When is the best time to start a business?
We’ve all heard the tremendous success stories of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and others who started a business in their garage or dorm room, dropped out of school, and became billionaires.
These make great stories, but it’s just that, a great story. Everyone shouts “You have to start young”, but do you?
Here’s why starting a business in your 30s might be the most ideal time:
Zero to One
by Peter Thiel
⏱ 10 minutes reading time
🎧 Audio version available
The Potential for Long-Term Returns
The sooner you start a successful company, the longer you will be able to reap the rewards from that company. Starting a company young gives you plenty of time to grow that company, maximize its profits, and enjoy long-term returns.
Successful companies are not built overnight. Typically, it takes several years before a company starts to turn a profit and several years after that before it grows into a highly successful business.
The equation, therefore, is simple: the younger you are when you start a company, the more time that you will have available to grow that company into success and enjoy the rewards of your effort.
Most Businesses are Started by Entrepreneurs in Their 30s
If you want to see some statistics on why starting a business in your 30s is ideal, consider the fact that more than half of companies that were successful enough to last more than six years were founded by entrepreneurs in their 30s.
According to a 2015 study by the Census Bureau, 55% of companies that were 6 to 10 years old were founded by entrepreneurs in their 30s. This data alone shows that there must be something advantageous about starting a company in your 30s.
Almost half of founders in the tech industry are in their mid-thirties.
Source: Kauffman
More Energy and Enthusiasm
Starting a company and growing it into a success takes a lot of time and hard work. In order to be successful, you’re going to need a lot of energy and enthusiasm.
Of course, energy and enthusiasm are both in much higher supply when you are younger. The passion and energy of youth are excellent driving forces that can get you through the long days and nights that go along with running your own company, increasing the chances that you are able to reach your goals.
Related: 3 Amazing Startup Stories that Are Almost too Good to Be True
Higher Risk Tolerance
There are a lot of ingredients required to create a successful company. One of the most important of these ingredients, though, is risk tolerance– and people tend to have a lot more risk tolerance when they are younger than they do when they are older.
The older you get, the more financial responsibilities that you have, and these financial responsibilities can prevent you from risking your money on a new company. When you are younger, though, you tend to have fewer financial responsibilities as well as more time to bounce back from a failed risk, making it much easier to roll the dice and invest in your company.
People tend to know more entrepreneurs in their mid-thirties
Source: GEM 2015
The Potential for Serial Entrepreneurship
Most entrepreneurs are what you would call “serial entrepreneurs”, meaning that they start multiple companies over the course of their lifetime rather than just one. One of the biggest reasons for this is the fact that it is rare to start a highly successful company on your first attempt.
When starting a business in your 30s, though, you have the time to try again and become a serial entrepreneur. Regardless of whether your first business succeeds or fails, you will still be able to learn from both your successes and your failures and apply that knowledge to the next company that you start – and beginning this process young gives you more time to perfect your approach and become a successful serial entrepreneur.
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