My brother just turned 38. He said getting older was more difficult at 35 and 36, but now he’s adjusted to it and doesn’t mind at all.
I’d never thought about this explicitly, but it felt true for me too. I’m 36. In my early 30’s, I still felt young and, like all the rest of my life up until then, never really thought about age. But age 34, 35, and 36 all seemed to be big turning points. Somewhere in there, framing changes. Nothing I do in my life from here on out has any additional value for being done “early”.
Of course we all love being thought highly of by others, but being seen as ahead of my peers by the outside world isn’t the real thing I cared about. It’s not just a sense of drive, speed, and trajectory. It’s a sense of freedom and looseness. Early in the game, you feel you’ve got enough time to pivot and make up for just about any crazy thing. There are infinite re-inventions and new directions. The course is so early that small deviations can result in huge changes in the long term.
Visualize it in a really practical way we’re all familiar with. Investment projections. You’ve seen those charts that show likely return at age 70 or whatever of $100 a month invested from age 20. If you don’t start until 30, the difference at 70 is immense. (At historical rates, we’re talking $3.9M if you start at 20, and $1.1M if you start at 30. Play around here if you want.)
Now apply that not just to finances, but everything. The later you go, the smaller the end of life impact. There is a sense in which leverage decreases as you age.
But that’s not all there is. Leverage also increases, because you begin every day with a larger accumulation of human capital than the day before. You have more to deploy on every move you make. You don’t start from zero. You don’t have as much time as when you were young, but you have more of everything else.
After turning 36 last year, and especially after moving into an advisor role for my first company Praxis at the end of 2019, I no longer feel pained by aging. I closed chapter one in The Life and Times of Isaac Morehouse (a running joke with my kids). Young man Isaac started and built a company, made a difference, overcome a lot of shit, had fun, and handed the reigns to the next generation. Medium-aged Isaac is just beginning. And he’s got all kinds of assets no young man ever could.
It’s a great feeling. I like aging. I like change, and I’m not super sentimental. No, I don’t like the increased need for body maintenance, but everything else about getting older is fun, or at least not unfun. I’ve more than made my peace with it.
At least for now. There’s probably a next tier, maybe when my kids start to leave the house and set off, where I’ll have to make peace with a new stage.