BY: REUVEN COHEN

Will Price had a  very interesting post to his blog today. He outlined creativity comes in two distinct types - quick and dramatic and careful and quiet. David Galenson, an economist at the University of Chicago, analyzed the creative output of leading artists. He plotted the relationship between an artist's age and the value of their paintings. He quickly realized the artists clustered into two distinct groups - conceptualists, who did their breakthrough work early in life and then declined and experimentalists - who developed slowly, experimented and iterated, and peaked later in life. In the former camp are artists such as Mozart (age 30), Andy Warhol (33), Picasso (26), F. Scott Fitzgerald (29), and in the latter camp are figures such as Twain (50), Cezzanne (64), and Beethoven (54).

Matt Asay summarized this nicely; " abbreviating far too much (and far too sloppily), you get the young entrepreuners who rock the world because they don't know any better, and the "old" entrepreneurs who innovate on the world as it is, because they know the world too well."

At 27, I'm on startup number 3. My first attempt was  a web design shop when I was 15 (1994), back then I was ahead of the curve, this like today was a double edged sword. My second company, was a video streaming company (Graphic Substance) I started in (1999) in NYC, i was also ahead of the curve. My most recent company Enomaly Inc (2004), an open source development shop, and by far my most sucessful company to date is sucessful because of my previous failures. Our latest product, Enomalism is in the midst of a beta period and poised to really move things to the next level. Dare I say I remain slightly ahead of the curve.  

This year I was awarded software developer of the Year in Canada, 12 years in the making, there is something to be said for experience. Experience gives you the insight that you just can't get anywhere else. I am the sum of all my past sucesses & failures, for those made me a better entrepreneur.