According to a TED Talk by Bill Gross on why businesses fail, most start-ups fall prey to the following factors:

poor execution,

lack of funding,

team dynamics,

a poor concept and,

most important of all,

poor timing.

This is usually because the timing for the idea or business isn’t right. But here’s my question: timing is such a complex issue, so how do you know when you’ve found the opportune moment?

Sadly, the answer is: never. There is no such thing as the right time.

My friends often tell me that they’ve been waiting for the longest time until they start their business. They’re holding off because the timing isn’t right. Maybe they need to pay off the car, or their kids need to finish primary school before they take the risk, or they’re waiting for their wife to get settled in her new job, or they need a promotion so that they can start saving up for a nest egg which will give them a cushion when they finally decide to leave …

The reality is that you’ll never run out of milestones that you need to pass before you set up your own business. As soon as you overcome one hurdle, you’ll invent another one. So you may manage to pay off the car, but then you’ll pick up a mortgage. Once the kids finish primary school, you’ll send them to a private high school with crippling monthly fees … This continues throughout your life.

You see, businesses and start-ups don’t work on our clock. Your ideas are not sitting in a vault that you, and you alone, have the ability to open. While you’re waiting for the perfect moment to get started, there is a 16-year-old working on your idea from his mom’s garage. And even if he hasn’t yet perfected it, he’s at least got a headstart on the mistakes and lessons you’ll have to learn when you eventually get going – and make no mistake, this isn’t like catching up on yesterday’s homework. This kind of learning cannot be replicated.

I believe that no amount of funding can beat experience. Think about it: imagine you’ve come up with an idea to create a machine that freezes and chills food in minutes – kind of like a microwave, but in reverse. You start working on prototypes from the instant the idea hits you, and although several of your attempts come to nothing, you learn enough from the ones that don’t work to make tweaks and corrections. Now, compare that to someone who has the same idea, but sits on it, doing nothing, for the ten years it takes to find funding. Who’s going to be further ahead in the race? You simply can’t cheat time and experience.

As we get older, we pick up responsibilities as a matter of course: car instalments, mortgages, credit cards, children, an irrepressible urge to holiday overseas twice a year … While many of these trappings cannot be avoided, they’re also great excuses for why the opportune time for starting your business has not yet presented itself. That’s why I believe it’s easier to start a business when you’re young: usually, you haven’t yet accumulated too many expenses.

I’m not saying that you can’t start a business when you’re older. In fact, there are lots of advantages to becoming an entrepreneur once you’ve gained a few years’ experience. You’re wiser, you’ve had time to build strong connections, you may even have found a mentor and can access people who will be able to accelerate your growth and help you find customers. But it’s also going to involve a greater effort and more sacrifice. Remember when you were in high school and you could eat McDonald’s every day of the week, but you never put on weight because you played sport at every opportunity? Now that you’re older, things don’t work quite the same way. It’s not enough to keep active; you’ve also got to lay off the McDonald’s and carbs if you want to lose just a few grams.

Business is no different. When you’re younger, you can achieve success without really giving up anything – although admittedly this is probably because you simply don’t have very much going on. There are no real consequences if your business fails: you don’t have to worry that your children will be thrown out of that fancy private school because you can’t pay the fees or, worse still, that you won’t be able to buy food for them; you don’t have to worry that the bank will repossess your house or car because you’ve missed a payment.

Once you’re older, you have to take all of this into account before you start a business – but, then again, it all comes down to one question, succinctly framed by motivational speaker Eric Thomas: ‘How bad do you want it?’ That about sums it all up for me – although Thomas goes on to say that you need to want something as badly as you need to breathe. That’s taking desire to the next level.

There is an old saying: when is the best time to plant a tree? The answer is: yesterday. When is the next best time to plant the tree? Today. Sometimes, starting doesn’t have to be such a scary and mammoth task. It’s the small actions that lead to success. Never mind pitching your big idea to an investor; how about simply registering your domain name or setting up a professional email, website or blog? None of these actions cost very much, but each step will lead to another until, before you know it, you’ll be all set up for business.

I’ve yet to meet the business owner who said that the time was just right when they set up their business, that everything was perfect. Almost everyone has a story involving patience and sacrifice, immense sacrifice. There’s no such thing as the ‘right’ time, but I will say this: the sooner the start, the better. Obviously, that’s up to you. If you have a great idea the day you turn 60, the only limitation on making it work is you.

Either way, remember that starting doesn’t mean you have to quit your job and change your way of life entirely. All you need is to take that first step – register your domain name, and see what happens from there.