Bernie Marcus was fired at 49, then co-founded Home Depot in a coffee shop with a partner. Research from The Atlantic shows people in their mid-40s to 50s are more likely to achieve breakthroughs and build successful companies than younger founders.
According to research cited in The Atlantic, a 45-year-old is twice as likely to produce a scientific breakthrough as a 25-year-old. The average successful entrepreneur is not 18, but 45. A tech founder who is 50 is twice as likely to build a successful company as one who's 30. Nobody puts that on a magazine cover. Bernie Marcus got fired from his job at a home improvement chain at age 49. He and his partner sat in a Los Angeles coffee shop for a year and hatched a new idea. They called it The Home Depot. By 1990, it was the largest home improvement chain in America. When Marcus died in 2024, his net worth was around $10 billion. Hey, that's not bad. He was nearly 50 when he started over. You don't hear that story nearly often enough. Ultimize. Ultimize.
You're Not Being Judged on Your Work Yet: What New Hires Are Really Evaluated On
