Age is Just a NUMBER | Late Bloomers' SUCCESS

Next, Rise Online. You can always expect a different question from Rise Online. Do you believe that people's lifespans, youth, and well-being can be extended, making it even less relevant what age you are when you start as a late bloomer?

So yeah, I do.

I, um, expanding life, lifespans, youth, and well-being.

Yeah, I think, um, so Evan, someone asked me the other day, you know, when are you going to retire, Stephen? And I said, I've set my retirement date. It's the day I die. Yeah, I love it. When you are so passionate about your business and you love what you're doing, um, well, I think you've got a much better karma. You can give much more to your family, your personal life, your friends. You know, no one wants to kind of go home and be bent out of shape. Um, people want to be positive energy. And all the entrepreneurs I know, you know, they've got huge energy, huge passion. They really believe they're following their dreams. And it does become contagious. It rubs off. And I've got no statistics to say you're going to live till you're 150 and you're going to have perfect health. But what I would say is, you know, you just got a much greater calm and you're probably having more fun in your life. If you're your own boss, you know, you're really accountable for everything good about what you created. And that's a very special and unique feeling. And I think, I do think it rubs off incredibly positively where it also, you know, probably means that your work and your life and your friends, there's a greater blurring. They're much more integrated. They're much more holistic. They're much more part of what your personality is.

I love it. In the pre-chat, we were talking about two entrepreneurs, Ray Kroc and Colonel Sanders. And Ray Kroc built McDonald's. And he was in his 50s and he already had diabetes and arthritis and lost most of his gallbladder. And, uh, and he was convinced that the best years were still ahead of him, you know, when he's in his 50s and have all these issues. And Colonel Sanders started KFC, uh, and he started franchising when he was in his 60s. And from '65 to '75, he opened up 600 stores. So you're like 65 years old, people thinking about retirement, and here's And Colonel Sanders saying, "No, I still got a lot of work to do. I'm going to open up 600 stores." And he kept working until the day he died too, 90 years old, building up KFC. And these are two guys who are in the restaurant business, which is, you know, the highest failure rate of any industry is the restaurant business. And they say, "I don't care, I'm going to do it." And so, you know, when you're at an age when most people think they're going to quit, that's just starting time for a lot of people. And I love that mentality. I think when you love what you do, then it's easy to want to keep going because it fuels you, gets you excited.

Yeah, and Evan, I'm interested. I came from a family of small business people. So my dad had a tea and coffee, you know, early version of Starbucks. And he did importing coffee and all that sort of stuff. And then he got sick actually, and we had to sell the business. He was probably 60 when he did that. And he got better and then he went to work for someone. But I remember coming home when I was a kid and he said, I just hate having to take orders and I can see so many things wrong with the business and we could do it so much differently and better. And yeah, he did that for 3 years. He got frustrated to say, I want to be my own boss again. I want to get back and go and do it all over again. And that's a guy in his 60s. And I think age is just— Evan's a young guy, I'm an old guy, but I feel like a 19-year-old kid in my head. And when you talk to whoever you talk to, you talk to your grandma, you ask them honestly, how do they feel in their head? They feel like they were 25 all over again. And I think a lot of people are seeing this now is you've got huge energy with the embracement of kind of the digital social media as well. Age has very little impact on your capability, your enthusiasm, your energy, and the experience you have. Is incredible. So some of the statistics over in the UK from older people, so over 50s are actually creating businesses. There's more than 50% more businesses created by over 50s than there were in 2008, 7 years ago. The other thing that's really interesting, they apply their experience, but their hiring is 7 times greater of employees than it is for any other business in the UK, the average. So what it means is more older people are starting their businesses. They're being more successful. The data is they're 29% more profitable. And also they're employing more people. That creates prosperity for rural communities, urban communities right across the UK. And the data is the same in the US. And I think also, Evan, I think people kind of get sick of corporate life. And when you're in your 50s, you've probably got reasonable financial security and you've got an idea and that's the time to say, now's the right time. I'll go and do what I've always dreamt of doing for the last 30 years and I'll go and follow my dreams. Great time to do it.

Yeah, it's great to see because, you know, I see a lot of people go into the corporate path and then the longer they stay there, the harder it is to get off. You know, the more they rely on that stability and they've built their family up. And so there's even more pressure to deliver results. And they say, well, if I was 20 and I didn't have a spouse and didn't have kids, it'd be way easier to do it. But it's great to see that people are now actually taking the opportunity to jump off and start their own business. I think, I think surrounding yourself with young energy helps too. You think I'm a young guy, but I'm the oldest guy in my company. In both my companies, everybody's younger than me. So, you know, they keep me vibrant and give me new ideas and energy. As well. So I think that can help too. If you're, you know, if your peer group isn't giving you the energy that you need, then change your peer group to get that vibe.

I've got a mortgage, I've got financial dependency, I've got my kids, and I just can't afford to take the risk. That's wrong. So there's a couple of ways you can think about how do I do a soft landing to an exit and start your business as an entrepreneur. One, do a bit of moonlighting. So you do your full-time job, you've got your evenings, weekends free, start your business. Secondly, if you've got a great relationship with your boss, say, how about a sabbatical? How about, you know, the reality, if you're great, that company will beg you to come back, whether it's a year, 2 years, 3 years. So you've got total security because you know you've got a job, so you can go out and you can fail fast, try a couple of things, and and have like a 2-year sabbatical where you go and live your dreams for that 2 years. If it takes off, never go back. So there's some smart ways you can think about, how do I actually use my existing company to give me a bit of time, space, or a bit of moonlighting? And ironically, a guy called Marc Benioff who started salesforce.com, amazing entrepreneur, amazing leader, built a great company, did exactly that from a company called Oracle. And Larry Ellison, the chief executive of Oracle, actually gave him space and some time off to start Salesforce back in, what was it, 2000? And now it's, I think, about a $7 billion company with a market value of probably 10 times that. So there's loads of ways, whether you're in the 50s, where if you think you've got financial security problems, there's got to be a way around it where you can follow your dreams, be an entrepreneur, and also maybe sometimes get your company to give you a bit of a buffer to actually start your dreams off.

I love it. That's the resourcefulness right there. I love it.