Benjamin Todd

People like to lionize the Mozarts, Malala Yousafzais, and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world, people who achieved great success while young.

There are all sorts of awards for young leaders, like the Forbes 30 under 30.

But these stories are interesting precisely because they're the exception.

Most people reach the peak of their impact in their middle age.

Income usually peaks in the 40s, suggesting that it takes around 20 years for most people to reach their peak productivity.

Similarly, experts only reach their peak abilities between age 30 to 60, and if anything, this age is increasing over time.

Here's a table.

It shows different fields and their age of peak output.

For theoretical physics, lyric poetry, and pure mathematics, the age of peak output's around 30.

For psychology and chemistry, it's around 40.

Novel writing, history, philosophy, and medicine, around 50.

Business, the average age of S&P 500 CEOs is 55.

And politics, the average age of a first-term US president is 55.

When researchers looked in more detail at these findings, they found that expert-level performance in established fields usually requires 10 to 30 years of focused practice.

K. Anders Ericsson, a leader in this field of research, said after 30 years of research, I have never found a convincing case for anyone developing extraordinary abilities without intense extended practice.

For Mozart to succeed so young, he needed to start young.

Mozart's father was a famous music teacher and trained him intensely as a toddler.

All this may sound like a bit of a downer.

Being successful takes a lot of time.

But consider the flip side.