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Why Young Entrepreneurs Are Better Positioned to Succeed With less obligations and responsibilities, young entrepreneurs can put more focus and time into their startup.

By Ankur Jain

This story appears in the September 2017 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Tom Werner | Getty Images

Not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur. But for those who are, trying while you're young is ideal. Your opportunity cost is lowest! Many people I know say, "Well, I'll work two years in banking or consulting and then look at entrepreneurship." The reality is, soon they're getting married or having a family, and the chances of them leaving a steady salary to take this risk disappear.

Related: 7 Insanely Productive Habits of Successful Young Entrepreneurs

And if they make the leap, young entrepreneurs are especially well-positioned to succeed. In every other industry, age equals success: The more experience you have, the more senior you are. Entrepreneurship is the one place where some of the youngest people are at the top of the food chain. Why? Because young entrepreneurs' inexperience is their greatest asset. They can come into an industry and ask questions about things that, for everyone else, have become unquestioned assumptions. Then, unburdened by old ways of thinking, they can challenge those assumptions to come up with entirely new ways of looking at a problem. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes: "A lot of people think innovation is thinking outside the box, when in reality innovation comes from thinking about a problem from a different box." Newness is valuable.

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