Late Bloomers – Book Review
I can’t wait to tell you about Rich Karlgaard‘s book Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement.
Everyone can get something out of this book. You’ll realize that some of your traits are beneficial and should be embraced.
The Introduction opens with stories of two people who clearly are late bloomers. One of them, Joanne, grew up in a difficult situation as her mother had multiple sclerosis and her father ignored her.
She got above-average grades but never any high honors or distinctions. She went to her backup college continuing along the path of acceptable mediocrity.
Mediocre Career and Not the Best Choices
She got married to someone she didn’t know and had a child. She divorced two years later and was at a complete dead end. She had no job and a dependent child.
We find out later that while she was in this depth of depression and despair that she wrote a series of books that made her a billionaire (J.K. Rowling!).
There are other examples of late bloomers going on to achieve amazing results, and early bloomers who burned out and lost a lot.
Early Bloomer vs. Late Bloomer
An early bloomer is someone like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerburg. But even now they’re considered old and the world seems to be praising people like Norwegian Magnus Carlsen who earned the title of grandmaster at age 13.
There’s nothing wrong with admiring people who shine early.
The problem is our society putting pressure on late bloomers because they’re not early bloomers.
In the United States, some people pay $US 20,000 per year to send their three-year-olds to a special preschool.
The Dangers of Early Bloomer Pressure
The dark side of parents pressuring their children to be early bloomers is an increase in suicide and depression.
These kids don’t believe anything they do will be good enough.
And they think about being saddled with heavy debt from going to a prestigious university, and not sure if they’ll get a job.
The author, Rich Karlgaard, believes that it’s important for some students to have gap years. This allows them to mature and better identify the path they want to be on.
Our Brains Need Time to Grow Up
You may have heard that the prefrontal cortex of our brains don’t completely finish growing until you’re around age 25.
Now, that’s just an average. Some people’s brains mature before then.
But that also means that some people’s brains mature after then. Some people’s frontal lobes may continue to mature until age 30.
The prefrontal cortex is responsible for complex processes like planning and organising, problem solving, response inhibition, memory recall and attention allocation.
Early Bloomers Can Become Late Bloomers
Sometimes someone is out of the gate early, and then they need to detour. Maybe they were burning out. Maybe they chose to start a family.
The sad thing is that our society doesn’t appreciate these people either.
Businesses need to recognize the skills these Late Bloomers have and can offer. And older person has better social skills as well as better processing of complex problems.
6 Strengths of Late Bloomers
Rich Karlgaard identified six unique strengths of late bloomers that are very important and often underappreciated.
Curiosity
Curiosity may have killed the cat but it is a great strength of the late bloomer.
They don’t think about following directions, but rather taking a deep look into a situation.
Compassion
The late bloomer has developed the ability to understand a situation from multiple perspectives. That usually manifests as compassion.
When there’s a disagreement, the late bloomer can see both sides, and help arbitrate a solution that works well for everyone.
Resilience
The late bloomer has bounced back from many situations. They know a problem is not the end of the world. A challenge is an opportunity.
Remember your first heartbreak? You thought you’d never find love again. Then you did. And you probably had a few heartbreaks after that.
This is resilience. You know that no matter what pops up, you will get through to the other side.
Quiet Competence
The late bloomer has a certain calmness and composure when things around them are falling apart.
This allows the late bloomer to find solutions to problems that an early bloomer never could.
Insight
Insight is a flash of perception. Having a lot of different experiences gives you a large library to draw from.
No experience in your life is ever wasted.
And thankfully it doesn’t have to be just your personal experience. All those stories you heard? You can use them to create new insights.
Wisdom
Isn’t it funny that all cultures say they honor wisdom? Yet how many really do?
And how does wisdom manifest itself in late bloomers?
Late bloomers are more comfortable with ambiguity. Early bloomers like to know exactly how they’re being measured.
Life is ambiguous if not completely random.
And a wise person knows how to make decisions and manage expectations in an uncertain situation.
Wisdom peaks between ages 40 and 50, and then stays on a high plateau until the final years of life
How the World Can Learn from Late Bloomers
First off, it’s important that you learn to love and embrace yourself as you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re an early or a late bloomer.
You need to appreciate who you are, where you are, and for what you are.
If you’re an early bloomer, you can learn to appreciate and best help late bloomers. They will be an asset to your business.
If you’re a late bloomer, you need to step up and step off the path of the early bloomer. It’s not fair to yourself to put such pressure on yourself.
You’re not quitting. You’re just choosing to value yourself from a different vantage point. After all, we should be comparing ourselves against what we are personally capable of, and NOT against someone else.
My Final Thoughts
While today’s culture seems to worship the wunderkind and create pointless barriers to late bloomers, it is the strengths of the late bloomers that leads to success and fulfillment.
Curiosity, compassion, resilience, equanimity, insight and wisdom all increase as we age.
If you are a late bloomer, it’s time to quit the path of the early bloomer. That is not going to lead you to success.
On the flip side, don’t be a serial quitter. Use your natural curiosity to learn and grow from all situations, and then you will figure out your ideal path.
One of the biggest blocks to success for a late bloomer is procrastination. The reason why you procrastinate is because you’re going down the path that’s not really yours. It’s the one you think you should be on, but it’s time to wake up.
Accept who you really are. Embrace your strengths. And let’s build a world that can appreciate both early and late bloomers.
One thing I loved about this book was the idea of creating an arc for senior employees rather than squeezing them out. I love the idea of adjusting their responsibilities while allowing them to still contribute to the success of the company.
I really recommend spending some time reading this book. It’s an easy read or delightful listen if you like audio books. You will learn a lot about yourself, and come out with a unique perspective on how to make the world a better place.
You can find this book online or in your local bookstore.
