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When does someone become too old to make a meaningful contribution?
Consider a few examples.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composing music as a child. Frédéric Chopin produced some of his most celebrated compositions while still in his twenties. Freddie Mercury was in his late twenties when Queen recorded Bohemian Rhapsody.
Apparently, youth is no obstacle to accomplishment.
But what about the other end of the spectrum?
Grandma Moses began painting seriously in her late seventies and became an internationally recognized artist. Colonel Harland Sanders was in his sixties when he began franchising Kentucky Fried Chicken. Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first Little House book at age 65.
Apparently, age isn't an obstacle either.
We often celebrate youthful achievement while treating later-life accomplishments as remarkable exceptions. Why?
Experience can be an extraordinary asset. Decades of successes, setbacks, observations, relationships, and lessons learned provide resources that younger people simply haven't had time to accumulate.
But experience alone guarantees nothing.
Some people spend forty years learning. Others spend one year learning and repeat it thirty-nine times. We see this in government contracting frequently—someone who claims seventeen years of experience but has never done anything more complicated than low-dollar simplified acquisitions. A worthy skill, certainly, but hardly evidence of broad and deep experience.
The difference is how diligently people build their talent stacks and what they do with their experiences.
Sustained Leadership is not something you achieve at a particular age, receive with a promotion, or abandon upon retirement.
It is a continuing journey of deliberate development. The sooner you start that journey, the greater your opportunities to build a meaningful legacy and leverage what you've learned.
Perhaps you have been postponing something because you believe your opportunity has passed. Perhaps you've been telling yourself that you should have started twenty years ago.
You can't change yesterday. But you can choose what you do today. Only you can decide when you start again.
Quiet Dare: Identify something worthwhile you've postponed because you thought you were too old, too inexperienced, or too late. What could you do toward it during the next seven days?
To your personal leadership journey,
Tom
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