[sayemm]

I'm 25 and I've founded two startups in the past; I know exactly what you're talking about regarding the emotional roller coaster.

But I greatly disagree that age somehow naturally helps you deal with this. The only thing that does help you deal with it is experience, plain and simple. That's why it helps if you start when you're younger.

If my father (who's 51) decided to start a company tomorrow he'd feel uneasy and make way more mistakes than I would simply because he's never been through it before.

[saurik]

I do not disagree with this, but will state the following "in response": I believe there is a lot of overlap in the things you learn from running a business as running a family, giving your father a lot to teach you about running a business from his many further years of experience in those areas (and consequently I believe his first year of entrepreneurship would be smoother than yours, even if your 26th were smoother than his first).

[sayemm]

I agree, I think it's because life exp of any kind greatly helps for confidence and leadership in running a company as well.

But I still think there's no better way to learn the game than to just go out there and do it... make mistakes, learn/improve, and keep iterating. No one becomes a great entrepreneur overnight; and certainly a lot of those guys I mentioned (Mark Cuban especially) went through a lot of failure before making their first big hit.