Did you know that entrepreneurs actually decline between their 30’s and 50s? 

Most people assume that the more successful they are, they're less susceptible to becoming irrelevant later in life. The truth is, the greater our achievements are in our early life and the greater attachment we have to them, the more we notice how we’re not performing quite as well as we used to. 

The professional decline can come much sooner than you think that’s why as you’re thinking about Creating Your Encore Career, you have to be able to transition from using crystallized intelligence over fluid intelligence. 

Fluid Intelligence

• The ability to reason, analyze, and solve novel problems 

• Raw intellectual horsepower  

Crystallized Intelligence

• Also called the essence of wisdom

• The ability to use the knowledge gained in the past  

• The vast library and understanding of our experiences.  

• It tends to increase through one’s 40s and does not diminish until very late in life

The value of crystallized intelligence:

• Wider and deeper body of knowledge

• Holder of organizational wisdom

• Helping new employees with their “peripheral vision”

• Seeing the broader patterns

• Understanding the bigger system - new employees can have “tunnel vision”

• The ability to ask better questions

• Experience in working with people

The trap of achievement is that your fluid intelligence is at its peak between 25 and 40. And so, you need to be thinking about transitioning into a role where you can use crystallized intelligence that can serve you well from 60 to 80.