There are lots of reasons to read this blog but, in this special two part post, I am going to give you the ultimate gift …
… I’m going to add 20 years to your life!
After all, what good is life after work (a.k.a. retirement) if you die soon after?
[AJC: we can thank TraineeInvestor for this link – the inspiration for these posts; yet another reason to keep a close eye on the comments to my posts 😉 ]
More on that on Wednesday …
Today, I want to give you just one – important – reason for starting your own 7m7y journey while you are still in your 20’s; according to 林星雄 博士, a Chinese-American engineering Phd:
The Nobel Laureate, Dr. Leo Esaki, indicated that most of the great discoveries and innovations by the Nobel Laureates occurred at the average age of 32 even though the Nobel prizes were awarded 10 or 20 years afterwards. Furthermore, Dr. Esaki indicated that the peak creativity of most scientists occurred around the age range of 20 to 30 years. As one gets older, the experience increases but the creativity decreases steadily with the age.
It is, therefore, very important to stimulate, encourage and cultivate many young people to get interested in science and engineering at their young age and to provide the optimal R&D environment for these very powerful young scientists and engineers to unleash their very strong creativities during their most precious and creative years around the age of 32.
Let me suggest to you two things, if you want to get rich(er) quick(er):
1. A fast track to wealth requires, over any other quality, creativity … the vision to start a business, or to find out-performing real-estate, or to be able to choose the star stocks rather than the dogs. In every endeavor in life, and none more so than wealth-building, does creativity matter.
2. It’s not just for scientists that “the peak creativity” occurs “around the age range of 20 to 30 years”, but for ALL manner of creativity.
In other words, if you want to get rich, you had better do your best to find that path during your 20’s, because the chances of you creating your fortune diminishes every year past the age of 30 or so.
Sure, lots of people have started businesses and become rich later in life (take me – and, my father – as but two minor examples), but if you now know that your optimum creative time is between 20 and 30, why would you wait?
I’ll give you a far more powerful reason to Get Rich, Start Soon (TM) next 🙂
I’ve been thinking about this post for the past several days. Two explanations for this phenomenon immediately came to mind and I haven’t been able to dismiss them:
1. Familial and financial obligations typically increase with age, which for most people serve to reduce risk-taking — creative — behaviors.
2. The drumbeat of society’s message of lowered expectations wears on a person with time, such that the individual begins to accept that what he has achieved by a point in time, perhaps by age 35, is indicative of what he will achieve during the course of the remainder of his life. In other words, he is made to think that there is little reason to seek something greater than what he has by that point in time.
Of these two explanations, I admit to the reality of the first and struggle to oppose the second. I’m married and have two children, so any risk-taking that I endeavor to do now impacts four people, not one. In terms of the message of lowered expectations, I still refuse to believe that my standard of living cannot continue to improve. At the same time, I am currently bound by the reality of a linear income that is subject to ever-increasing taxation, so it becomes increasingly difficult to markedly improve my standard of living over time.
TECHNOmancer
@ TECHNOmancer – I wouldn’t discount biological / physiological reasons, either … although, there are plenty of old/young chess grandmasters alike (does that require creativity?).
Keep in mind that plenty of people DID start late in life 🙂