Once I got an email from a doctor who started his post-graduate degree in anaesthesiology a bit late (in his 30s). Feeling that he is behind his peers, he lacks confidence, fumbles while speaking, and procrastinates.
And it is not just him — one time or another, many of us may feel like we have fallen behind.
So when is it too late to do something?
1 year back, my friend Raj Chauhan, who did his MBA from Chicago in 1997, shared that he is starting his new master’s degree in Biology. And does he lament that he is late? No, he celebrated with a lovely post on LinkedIn.
So when is it too late to do something?
I think the answer is obvious — there is no clock that is ticking. There is nobody sitting and passing judgment on our actions — we are the ones doing it.
Everybody’s life journey is different. I did my MBA eight years after joining the Civil Services, while my late batchmate Deepak Ratan, did his MBA from IIMA before joining the service.
I would like to end by sharing a story my friend Sunil Asnani shared long ago. When he joined McKinsey as an Associate, a guy at McKinsey told him, “When I was your age, I was already a partner.”
I told Sunil, “You should have retorted that ‘When I was your age, I led a bigger team than you ever will.'”
You are not late. Nor are you early.
Because life is an exploration, not a quest to cover the maximum distance in the shortest time
– Rajan