30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s according to Confucius

Confucius once said, “At fifteen my heart was set on learning, at thirty I stood firm, at forty I had no more doubts, at fifty I knew the will of heaven, at sixty my ear was obedient, at seventy I could follow my heart’s desire without overstepping the boundaries of what was right.”

In Chinese it’s written like this:

子曰：吾十有五而志于学，三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳顺，七十而从心所欲，不逾矩。

And in Japanese, it’s 而立の三十代、不惑の四十代、知命の五十代、and so on.

Today I turned 50, and I happen to be back at my birthplace, my original family home in Japan, literally made of wood and paper. Naturally, I was feeling reflective on life, so I thought I would record this video and share my learnings from Confucius through my own experience.

When I turned 40, I quit banking and started my second life as a start-up entrepreneur. After, failing one startup, and then the next, I was like, so much of Confucius saying no doubts. But then I discovered agile in my third startup, and in my fourth iteration in this second life, I am a learning professional, with conviction.

To be honest, I never was really expecting to be a learning professional. I mean, I’m still an entrepreneur — I do learning as a business and we are profitable, and I have the ambitions to scale the tribe. But I’ve never been drawn to the lure of the speaking circuit and the book publishing esteem, so, I find myself not really belonging to that category of the knowledge business.

Meanwhile, there is an element of pursuit of truth and essence in my Organization Development and coaching work, and combined that with the positive feedback loop of catering and fulfilling the complex needs of our clients, I find mission in what I do.

And I guess this sense of mission and serenity that I feel around my work is possibly what Confucius suggested about knowing the will of heaven.

Or not? I am in the business of complexity and non-linearity, so I should know better. As Pascal said, “Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed.” I guess I’ll keep thinking on.

For the many followers of my Mental Model Dōjō, thank you for your support and encouragement. My pen has been lazy recently, but I have a growing list of things to write from the many amazing learnings and revelations from our recent client work. I vow to be more disciplined with my writings in my fifties, and who knows, maybe it’ll become a book.

So much to learn from the philosophers. Are you a standing firm thirties, no more doubts forties, will of the heaven fifties, or obedient ear sixties? Birthdays are great because they provide you with a special moment for reflection. I hope my example was helpful.