I'm 48. I had a privileged upbringing but I was never "successful" in the normal sense, which is actually sort of an advantage now, because I'm not experiencing a decline and I don't have my best days to look back on. Throughout my 20s when other successful people were graduating and getting successful jobs, I was a college drop-out and did unskilled labor to pay rent while I played music and did other stuff that made no money. I didn't go back to school until I was in my 30s and I didn't start running until my 30s and I was never very fast. I didn't get out of graduate school until I was 45. I was terrible with women too. I did have a few short lived relationships but mostly avoided dating until my 40s. I had some serious emotional problems and possibly autism or something, which seem to have declined. I know people my age who have done all the successful things. They bought houses and cars and got married and divorced and whatnot. These things do make a difference but I find that as we get older the differences aren't as great as they were when we were younger.