The Advantages Older Adults Bring To First-Time Entrepreneurship

According to the most recent Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship, the share of entrepreneurs age 55 to 64 has increased from 15 percent of new entrepreneurs in 1996 to 26 percent in 2016 — the latest year for which figures are available. Older men and women considering starting a business have several advantages over their younger counterparts, notes Forbes contributor Derek Lidow. Older adults project experience and prudence and are less likely to be mistaken about external factors like financing, customer expectations, and risk-taking. Having big-organization experience is excellent preparation for leading an enterprise through the later stages of growth. That is when reliable and repeatable processes, administrative efficiency, astute talent management, and operating at scale count for far more than so-called rugged individualism. Those are the stages at which many first-time entrepreneurs fail, precisely because they lack such general management skills. Because older adults have been around longer, the network of people they can call on is typically much broader, deeper, and more diverse than the connections many young people have. What keeps many successful entrepreneurs going through the long hours, relentless demands, and constant stress of getting a new business off the ground is a primal fear of failure. This fear is often more acute in older would-be entrepreneurs who have enjoyed great success in business or other organizations. Having so rarely experienced failure in their careers, they inordinately fear it on the alien ground of entrepreneurship. But it's a fear that drives them forward.