TL;DR: Aging Empowers Entrepreneurs by Helping Them Shed Unnecessary Stressors
As entrepreneurs age, achieving happiness becomes easier as they naturally let go of seven common stressors that dominate younger years , including societal validation, career deadlines, and toxic relationships. Studies reveal older founders feel more resilient, focused, and strategic, prioritizing meaningful goals over external pressures.
• Key Insights: Decision-making becomes clearer as priorities solidify. Founders embrace long-term goals, foster authentic connections, and shed comparison traps.
• Pro Tip: To fully harness this shift, practice boundary-setting, seek mentorship, and focus on timeless strategies.
Want to connect with seasoned entrepreneurs who've embraced this clarity? Explore Silicon Canals' network for more growth insights.
Aging is often associated with wisdom, but what many entrepreneurs fail to realize is that happiness becomes easier to achieve with time, especially as old stressors lose their grip. Groundbreaking studies in psychology and mental health suggest that people over 35 are more likely to reevaluate their priorities, allowing them to focus on what truly matters. From societal expectations to career timelines, seven stressors that once dictated much of our energy and decisions begin to fade into insignificance as we grow older , this phenomenon is empowering and liberating, especially for founders navigating high-pressure environments. Let’s dive into why this matters and how you can leverage these insights to boost your happiness as you age.
What former stressors lose their weight as you age?
As someone who has founded four ventures, including those in tech and e-commerce, I’ve had my share of sleepless nights, questioning whether I was doing enough or “keeping up”. But now, as a woman in her mid-40s, I’ve realized that so much of the anxieties from my younger years were not only fleeting but largely unimportant. Here are seven stressors that used to keep young entrepreneurs restless yet feel irrelevant as they grow older.
- What everyone thinks about your life choices: As an entrepreneur, my early years were consumed by a need to prove myself to investors, colleagues, and even distant relatives. By your mid-30s, however, your focus shifts toward what you truly value , validation from others begins to feel unnecessary.
- Having the ‘perfect’ social media presence: Initially, I felt the pressure to make my professional achievements and personal adventures ultra-visible to everyone online. Today, my digital footprint is smaller but more intentional. Founders and CEOs embracing digital minimalism can find relief and real connection in authentic storytelling.
- FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): Early career ambitions often accompany anxiety about “missing the next big trend or event.” Now, I appreciate that you’re not defined by what parties you attended or rooms you were invited into but by where you truly created impact.
- Career deadlines: I used to feel suffocated by self-imposed deadlines, telling myself I had to hit certain milestones by age 30 or 35. With experience, I’ve learned that every career path is unique, and contrary to the narrative, there’s no expiration date on success.
- Keeping up with trends: The need to always know ‘what’s hot’ fades with maturity. Aging allows entrepreneurs to understand that focusing on timeless principles and long-term strategies beats trend-chasing every time.
- Maintaining toxic relationships: Younger me often hesitated to sever draining connections. With age comes the wisdom to prioritize meaningful relationships and set boundaries. “Energy vampires” are cast out for the sake of peace.
- Worrying about aging signs: Gray hairs and laugh lines used to send me straight to skincare consultations. Today, I embrace these as symbols of a seasoned entrepreneur who’s lived through late nights, triumphs, and lessons. Emotional resilience trumps appearances.
Why do entrepreneurs feel more resilient with years?
Resilience doesn’t happen overnight , it’s cultivated through tough experiences, failures, and shifting goals. Entrepreneurs in their 20s and early 30s carry the weight of self-doubt, external expectations, and a strong desire to prove their worth. Yet as time progresses, several factors contribute to why older founders often feel lighter, stronger, and more grounded:
- Clarity in decision-making: With age, priorities solidify. A seasoned founder knows how to identify what truly matters for their venture and discard distractions.
- Better delegation skills: Younger entrepreneurs often try to do it all. Experience teaches older founders the importance of surrounding themselves with a capable team and trusting them.
- Embracing long-term goals: Rather than aiming for fast, flashy success, mature entrepreneurs understand how to work with patience and strategy.
- Letting go of the comparison trap: Growing older means recognizing the futility of comparing personal success to competitors or peers. Founders spend more time celebrating their wins rather than measuring them.
How can founders harness this shift for growth?
Entrepreneurs looking to use the clarity and happiness that comes with aging need to implement intentional habits. For starters, practice setting boundaries with work. Learn that it’s okay to say no to unproductive meetings or partnerships that deviate from the bigger picture.
- Pursue mentoring: If you’re exploring new paths or questioning your direction, seek guidance from mentors who themselves developed resilience through experience. Their insights are priceless, as highlighted by the research found at Silicon Canals’ article on aging entrepreneurial wisdoms.
- Identify stress triggers: Keep a journal to document recurring workplace stressors. Solutions live in patterns!
- Regular breaks: Create sacred time never allocated to work. Burnout prevention starts with carving out space to recharge.
Conclusion: Age is your unfair advantage (if you let it be!)
Happiness is no longer a mystery for entrepreneurs navigating middle age. It begins when you realize happiness isn’t found in controlling outcomes but rather in controlling your attention. The stressors that weigh us down in our entrepreneurial youth , societal validation, comparison traps, trend pressures , don’t deserve the energy we’re conditioned to give them.
Remember, age is an ally. The moment you embrace the process and allow yourself to focus on where your passions meet impact, you’ve unlocked the true potential of a founder’s career. As entrepreneurs, we’re often told to “never stop hustling.” Well, I say this: Never stop choosing fulfillment over frenzy.
Want to find clarity and connect with like-minded founders who’ve been through this evolution? Explore the global entrepreneur network at Silicon Canals and discover how you can practically implement these lessons for yourself!
FAQ About Aging, Stress, and Entrepreneurial Happiness
Why do people tend to feel happier as they age?
Happiness tends to increase with age due to a natural shift in priorities and an improved ability to manage stress. As people mature, they often let go of unnecessary stressors like worrying about others’ opinions or chasing social validation. Research highlighted in the Silicon Canals article on aging and stressors reveals that this change is linked to mental resilience developed over time. With age comes clarity, allowing people to focus on what truly matters, such as meaningful relationships, personal growth, and impactful career goals.
What stressors become irrelevant as people get older?
Seven common stressors tend to lose their grip with age, including the need for external validation, pressure to maintain a perfect social media presence, fear of missing out (FOMO), self-imposed career deadlines, toxic relationships, endless trend-chasing, and worrying about physical signs of aging like wrinkles. Letting go of these unnecessary pressures provides more mental clarity and a stronger sense of peace. To get a full list and actionable insights, visit the Silicon Canals overview.
Why is letting go of social media pressures so liberating?
Many young entrepreneurs feel a need to constantly curate a flawless digital persona, which can lead to exhaustion and anxiety. However, as outlined in the Silicon Canals article, people often realize as they age that true connections and relationships are more valuable than online validation. Embracing digital minimalism , such as posting less frequently or deliberately , opens up time for real-world opportunities and relationships.
How can aging improve relationships for entrepreneurs?
With age comes the wisdom to prioritize healthier, more meaningful relationships and cut out toxic connections. Spending energy on “energy vampires” or superficial connections often feels less important to older individuals. Founders can benefit from focusing on smaller circles of authentic support, which are essential during challenging business phases. Learn more by reading how experienced entrepreneurs shift their mindset as they age at Silicon Canals.
What is the role of emotional resilience in entrepreneurial success?
Emotional resilience is a key factor that helps entrepreneurs manage stress and recover from failures. As noted in psychology studies and echoed by successful entrepreneurs, this resilience often grows with experience, making older individuals better equipped to accept setbacks, adapt to challenges, and focus on long-term goals rather than immediate gratification. See how experience impacts resilience and emotional well-being.
How can age change an entrepreneur’s perspective on career timelines?
In their early years, many professionals impose strict deadlines for achieving career milestones, which creates unnecessary stress. With age, however, the understanding that success does not follow a universal timeline becomes more apparent. Founders in their 40s and beyond often realize that every career path is unique and nonlinear, enabling them to make more thoughtful decisions.
What strategies can founders adopt to embrace happiness as they age?
Entrepreneurs can actively embrace happiness by practicing work-life balance, setting boundaries, and focusing on long-term goals instead of short-term gains. Journaling helps identify stress triggers while consulting experienced mentors can provide clarity. Deliberate scheduling of breaks and non-work activities also prevents burnout. Check out practical advice for entrepreneurs at Silicon Canals.
Does aging impact our career ambitions?
Yes, aging often helps sharpen one’s focus on meaningful and sustainable growth instead of just career hustling and chasing milestones. For entrepreneurs, this could mean investing more in building quality products, cultivating strong employee relationships, or focusing on a clear niche. This mindset makes success less about external pressure and more about personal satisfaction.
Why is FOMO less relevant as people grow older?
Fear of missing out is especially common in the early stages of life when people feel the need to belong and prove themselves. As people grow older and gain confidence, they become more selective about how they spend their time. This shift allows them to focus on making a meaningful impact instead of trying to attend every event or follow every trend.
How does focusing on long-term goals increase happiness with age?
As entrepreneurs age, they learn the value of patience and strategy over short-term wins or flash-in-the-pan successes. By concentrating on actions that align with their long-term vision, founders often feel a sustained sense of purpose and stability, which contributes to greater happiness in the long run. This idea is emphasized in the article on entrepreneurial happiness and aging from Silicon Canals.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the “gamepreneurship” methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the point of view of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.