Rob Walling

quite a few notches on your belt, quite a bit of work, quite a bit of mistakes and successes and seeing what works and what doesn't and all the scar tissue that comes from working your way up, it sounds like a weird way to say it, but I think it is generally...

more senior.

Now that doesn't mean just because someone is more senior that they're an owner level thinker.

I guarantee you there are folks who are 15, 20, 25, 30 years into their career who are still task level or project level thinkers.

So it doesn't mean everyone gets there.

But I have a hard time imagining an owner level thinker that hasn't been working

for at least a few years.

Now, I do see some startup founders that are in their mid to late 20s that are really sharp.

And there are some tiny seed founders that are executing like crazy, doing millions a year in ARR.

And they're like 28 years old.

And so there is something there, but I think it's extremely rare.

I think generally, and I will speak for myself in this, when I first started my career, I was a task level thinker.

I just couldn't do multiple things at once.

I couldn't prioritize.

I couldn't manage it.

I couldn't keep all the plates spinning.

And then over the course of the first five-ish, six-ish years, maybe a little longer, I remember getting to the point where I was really comfortable running projects.

And I think I became a solid project level thinker at that point.

And I remember getting better at it.

And then as I dipped my toe into becoming an entrepreneur, I wasn't an owner level thinker because I needed too much certainty.