On Taking Responsibility

I've come across entrepreneurs start off as early as 12 years old. However there was a study done that ranked entrepreneurs, their level of success and their age and found out that the average age of successful entrepreneurs was 42, not 27.

In my opinion, a big factor that contributes towards the success of an entrepreneur early on is their maturity - and that isn't related to age. The first sign of maturity, is taking responsibility.

It's not rare to have a slightly larger meeting and a few people show up late. If you haven't noticed yet, make a note of how many people first of all apologize for being late, and secondly own up for the reason as to why they were late. If you are lucky enough to see the first in action, in 99% of the case, there is always some other reason that made them late - it is never them.

And you don't have to look elsewhere. How do we handle that same situation?

That is taking responsibility for our actions.

When I was in University, each semester you'd have to go register for classes for your next semester. There were some students who were quite pro-active. They'd sit through classes for the semester but also check out a few professors whose classes they want to take next semester was a way to prepare. And when they find someone whose style of teaching they really liked, they'd go ahead and register for the classes - one semester ahead. And then there were students who would realize that they havent registered for a class which is a requisite for three other courses in the next semester and because of that, they are going to have to do an entire additional semester now. And they'd rush to the registrar's office and do the thing that most folks normally do.

The registrar had this big signage behind her, that she'd point to.

It used to say "a lack of planning on your part, does not necessarily constitute an emergency on my part". And that was all there was to be said.

I think we mistake being helpful, for trying to offset our ability to take responsibility for ourselves - and the first reaction when I saw that signage was "she is mean". But honestly, that was perhaps the most valuable lesson there was to be learnt. If you want to be the captain of your ship, then you need to take responsibility and not pass the onus on someone else - demanding that they bend over to accomodate your lack of planning.

This realization naturally occurs to folks when they turn around 40. And they realize that they aren't just responsible for themselves, but they are also responsible for the many souls and the families of those souls by running an org.

Any young entrepreneur who realizes this, and internalizes it to show in their actions will stand out. My guess would be, they would be in the top of their game, way ahead of 42.