My journey as an entrepreneur began when I was fired from a consulting job and then had a minor falling out with the start-up I had joined as the second employee. I was 28, with no mortgage, wife, nor children then, and little to lose. I could afford to take a risk and start my own company. Just do it, I told myself. The result was lastminute.com.
Looking back, 28 is not such a young age to set out on an entrepreneurial career. Last month I was pitched a business idea by two 14-year-olds; the week before I launched a competition at my old school for ideas for education technology start-ups.
We are now familiar with the concept that good ideas can come from anywhere: any age as well as any place or background. Young thinkers may be more inclined to see opportunities than constraints, and a splash of naive optimism is a good, perhaps even essential, quality in an entrepreneur.