You are never too old to start

I'm too old to start a company.

If Morris Chang had believed that at 55, we wouldn't have TSMC - the $700B company whose chips are the invisible foundation of our entire digital world.

He'd already been passed over for promotion. Failed at another company. In Silicon Valley terms, his career was supposed to be over.

Instead, he moved to Taiwan and created not just a company but an entirely new business model that revolutionized how technology is built.

The youth-obsessed tech narrative tells us innovation belongs to 20-somethings in hoodies: Gates (19). Jobs (21). Zuckerberg (19).

In reality, the data shows a different story:

• The average successful founder is 42

• A 50-year-old is nearly twice as likely to build a high-growth company as a 30-year-old

• The least successful founders? Those we glorify most? Early 20-somethings

Chang's genius wasn't technical brilliance, either.

It was seeing what everyone else missed after 30 years in semiconductors—that companies designing chips and companies manufacturing them could be separate entities.

"I could not have done it sooner," Chang said. "I don't think anybody could have done it sooner. Because I was the first one."

This insight (which transformed the entire industry) wasn't born from “youthful ambition,” but from decades of understanding problems deeply enough to see their solutions.

Because experience isn't baggage:

It's context.

It's pattern recognition.

It's knowing which risks are actually worth taking.

Today, every iPhone, every AI server, every Tesla runs on chips manufactured by the company Chang built after most would have settled into retirement.

So the next time you think your moment has passed - remember that your greatest contribution might still be ahead, built on the foundation of everything you've learned so far.

What could you build with all your hard-earned wisdom?

Author

AiUTOMATING PEOPLE, ABN ASIA was founded by people with deep roots in academia, with work experience in the US, Holland, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam. ABN Asia is where academia and technology meet opportunity. With our cutting-edge solutions and competent software development services, we're helping businesses level up and take on the global scene. Our commitment: Faster. Better. More reliable. In most cases: Cheaper as well.

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