I’m too old, too young or too poor. I don’t have the education. I’m not from the right family. I don’t have the connections, etc., ad nauseam.


I feel one of our jobs here at SUCCESS is to abolish the excuses we were fed to believe for why we are not living up to our potential and achieving the dreams we imagine.

In previous issues we’ve shown that the greatest entrepreneurs and achievers throughout history have come from varied backgrounds—whether born into wealth or poverty, the children of slaves or immigrants, college dropouts or intellectual giants, men or women, black or white or Asian or Hispanic. We’ve shown there is no particular cloth from which achievers are cut; they create their own destiny.

In this issue we set out to prove you can find success at any age. In the forthcoming pages we will demonstrate, through the examples of others, that there is no timeline for success—no invisible clock that says you have to be a certain age before you can achieve your goals, or that says your chance has passed, regardless of how many candles grace your birthday cake.

Having fought age discrimination myself as a young entrepreneur I can tell you firsthand, age is an illusion—for both the doer and the viewer. Like most things, age is a mindset, an attitude. You are as old as you think you are, and thus act, project and interact with the world around you. This projection is what everyone sees and feels from you, thus they respond accordingly. I have seen 80-year-olds (Paul J. Meyer, featured in the June/July issue, comes to mind) act more vivacious, youthful and energetic than most 18-year-olds. I have also met 18-year-olds more sensible, resourceful and seemingly wiser than many “veterans” in executive positions. Age is not the limitation; one’s attitude about age is.

Don’t believe me; believe Ani Patel, a 13-year-old social entrepreneur who is doing what adult onlookers thought was impossible. Then there is Dara Torres, the 41-year-old mother and Olympian who competed in Beijing against women young enough to be her children. And there is the great Tony Hawk, who has defied age on both ends of the spectrum. A pro athlete at 14, the best in the world at 16, and now, at 40 (considered “grandpa” age in skateboarding), he remains not only relevant, but in fact at the very top of a multibillion-dollar industry he helped create (hear a snippet from my interview with Tony)

So, the age card is shredded. You are free to achieve your greatest dreams no matter what age you start after them. Hey, why not start now?

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have always imagined.” —Henry David Thoreau

Darren Hardy
SUCCESS Publisher and Editorial Director

Other great features from the November issue of SUCCESS are:

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