You're Probably A Late Bloomer
Youth success stories are great, but for most success doesn't come until later and that's alright.
Kristen Faulkner has an unlikely story. She was born in 1992 in Homer, Alaska, a small fishing village with a population of 5,522 and one road into the city. She spent her high school years 4,796 miles away at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts. She was a varsity runner, rower, and swimmer. She attended Harvard University, where she was a varsity rower for 2.5 years, graduating with a degree in computer science. After graduation, she worked in venture capital, but this is where her path diverges.
In 2017, she attended a free, introductory women’s cycling clinic in New York City and was hooked. It was a new sport, one she didn’t do in her youth. In 2018 she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and continued to cycle as an amateur before joining a professional team in 2020. But not to be forgotten, she was balancing a full-time job in venture capital and her budding cycling career. Over the next three years, the flower of her cycling career would begin to bloom, and she would represent the United States at three World Championships.
Earlier this year, at 31, she qualified for her first Olympic games as a last-minute replacement in the Women’s individual road race. Lacking the years of experience her competitors had and working on less than a month's notice, it’s fair to say the odds were stacked against her.
However, the story writes itself.
A woman competing on 26 days notice. A woman who began professionally cycling less than five years ago. A woman not expected to be a serious medal contender would take gold. Kristen Faulkner was at her best at 31.
Maybe our best days are never behind us. Maybe our best days go beyond our youth.
Society has a youth obsession. We are told to take outsized risks and chase our dreams when we are young, not at 31. We can’t quit the “next big thing”. We can’t quit the tale of the 17-year-old pop star Olivia Rodrigo, the 12-year-old football player “Baby Gronk”, or the 20-year-old entrepreneur Palmer Luckey.
A person who thinks there is an artificial deadline in life when we reach adulthood, 30, 40, or whatever age, won’t realize that the success of most comes after their youth. This idea sets an artificial deadline and ignores the eighth wonder of the world, compounding. It assumes life is a sprint and not a marathon. It imposes that life is over once your youth has passed. Yes, there are experiences and moments we should exploit during our youth, but they are limited. Life has proven to be a long game.
We romanticize our youth but our best days aren’t behind us. They lie in front of us. The reality is most of us are late bloomers. The more we let compounding work, the better we become.
Kristen Faulkner won a gold medal at 31. R.A. Dickey won the Cy Young Award, while setting MLB records, at 37. Warren Buffett accumulated 99.7% of his wealth after he turned 50.
Elliott Hill knows about being a late bloomer too. He is the next president and Nike CEO, but his journey began 32 years ago as a Nike intern. He spent ten years in sales before being elevated to director. He served as a Vice President and President along his climb up, but 32 years after his beginnings he reached the pinnacle.
Much of the success of Elliott, Kristen, and others can be attributed to the base they built in their youth and the relentless commitment maintained during their adult life. Kristen became an Olympic cyclist thanks to her aerobic base built by rowing, running, and swimming. Eventually, she realized her athletic potential through cycling. Elliott Hill became CEO by developing a skill and taste for what made Nike successful and was rewarded for it. It was the gravy to all the relationships, the networking, and the grunt work he put forth.
Elliott and Kristen have unique skill sets, but their secret is time. It is how they have succeeded.
Vera Wang didn’t design her first dress until she was 40. Henry Ford created the Model T car at 45. Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Peyton Manning all won an MVP award after they turned 37. Most people with an ounce of talent take time to succeed. They persist, remain resilient, do great work for years, and bam, one day the compounding explodes and pays off.
Our youth is not for making it. It is about figuring stuff out, trying new things, failing, and determining where our focus is best placed. Life gets better.
I used to be 23 and stuck in an existential crisis of sorts wondering why I wasn’t the cool, young entrepreneur with a thriving business. Instead, I thought I was stuck in the 9-5 matrix. Eventually, I realized these youth success stories weren’t so charming because anyone could do it, it was because so few did it. The pressure to figure out life and make a name for myself when I was young existed, but it was nothing more than an unrealistic societal pressure. Achieving anything takes time, and the idea of an overnight success is an oxymoron.
I didn’t need to be known for it. I needed to be known to be good at it, but being good at anything required time. The only way that works is not how quickly I got there but how much time, effort, and work I dedicated to it. Most of us are late bloomers, and the time at which we might bloom? Well, there is no expiration. Our best days lie ahead of us.
-Scantron
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A fun note - Kristen Faulkner also won gold in the women’s track cycling team pursuit.