For a decade and a half, my job has been to identify and write about the classic books in the self-improvement and self-growth field. It's been a great experience that has enriched me in many ways, but about half-way through the project I started to get a sense of something missing. In all the talk of goals and aims and 'staying positive', there seemed to be an avoidance of the one thing that we absolutely need to achieve anything real: time.
Books with titles like Change Your Life in 7 Days, while superficially attractive, have nothing to do with the reality of building success through the years and decades. While it feels great to be inspired by a book or a motivational seminar, these pumped-up moments tell us nothing about how we bring desired things into being across a lifetime.
In my research I discovered that: Mother Teresa didn't found her Missionaries of Charity order until she was 40, after having spent 19 years as a schoolteacher; Ray Kroc was 52 by the time he purchased the original McDonald's restaurant to turn it into the famous chain; Daniel Libeskind, lead architect of the new World Trade Center, did not see his first building erected until he was in his 50s; E Annie Proulx, author of Brokeback Mountain and The Shipping News, did not find commercial success as a writer until her mid-50s, having spent years as a struggling journalist bringing up two sons; Momofuku Ando was 49 when, after endless experiments in a back yard kitchen, he perfected his recipe for the instant noodle. And Emily Kngwarreye, the first Aboriginal artist to sell a painting for over $1 million, did not even pick up a brush until she was 79.
Are these late starters the aberration, or the norm? Their trajectories don't refute the fact that some people do achieve great things when young, but the visibility of young stars blinds us to the way that most people do, in fact, succeed - over decades, and by taking a long view of their lives and careers. The irony is that this more realistic approach, precisely because it factors in obstacles, changes of mind and unexpected events, makes genuine success more likely.
As recent data has pointed out, the idea that most entrepreneurs are 22 is a complete myth. Starting new enterprises is not a 'monopoly of the young', and thank God it is not.
There is a saying, "Most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year, but underestimate what they can achieve in a decade." And with longer lifespans, most of us have second, third or fourth chances to begin and complete big life projects that may never have been possible if we had lived in another generation. Our culture that glorifies instant success when, particularly given the facts around increasing longevity, it makes a lot more sense to go to the other extreme and think long...to see our lives in terms of ripening or unfolding. As Warren Buffett once said:
"No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time: you can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant."
Things of value often come into being too slowly for us to notice, working on timescales beyond normal apprehension. Just as the human eye and brain cannot 'see' plants growing in real time, but only notice growth in hindsight, so we often cannot appreciate the progress we have made. Tragically, people often give up because the indications of progress are too subtle, yet the point at which we think we are 'finished' can actually mark the beginning of our rise.
Each of us has foundations that we can build on to create something remarkable. At the time, our experiences may seem exactly what we don't want, but given time we can come to appreciate them as building blocks. The key is to take the longer view, and continually ask ourselves how we can use our background and experiences to good ends. Most people's mental images of time are drawn from fear, but in seeing time as a help, not a hindrance, we give ourselves an unusual advantage in a speed-obsessed world. Instead of racing against time, a more measured view of achievement may bring you to a surprising realisation: whatever you have done so far, it has just been a warm-up for your real contribution.