies from scratch are probably over by age 45. I'm not happy about this; in fact, that particular deadline will loom in my career all too soon. But it's based on a realistic assessment of the Silicon Valley ecosystem . Like it or not, the startup w…
The post specifically refers to Silicon Valley; you can feel free to ignore it if you're not in that ecosystem.
Mark Zuckerberg won't get turned down because he's already super-successful--and I point out the fact that if you do hit a home run, the limits don't apply.
The Silicon Valley high-tech startup culture dates back nearly 60 years if you mark the beginning with Fairchild, more if you mark it with HP.
You can overcome bias with achievement...but you ought to acknowledge that it exists, and plan accordingly.
Re: Entrepreneurs, The Clock Is Ticking On Your Career
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
The arbitrary, overly-specific, and gosh-darn unlikeliness of the goals expressed here remind me more of the sort of life plan you'd expect from a ten-year-old girl than from a full-grown man. "OK, I'm going to meet my boyfriend at sixteen so we can be married by nineteen and then I'll have four kids in the next four years so I can be the world's greatest ballerina by the time I'm twenty-four and then I can start tra…
Your time is limited. A was talking with a friend (who incidentally is a VC) over breakfast. He noted that he was 46, and was worried about how old he'd be when his future child (his wife is pregnant) went off to college. People also don't like hearing that they need to get married before the age of 30 if they want to have kids at a younger age, but that doesn't make it untrue.
Except that having a child is a readily achievable goal that anyone can reach at any time they choose to. The decision to have a child, whether at a younger or older age, is almost entirely up to the two consenting adults.
Hoping to strike it rich before the age of 45 is pretty much the complete opposite.
Re: Entrepreneurs, The Clock Is Ticking On Your Career
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your time is limited. A was talking with a friend (who incidentally is a VC) over breakfast. He noted that he was 46, and was worried about how old he'd be when his future child (his wife is pregnant) went off to college. People also don't like hearing that they need to get married before the age of 30 if they want to have kids at a younger age, but that doesn't make it untrue.
Except that having a child is a readily achievable goal that anyone can reach at any time they choose to. The decision to have a child, whether at a younger or older age, is almost entirely up to the two consenting adults. Hoping to strike it rich before the age of 45 is pretty much the complete opposite.
Ah, the young. Find a couple in their 40s, and ask them if having a child is a readily achievable goal any time they choose.
Re: Entrepreneurs, The Clock Is Ticking On Your Career
#39The problem with articles like this is they actually contribute nothing. What is one supposed to do in response? Work harder? Real entrepreneurs pay no heed to the arbitrary limitations implied by this sort of BS. Carry on.
The proper response is to understand the biases that exist and plan for how to succeed regardless. This might involve changing your plans, or it might just be a matter of resetting expectations.
Re: Entrepreneurs, The Clock Is Ticking On Your Career
#40I hate the sentiment that 45 is too late. Is there any statistics? Any evidence to support the theory? Not as far as I'm aware. I really wish I could downvote this post.
How about if you have a good idea for a new business venture, do it? I'm 20, and have no plans to actively start my own business in the next few years. I have no great ambition in that regard, and unless you have such drive, anything you attempt will be less than what could be. But I know if I discover some new-found passion I wish to venture upon in my 50s, and there is no business established for it yet or that the…
A friend told me the story of a guy they now call "Mr. Lucky." He started 10 different companies. All failures. His wife left him. His friends thought he was crazy. Then at age 68, company #11 was sold for over $1 billion. Today, he is a philanthropist who is a pillar of his community.
It gets harder. That doesn't mean it's impossible.