There has been considerable discussion on a number of blogs about age and entrepreneurship. Some have come down on the side of younger (20-30) is better and some have come down on the side that older (30-40) is better. My take is the importance of intellectual curiosity filtered through experience and neither of those are necessarily age dependent. However, it’s important to note that age does typically deepen experience and in many cases intellectual curiosity (if it doesn’t turn into cynicism). The converse to that is that experience also dulls a person’s ability to think in novel approaches. However, I tend to believe that experience trumps youth. Now Marc Andreessen has posted an interesting entry on luck/chance - or maybe a better named - self made opportunity. His post has fleshed out the discussion in a direction that I really like. His notion is that being receptive to and acting upon ideas and opportunities createively as a fundamental way of operating is important and unusual and that it takes a combination of a mindset and experience to leverage operate fully. That really resonates with me. I know many entprenuers get asked - “how did you think of that” - I know I do. It’s important to note that the question really only comes when there is something that the person asking can see or touch or feel - not necessarily just an idea. But that “how did you think of that” is the ultimate key - the being receptive to an idea (creative syntesis) withing a framework (disparite elements) at a certain time (context/lack of context). Marc calls it luck. And I wonder if people who act in a creative manner are more likely to come up with creative solutions. I am not sure. I have known many many many many creative people who are definately not that. And moreso, I believe that analysis, luck (in Marc’s definition) and synthesis (creativity) are the hallmarks of innovation in any number of fields. It’s pretty clear in entreprenuership what that means. But you can also see it in the arts: Picasso in painting, Schoenberg in music, Hawking in physics, Marx in Sociology - and many many more. So, I am adding to my list of things I think are important in entrepreneurship:

  1. Intellectual curiosity
  2. Creative synthesis
  3. Intensive critical thinking
  4. Energy for creation

So far that’s a pretty good list. It’s missing things like delivery or focus, but that is coming.

Originally published on WordPress on August 14, 2007. Migrated to this blog on May 29, 2025.