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The Dirty Little (Encouraging) Secret About Entrepreneurs

OnYourOwnIt is often assumed that the most successful entrepreneurs in American society are young go-getters willing to take the ultimate risk and start a new business. Well you can substitute the word "youthful" for "young," because it turns out that middle-aged entrepreneurs are more successful than those who are young. Startling to some (perhaps including Boomers), this was demonstrated in a research study conducted this year. "Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship," a paper written by Pierre Azoulay (MIT), Benjamin F. Jones (Northwestern University), J. Daniel Kim (MIT), and Javier Miranda (U.S. Census Bureau) arrives at the following conclusion:

"Our primary finding is that successful entrepreneurs are middle-aged, not young. The mean founder age for the 1 in 1,000 fastest growing new ventures is 45.0. The findings are broadly similar when considering high-technology sectors, entrepreneurial hubs, and successful firm exits. Prior experience in the specific industry predicts much greater rates of entrepreneurial success. These findings strongly reject common hypotheses that emphasize youth as a key trait of successful entrepreneurs."

This conclusion is based on Census Bureau data used to study the ages of founders of growth-oriented start-ups in the past decade.

The authors of the paper write that "all evidence points to founders being especially successful when starting businesses in middle age or beyond, while young founders appear disadvantaged." They go on to say, quite specifically, that "Conditional on starting a firm, a 50-year-old founder is 1.8 times more likely to achieve uppertail growth than a 30-year-old founder. Founders in their early 20s have the lowest likelihood of successful exit or creating a 1 in 1,000 top growth firm."

There can be no doubt about what the research discovered: "We find that age indeed predicts success, and sharply, but in the opposite way that many observers and investors propose. The highest success rates in entrepreneurship come from founders in middle age and beyond."

When you think about it, of course, this makes perfect sense. Why wouldn't someone with greater maturity and deeper business experience be more successful as an entrepreneur?

Still, the research paper, which you can access via the link above, might be useful to you in convincing friends, family, and financial lenders that you can succeed at doing your own thing! This research should be very encouraging to any Boomer who wants to start a business. Not only is it possible for you to do so, the evidence points to the fact that you are likely to be more successful than younger entrepreneurs, despite the typical perception. 

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