Why Your Best Work Can Come Later in Life
Reinventing my career at 61, and the research that says the best is still ahead.
In the AI cohorts I teach, people sometimes preface their question the same way: “I’m in my 40s, my 50s…” Yesterday, an email put it plainly: “I’m new to AI and older in the workplace, trying to find new footing.”
Behind those questions sits a quiet belief: that AI is a young person’s game, and that the best years are already gone. Before I answer, I respectfully tell them where I stand, with a touch of fun: “I’m 61, and I’m just getting going.”
I haven’t always thought that way.
At the end of 2022, I felt exactly what that email described. My role as a CIO had ended, and tech firms were laying off thousands of people. I felt lost, unsure how to apply three decades of experience. One question kept surfacing: what would I regret not doing at this stage of my life?
So I went looking. I read widely, studied my own patterns, and enrolled in a year-long leadership coaching certification because I was curious how people actually evolve and grow. That program taught me about identity, self-limiting beliefs, and growth that starts from the inside out.
It also made me listen. I had started teaching for UC Berkeley Executive Education’s data and AI programs in January 2022, while I was still in my corporate role. Leaders in those programs kept telling me I had a gift for explaining AI in a practical, clear way. The signal was there. I simply wasn’t processing it. When I noticed how alive I felt teaching, fully in the zone, I realized I hadn’t yet claimed that as my identity.
The renewal was bumpy and emotional. It was stressful, and there were months I did not know how I would pay the mortgage. But I needed to answer life’s most important question: who am I, and who do I want to become? I answered with as much clarity and courage as I could find. I learned how to identify emotions and lean into them instead of pushing them off.
Money tested that resolve. I let curiosity lead, not the rush to replace my income, trusting it would follow if I stayed focused on the right work. Had I chased the paycheck, I would have gone straight back to what I was doing before, and I knew that was not my destiny.
In mid-2024, I followed that thread and built a cohort course, the Inner Quest, to help people accelerate their own self-discovery. I wanted to share all I had learned about inner transformation and pursuing new career paths. My first AI cohort followed in January 2025, and another in January 2026. Step by step, I found myself: weighing my experience and talents, listening to real market feedback, and building the confidence to follow what made me distinct. For what felt like the first time in my life, I was pursuing life from the inside out with the courage to act on it.
That is when I settled on a new belief. I am peaking. My best years are ahead. I have been training for this the whole time, and applying my talents to create value for others is the work I am responsible for now.
And the work has given me a gift I never saw coming. More than 500 people have now joined my cohorts, and I get to learn alongside them from all over the world. Being trusted with a piece of someone else’s journey is something I treasure. They range from CEOs to an Olympian to founders to quietly brilliant professionals, each with a talent all their own. Meeting new people every month is exhilarating, and I would have missed all of it had I not embraced my curiosity about who I want to become in this next decade.
What the research says about age
Recently I read “What to Make of a Life” by Jim Collins. It gave language to what I had lived over the previous few years. Collins describes three elements of building “one big thing”:
1. Discover and deploy your set of encodings.
2. Flip the arrow of money.
3. Focus the inner fire and do great work late in life.
Collins defines encodings this way:
“Encodings are durable capacities of a person’s intrinsic construction that lie within, awaiting discovery through experiences of life.”
Read that phrase again: “lie within, awaiting discovery.” Reinventing a career at any age is an inside job. As Collins puts it, “You don’t create encodings; you discover them. You don’t add encodings from without; you find them within.”
Our encodings already live in us. The work is the awareness to find them and the courage to apply them. That is the inner journey I began in earnest in 2023, and it led me to the work I do today. There was no silver bullet, and plenty of lost moments, but I trusted the process.
Now back to the belief that age is the barrier. One line from Collins stays with me: “Life’s not done until it’s done, and you never know what’s coming next.”
That idea is exactly what fueled my curiosity to keep exploring, even when the path felt deeply uncertain. In his research, many of the people Collins studied did their best and most important work later in life. Three capabilities explain why, and together they grow with time:
Encodings. They don’t dim with age. People keep discovering hidden ones “as the frame of life shifts, which serves only to increase one’s capabilities.” I found one of mine later in life, when I grew into my identity as a data and AI instructor.
Cumulative experience. You get better at what you’re encoded for over long stretches of time.
Credible equity. Credibility acts as an exponential multiplier and compounds on itself.
Collins concludes:
“Our most creative and productive years can happen long after the midpoint of our lives.”
What I’d leave you with
The inner journey comes down to self-trust: trust to discover your encodings, embrace them, and put them to work. Listen more closely to what is inside you, while reading the outside signals that confirm where you create value. Looking back on the past few years, here are a few things I want to leave you with:
Every day you will find evidence that confirms your self-limiting belief. The feeling is real. The better question is whether it is actually true.
Finding your unique mix of encodings takes study, awareness, and curiosity. Become the best student of yourself.
Wherever you are, it is never too late to reimagine what comes next by combining your experience with your encodings. As Collins reminds us, “You cannot straighten out the road behind you.” Those miles are already driven. Look ahead instead, to whatever waits around the next bend. Stay curious, and you will find out.
Sit with these three questions over the week ahead:
Who am I today, and who do I want to become?
How can I combine my past experiences and encodings into a path that is uniquely mine and valuable to others?
What self-limiting belief is holding me back from that path, and am I willing to let it go?
Honest reflection and conversations with people you trust are how you reach the next stage of your career. Your encodings are already within you. The work now is to rediscover them and put them to use.
Why this matters for you
AI is an enabler for people of any age. It amplifies who you already are. It rewards judgment, clarity, and pattern recognition, which is exactly what decades of experience build. Your age and your experience are not liabilities here. They are the multiplier.
So if you are finding new footing, hear this: you are not behind, and you are not too late. Your experience is not a weight to set down. It is the material for whatever you build next, and your most meaningful work may still be ahead of you. Be gentle with yourself as you explore and stay curious.
The answers are already within you. It is time to discover them.
I would love to hear from you. Which encoding within you are you ready to put to work in your next chapter? Hit reply and tell me. I read every response, and I am cheering you on.
-James