Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement is a book by Rich Karlgaard, the publisher of Forbes. It came out in 2019. His argument is that we have built a culture that worships people who succeed young, and that everyone else pays for it.
The race nobody agreed to
The pressure starts early. There are grades, then test scores, then the right university, then a big win while you are still young enough for it to look impressive. A person who has not arrived on that schedule starts to believe the chance has passed.
Karlgaard thinks the schedule is the mistake. The people who miss it are often developing as they should.
What the research says about timing
His evidence comes from research on the brain. We have many mental abilities, and they peak at different ages. Quick processing and working memory peak in our twenties. In our thirties, forties and fifties other abilities develop: judgment, the skill of managing people and projects, compassion, and the ability to stay steady under pressure. Wisdom arrives later still, in our fifties, sixties and seventies.
That leaves no single peak to hit or to miss. Karlgaard says a person can bloom and then bloom again, several times in one life. He also names strengths that people who take longer tend to pick up on the way, among them curiosity, insight, compassion, resilience and wisdom.
Seasons
A life has seasons, and they arrive at different times for each of us. A tree that flowers in autumn is on time for that tree.
The trouble starts when one person's spring gets handed to everyone as the schedule. Two people of the same age can be in completely different seasons, because each of us is built differently. A single timeline for everybody will only ever fit a few.
Where the Tzolkin comes in
The Tzolkin starts from the same idea. It is a count of 260 days that comes from the Maya, and the day you were born is your Kin, one of 260.
From that day the count gives you a rhythm of your own. You have your own stretches of 13 days, your own year running from one birthday to the next, and your own days for starting things and for letting them go. Someone born a day after you is reading a different calendar.
Karlgaard gives the evidence that your timing belongs to you. The Tzolkin gives you a way to look at that timing one day at a time, so you can see which season you are in and stop measuring it against someone else's.
If you want to see yours, type your birthday on the home page. Finding your Kin is free and takes a few seconds.