This recent WSJ article profiling Morris Chang and his Taiwanese chip company TSMC helped to bust the myth that “younger people are just smarter” as Mark Zuckerberg suggested long ago before he got older (and, hopefully, wiser). 

Yes, as the graph below shows, some of our most famous tech companies were started by entrepreneurs younger than 30. 

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But, for every Steve Jobs or Larry Page, there are thousands of less successful tech bros whose companies crash and burn. In fact, the number one variable of successful entrepreneurs seems to be their prior employment in the area of their start-up (based upon this American Economic Association study).. Experience matters. As you see in this graph below, the likelihood that a start-up entrepreneur’s company becomes a break-out success (top 1% of start-ups) improves as one moves into their 40s and 50s.

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I’m so, so excited to be leading an “Entrepreneurship at any Age” workshop with Mackey McNeill in Santa Fe September 23-28 in collaboration with INC magazine. Whether you’re an existing entrepreneur or have always fantasized about doing your own thing, this is the workshop for you as we’ll be creating a Mastermind group as a result of this workshop to support you in your enterprise long after you’ve left our MEA campus. 

-Chip