Rich Karlgaard heard a dog barking while he was working as a night guard. The loud barking came from a nearby lot. When he went to check, he found the dog, a Rottweiler, belonged to his colleague, another guard. At the time, Karlgaard, a Stanford graduate, was working nights while his friends were doing incredible things. It was undoubtedly a low point in his life, especially during years when societal expectations were for him to soar. For him, success took a little longer.
In his 2019 book “Late Bloomers“, Rich Karlgaard, author, journalist, and Forbes magazine publisher since 1992, advocates for patience in a culture obsessed with early success. Rather than spotlighting those who achieved greatness young, Karlgaard highlights individuals who found success in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, recognizing that rapid excellence isn’t feasible for most people. Not “making it” by age 30 doesn’t mean you don’t have what it takes.
Forbes, despite the current stance of its publisher, is renowned for its “30 Under 30” list, which emphasizes early success and sets expectations for rapid excellence. In a culture where delayed achievement is often equated with a lack of ability, sudden success at an older age is seen as an anomaly. In other words, fast equals smart, and slow equals, well, not smart. This message holds us back as individuals and as a society. It hinders our progress in an evolving world of work where we will need to build career after career over many more years. Late successes shouldn’t be rare; they need to become the norm.
Marriage, Homeownership, and the Modern Success Timeline
The starting point for this expectation is the societal belief that links success with age. However, data shows a growing gap between people’s expectations about the timelines of life’s milestones and when they are achieved. At Stanford, “The Milestones Project” was developed to better understand how life events change across generations. It appears younger generations experience life events, like marriage and buying a home, later than what is still considered acceptable today.
This research shows that in American culture, the ideal timeline for achieving significant milestones has remained constant in the perceptions of interviewees over the years. The “American Dream” expects young people to start working full-time at age 22, start saving for retirement at age 25, get married at age 27, buy a home by age 28, and start a family by age 29. This timeline of expectations hasn’t changed for generations.
What has changed is reality. According to the research, it has become increasingly common to experience major life events at later ages than previous generations. With each age group, there is a decline in the percentage of people who meet the expected timeline compared to the generation before them. Among those aged 25-34, the largest gap exists between the ideal timeline and reality. These unrealistic expectations trip up younger generations and fuel the notion of being “late.”
But there’s another, more encouraging way to look at this data. The fact that fewer people “meet the expectation” of completing certain life events at specific ages suggests that more people today are blooming later. More than ever, individuals are succeeding at different stages of life. These are the people who, at 40, 50, and 60, felt unsatisfied and made significant changes in their lives and careers. They realized that following others’ perceptions of success wouldn’t lead them where they wanted to go, and this change brought them to places of great meaning and contribution. This insight is important for all of us. Viewing a career as a long runway to success offers flexibility. It invites us to discover what drives us, what is meaningful to us, and what we truly want to do, not just what we should do or what others expect us to do.
Unlocking Potential: The Late Gifts of a Career
But expectations aren’t the only aspect with a timeline; skills development follows one too. The idea that we gain gifts with age is backed by research. A study led by Harvard researchers examined during which decades of our lives different abilities peak. It turns out the answer depends on the type of intelligence and skills being tested, and we have several. It’s not surprising that quick processing abilities and memory peak in our 20s. But in the following decades, we learn to recognize complex patterns, develop empathy and compassion, and enhance communication skills—everything needed to grow into managers and leaders. A career has life cycles, and there’s no reason to think different skills won’t manifest at different stages.
Today, many people find they are achieving their potential and experiencing economic prosperity at different stages of their lives. Understanding this has never been more important, both as individuals and as a society. In a changing work world, we will go through more career cycles than before, working in more than one place, occupation, and employment form, sometimes simultaneously. Recognizing that we can bloom repeatedly is critical to maintaining a long and successful career.
In his book, Karlgaard describes blooming as the intersection of skills and passions—passions so deep that we are willing to sacrifice for them, often seen as a calling. When we reach this point, societal expectations no longer pressure us. Instead, we are driven by a greater purpose, providing a sense of grit and perseverance that those driven solely by expectations lack.
We must change the narrative around success and age. We can’t afford to continue ignoring the potential within those who already have several decades of work experience. As a society, we should stop seeing late bloomers as an anomaly. Considering that we live longer, change careers more often, and seek more meaning in our work, it makes sense that more people will bloom later in life. Through this process, we can hope that the stigma of achieving success at an older age will disappear, becoming just as impressive and expected as doing so by age 30.
