“Entrepreneur” means “young”. “Entrepreneur” means “energy.” “Entrepreneur” means “new.”

Right?

I was sent an article by The Economist that cites various studies showing that:

· There are more successful entrepreneurs over 50 and 60 than commonly thought.

·         The ratio of older to younger successful entrepreneurs is about 2-to-1.

·         Flexibility of mind seems to be present at higher age-brackets than in the past.

·         Creativity, when it involves complex problems across disciplines, is emerging later.

Here is a key excerpt from the article which I have broken up for easier reading:

Research suggests that age may in fact be an advantage for entrepreneurs.

Vivek Wadhwa of Singularity University in California studied more than 500 American high-tech and engineering companies with more than $1m in sales. He discovered that the average age of the founders of successful American technology businesses (i.e., ones with real revenues) is 39. There were twice as many successful founders over 50 as under 25, and twice as many over 60 as under 20.

Dane Stangler of the Kauffman Foundation studied American firms founded in 1996-2007. He found the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity among people aged between 55 and 64—and the lowest rate among the Google generation of 20-to 34-year-olds. The Kauffman Foundation’s most recent study of start-ups discovered that people aged 55 to 64 accounted for nearly 23% of new entrepreneurs in 2010, compared with under 15% in 1996.

My take is that there are two intersecting factors at work here:

1. Outdated mental pictures.

People’s energy level and health are extending highly productive life far longer than mental pictures internalized in our youth have led us to expect.

2. Handling complexity benefits from experienced pattern-recognition.

Our world is dishing up more complex problems. They cut across more and different swaths of life – whether you’re in politics, business, investing, science, medicine etc. Having a brain with bigger pattern-recognition software as a result of experience can be a deciding resource in solving such problems – including problems where you have to know if their solution lies inside, or outside, the box.