[mindcrime]

Perhaps being younger is an advantage in the sort of "go big or go home" swing for the fences entrepreneurship?

Counter-scenario: Perhaps being older is an advantage in the "go big or go home" scenario, since the older person feels like they have less time left to achieve their dreams?

Personally, as a 39 year old, I feel like I hear the clock ticking pretty loudly and that motivates the hell out of me. I use a lot of sports analogies, and the way I look at it is this: It's like I'm down by 6, with 1:37 left in the 4th quarter, and have the ball on my own 20 yard line. That means it's "4 down territory" and maybe time for a "hail mary" or two. It's do or die time here.

(Apologies to anyone who isn't a fan of American football, if the above analogy makes no sense).

Seriously, I don't feel like I have a lot of "at bats" (to use a different sports analogy) left, and I'm feeling a strong sense of 'do it now, or "the water under the Golden Gate is freezing cold"'.

[jusben1369]

I am 44 and feel this way. Didn't start till I was around 41 though like waterlesscloud. Slight variation on the same theme. Early on I think I made a lot of decisions to please other people. To reinforce their perceptions of me. Nice house, nice cars etc. An enhanced sense of mortality made me embrace "go big or go home". I had to do what I wanted to do - even if that meant failing and being "poor" for a while as we bootstrapped and then angel funded things.

I wish I'd never seen Godfather III. When Michael Corleone sits down in that wooden chair in the vineyard and his entire life flashes before him. That haunts me. Am I going to be proud that I took chances and embraced the full range of emotions that life has to offer? Or would it be rather dull for the most part although numbingly comfortable in an upper middle class way.

[waterlesscloud]

I'm a few years older than you and feel exactly the same way.

Which is good.

Because I'm finally motivated to actually accomplish something. For whatever reason the motivation wasn't that strong when I was younger, but now it is.

[hef19898]

Being just shy of 31, and I feel something like that coming. Kind of depresed me lately.. Especially after I started loosing to 20-somethings in BJJ quite regularly :-)

What I realized can be a problem when you are acting out of age is the reaction of others. Even if no one thought I'm in my 40ies yet, I do act differently than others in my age (for various reasons). The point is that people expect you to act like other people in the early thierties. Sometimes in big corp world that can pose problems.

Guess it's the same when you ARE 40 and still act like you were 20.

[mindcrime]

Being just shy of 31, and I feel something like that coming. Kind of depresed me lately.. Especially after I started loosing to 20-somethings in BJJ quite regularly :-)

FWIW, you're probably in your physical prime right now, barring weird circumstances. The "losing to 20-somethings" is probably just a run of bad luck, or you happened across a particularly talented group by happenstance, or you're losing focus for some reason, etc.

For most men, you don't really start declining physically until your late 30's or even into your 40's. Then you start getting drops in testosterone, etc. But, the good news is, men (and probably women to, not sure on this point) can gain strength and muscle mass well into their later years. You may have to work harder in the gym to keep up, but don't feel like you became a frail old man at 30 or anything. I'm pretty sure I know some 50 year olds who could kick all our asses at BJJ. :-)

[hef19898]

That's what I keep telling me!