By Kelechi Deca
In recent times, the emergence of wizkid billionaires and the media hype trailing has created the rather wrong impression that if you are not a millionaire by 40, you should forget about it. This has kinda led to redundancy and lack of drive among people who are going to 50 but are yet to join the millionaire club. Many have stopped dreaming, they have stopped fantasizing about the future, because the media have made them believe that instead of life starting at 40, it now ends at 40. Without dreams, daily fantasies and all that made childhood most exhilarating, life is worthless and that is why many people start dying after 40 without even knowing it.
Few years ago, I read an insightful article by Craig Ballantyne where he highlighted some examples to encourage us that we can still be all we want to be, even if we could not get a grip on life at 50. According to him “You need to understand something: you’ve been misled by the media. They make it seem like the only people who start companies are crazy kids in their college dorm rooms. The reality couldn’t be any different.”
The “missing ingredient” works even better for people that are older and have more experience in life. And I want you to understand that the “missing ingredient” can change your life
He cited a study by the Kauffman Foundation on entrepreneurial activity in the United States of America and they discovered that people over the age of 35 started 80% of the successful companies. ”Colonel Harland Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was 65 years old. He figured out the “missing ingredient” and made himself a fortune. (And he used his first social security check for seed capital).
Or Fanny M., she launched a cookie company when she was 55 years old. She’ll pull in more than $500,000 in revenue this year…she understands the “missing ingredient.” Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga, discovered the “missing ingredient.” He founded his billion-dollar company in his 40s. (His company created all the Facebook games your kids buy with your credit card). Poppy B. discovered the “missing ingredient” and purchased the company she used to work at when she was 72 years old. Her lab is going strong and brings in more than $350,000 annually.
Mark Zuckerberg and the Google guys are the anomalies. Most successful business-founders and entrepreneurs don’t live in dorm rooms. Most of them are fellas with salt and pepper hair, kids, and a mortgage. The media just makes it seem like all entrepreneurs are swashbuckling youth because it makes a better story. And that’s why your perspective is skewed.
Remember the late 90s when every 23-year-old with half of an idea got millions in venture capital money? What happened? Most of them lost all of that money by building companies that sold products that nobody wanted. Contrast that with the story of Tim Zagat and his discovery of the “missing ingredient.”
When Tim started his famous restaurant guide – he was 44 years old. And he didn’t stop working as a corporate lawyer for 7 more years. But he understood the “missing ingredient” and he built a company that is still going strong more than 30 years later. It takes wisdom, experience, and time to build a great business.
What can you learn from Henry Ford? He understood the “missing ingredient.” His first business breakthrough didn’t happen until he was 45 years old. That’s when he invented the Model T. And he didn’t change the industrial world with the assembly line until he was 60 years old. I don’t even need to tell you that the “missing ingredient” gave him amazing fame and fortune.
The “missing ingredient” works even better for people that are older and have more experience in life. And I want you to understand that the “missing ingredient” can change your life. If you hate your job, despise your boss, and feel sick at the thought of one more conversation with your co-workers, then discovering this “missing ingredient” will change everything. It will put you on the path to escaping from cubicle hell and middle-manager purgatory.”
There is the need for most pre-retirement age people to restart their lives by dreaming again, by thinking of the possibilities of starting new businesses, learning new skills, new trades, and also further education. The idea that retirement equals physical and mental tiredness is killing lots of people thus the need to reverse the trend. Dream again, for your post retirement future might be brighter.
Kelechi Deca, a journalist and public affairs commentator writes from Lagos.
