Who says he doesn't do all of that? And also, where riding dirt bikes and playing basketball is your idea of fun, his may be programming, running startups and doing bizdev.
I'd say that you can start companies at any stage of life. You can start a company age 50, and probably have far more chance at success based on your extra knowledge.
However, you can't really go to night clubs, chase girls, play dirt bikes etc age 50.
Richard Branson agrees completely, going to clubs, chasing girls, and dirt biking is too immature at 50. Girls chase him to go to his private island and do this:
FWIW, I'm 32. I guess you can go chasing girls in night clubs when you're older, but it's way easier to do that stuff when you're young.
Similarly it's possible for people to wait until their 40s to have kids, but I'd say it's far easier to have them when you're young and have the energy.
I'd be interested in seeing a graph of difficulty of raising kids with age and income -- it probably depends on parenting style, but I think it would (will? maybe.) be easier for me to have kids at 40 with >$bignum than at 18 with $1k, assuming I'm in excellent health for my age (honestly, I'm healthier and more fit at 31 than I was ever before, and hopefully at 35 will be even more so -- not being into exercise early is probably my biggest regret).
Somehow I still manage to fit in time for everything. [x] going to nightclubs [x] chasing girls (though at this stage a big waste of time, seriously) [x] dirt bikes [x] video games ...
Cool, as long as you can fit in all you want to achieve in life it's all good.
I spent a lot of my teens sat in front of a computer writing assembly language, and although infinitely enjoyable and useful to me now, I probably did miss out on some of the social aspects of being young (Not that I was particularly interested in those things at the time).
The other thing is I started roller skating when I was about 30. I really wish I'd started learning when I was 20 or 10. Some things are just a lot easier when you're younger.
Great comment - besides spending time with my girlfriend, nothing makes me happier than bizdev and planning (even if it's for another company rather than my own)
However, you can't really go to night clubs, chase girls, play dirt bikes etc age 50.