I asked six people over 90 what was overrated and every one of them said the same category - not money, not fame, not success - and the thing they named is something most people in their 30s are currently building their entire life around - Silicon Canals

"I spent forty years climbing ladders that led to nowhere special. The view from the top? Same sky as everywhere else. These weren't bitter people who'd failed professionally. The group included a former Fortune 500 executive, a surgeon, and a woman who'd built a successful retail chain from scratch. They'd "made it" by every conventional measure. Yet each one said they'd spent too much time treating their career like it was their identity."

"The executive told me he'd turned down a chance to coach his son's little league team because of quarterly reports. "Quarterly reports," he repeated, shaking his head. "Can you imagine? I don't remember a single one of those reports. But I remember my son asking why I couldn't be there." This hit different for me. Three years ago, my second startup crashed and burned."

A volunteer at a senior tech literacy program interviewed participants over 90 years old, many of whom were highly successful professionals including a Fortune 500 executive, surgeon, and business owner. Despite achieving conventional success, they unanimously identified career achievement as the most overrated aspect of life. These accomplished individuals expressed regret about sacrificing personal relationships, family time, and experiences for professional advancement. They described treating career as their identity and making countless promises to prioritize important moments "after the next promotion," which never materialized. The author reflects on personal startup failure that forced reconsideration of self-worth beyond professional accomplishment.

Read at Silicon Canals