Sorry it's too late. You've missed the boat

For those who think it's too late to start

“It’s too late. I’m too old.”

For much of my life I have been haunted by the fear that I’ve missed the boat.

I am 38 going on 40. I have a loud negative voice who never leaves my side and always makes himself known in moments of doubt, fear and indecision.

Starting to write online this late in life feels kind of ridiculous. It’s like that adult student who goes back to university in their 30’s or 40’s and sits in a lecture hall with 20 years olds.

It’s weird and sad and you’re like “what happened to this guy? What went wrong?”

Nothing went wrong.

These are just the kind of insecurities that the negative voice feeds on.

You must separate yourself from the psychological terrorism that the negative voice subjects you to.

If you allow insecurities and negative patterns into the architecture of your identity it will weaken your sense of self. So much so that you will crumble and fall at the first challenge.

Thinking that you are “over the hill” will make you over the hill - This is a mindset problem.

“It’s too late” is just one excuse of many. It’s a way for you to cocoon yourself from a metaphorical death that failure instigates.

It’s a reinforcing cycle of apathetic inertia and misery. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

So how do you solve this problem?

How do you quiet the negative voice and reframe who you are and what you want?

By building a guiding vision, and creating a system which fuels this vision with energy.

This will allow you to push past the cynics and continue to execute on that vision even when that voice gets so loud that it’s hard to concentrate.

---

In my previous letter I talked about why “Just start” is terrible advice. In that letter I shared practical steps for building a strategy before you start. You can check that out HERE.

Building a vision and a system to fuel that vision with is incredibly important. I will go into the mechanics of this in my next letter. For now the most important thing is to address your limiting beliefs.

The first step to building a vision starts with the present.

What do you have to work with ?

• Skillset.

• Mindset.

• Beliefs

Where are you working from?

• Scarcity vs. abundance

• Urgency vs. strategy

• Self-deception vs. self awareness

Your mindset and beliefs determine your skillset. Your level of self deception influences which path you take.

---

It’s all about culture

Society, culture, belief this is all a story. It’s  a collective perspective. To believe that success belongs to youth is true or false depending on which cultural lense you choose to view it through.

Eastern cultures respect age and experience. Western culture lusts after youth. Neither is right. Neither is wrong.

I have battled with the dichotomy of not starting for most of my adult life.  In my 20’s I became interested in learning languages but I thought it was too late. Some of my classmates had been learning since they were 12 years old. They were already fluent.

At 20 it was far too late. My brain was almost fully formed and neuroplasticity meant it would be much harder for me now than it was for my classmates who started at 12 and could pick it up intuitively. There was no way I could catch up to them.

Wrong!

This mindset is fundamentally flawed. At 20 I had an innate interest which I did not have at 12.

Fanning the flames of curiosity with the benefit of experience and self knowledge is more than enough to offset any disadvantage of neuroplascicity.

I now speak fluent German. Better German than my childhood friend who studied it at Cambridge university.

Every time you prove the negative voice wrong he looses a little power. There are countless examples of prominent people doing this all the time.

---

One of my favourites is the story of Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho is the author of the Alchemist - a book which has sold over 150 million copies.

His parents committed him to a mental asylum when he was 17 years old.

He escaped 3 times until he was finally released at age 20.

After this he gave up his dream of becoming a writer to pursue a career in law.

in 1982 at age 35 he published his first book. It was not a success. In 1988 at the age of 41 he published the alchemist. It did not sell well and after only a year the publisher (Rocco) gave him back the rights and ceased to work with him.

Reeling from this blow he went to the Mojave Desert for 40 days and 40 nights to heal.

After searching for a very long time he eventually found another publisher to take hm on. It was not an overnight success. It was a very slow burn. It only became an international best seller years after it was first published.

It took him well over 20 years to achieve his dream of becoming a writer. 99% of people give up before their own inflection point has reached it’s peak.

---

You are not too old to start. This is your call to go all in.

Belief, faith and persistence. These are all the qualities you need to get started and keep going. These beliefs paired together with a strong strategy will set you up for success.

In that context here are 3 simple reasons why it’s not too late to start creating with a newsletter, blog or YouTube channel, regardless of how old you are.

1. The internet is more vast than you can imagine.

The reason you think it is too late to start is

1. The market is over saturated

2. Only young people are successful online

3. No one will ever find me.

The market is never saturated for new and innovative perspectives. You might be saying exactly the same thing as 100 other people but you’re saying it as you. You are the differentiator. Your voice. Your perspective. Your experience makes your content unique. How you share is as important as what you share and no one else can share their ideas exactly like you.

Over saturation is a limiting belief just like “it’s too late” or “only young people succeed.” Successful people do not buy into that.

A 40 year old audience can relate to a 40 year old writer. Teenagers relate more to 20 year old creators. If you put yourself out there in an authentic way “your people” will naturally gravitate towards you. It’s that simple

2. You have value to share

Flip your limiting beliefs on their head. Starting something new later in life has far more advantages than drawbacks.

You must first live your live before you can write about it.

At 40 (or 50,60,70)  you have infinite more life experience, resources and ideas than you did at 20. You can share a perspective that reflects a live lived.

At 20 your perspective revolves around studying and working out what to do after uni. At 40 you may have lived in several different countries. You might be married with kids.

You will have worked a number of different job. Quit or been fired. Started over again. Climbed the career management ladder. Decided it’s not for you. There is so much substance that you can share.

At 20 you have valuable perspectives on study, education, and growing up.

At 30 you have valuable perspectives on love, careers and finding your way.

At 40 you have valuable perspectives on relationships, marriage, family and children.

Every age has immense value to share. Every lived experience will have relevance to someone else. You have value and a duty to share it with the world.

3. The creator economy is just getting started

The creator economy is a 250 Billion dollar industry estimated to reach 480 Billion by 2027.

This is a growing industry. Every business needs a website, every website needs to be marketed.

Businesses still haven’t yet understood the power of creators. More and more are turning to them for marketing, reach and expertise. Having a presence online is an asset which could potentially pay dividends down the line.

5 years ago brand deals and sponsorships were not the norm today every business has a budget for influencer marketing and brand integrations. It is the future of advertising and the attention of the world has turned digital.

There has never been a better time to enter the creator economy than now.

Start now, learn the basics, iterate increase your knowledge and skill set so that you can take advantage of the next energy infusion into the creator economy.

A YouTube channel, blog or newsletter can be done any time from anywhere without financial investments.

The only thing that is stopping you from making a plan and executing on it is you.

Control your consumption increase your creativity and bannish the cynics from your mind.

Enjoy the rest of your day. bye