Prospective business owners often enter the arena equipped with a foundational knowledge of entrepreneurship and a working understanding of the various risks, rewards, and uncertainties associated with business ownership—but often fail to take into account one of the most crucial variables of all: themselves.

There are a few critical components to consider when factoring yourself into the equation of successful business ownership.

What stage of life are you in?
To what degree will your life experiences (past, present, and future) influence your management style and time commitment to your business? How well might you anticipate strategies for addressing the growing pains of your company, all while navigating the ever-evolving nature of your personal life as you transition through stages of personal growth?

We’re gonna give it to you straight, hun–age plays an important role in how you interact with the world and respond to challenges–but it’s a complex and nuanced soup!

Each decade of your life has unique benefits and drawbacks when it comes to entrepreneurship. While some factors–such as energy level, cognitive fluidity, physical fitness and resilience to illness and injury, familiarity of current technology, and proclivity for risk taking–do decline with age, others–such as mastery of field-specific knowledge, emotional maturity and social intelligence, familiarity with and ease of navigating one’s professional world, and general interpersonal, financial, and professional stability tend to increase over time.

Additionally, one’s “Birth Cohort” (or “generation”) shapes the type and intensity of experiences an individual can expect to navigate, and are largely influenced by native cultural norms, societal expectations, social imprinting and acquisition of knowledge from parents, teachers, peers, partners, and media, as well as current political climate, geo-political events, natural disasters, and so on.

The following series will explore each stage of life and the ways in which certain age related factors may impact your management style, level of participation, and ability to engage with your business, as well as how best to approach business ownership decade by decade.

Pros, Cons, and Complications aside, business ownership is an endeavor anyone of any age can aspire to and succeed at!

Read on to learn more!