I talk to a lot of doctors who want to start a new concierge practice. They often ask me am I too old to start something new?
I do not believe that. It's easy to see the headlines of an 18 year old startup founder going on to make billions, but many of the greatest founders started their businesses later in life. The truth is the average age of a successful founder is roughly 45 years old according to the American Economic Review [1].
Every time someone asks me "am I too old to start a new medical practice?" I think about Enzo Ferrari. The founder of one of the most iconic automobile brands in history.
Enzo's Early Career
Enzo Ferrari was born in Modena, Italy, in February of 1898 [2].
1916, age 18. A flu outbreak killed both his father and his older brother in the same year. The family metal-fabrication shop closed. He had no business to inherit and no clear path forward [3].
1918, age 20. Enzo walked into Fiat headquarters in Turin and asked for a job. Fiat was the largest car company in Italy. The obvious place for a young man interested in cars to start his career. They rejected him. He left the building, sat on a bench in Parco Valentino, and cried [4].
1919 to 1929, ages 21 to 31. He took a job nobody else wanted, as a test driver for a small Milanese outfit that rebuilt used military trucks into passenger cars. He moved up to Alfa Romeo as a factory driver. He raced against the great Italian drivers of the era. He never beat them. He was a competent racer but not a great one.
1929, age 31. He founded Scuderia Ferrari, but it was not a car company. It was a stable that ran Alfa Romeo cars in races on behalf of wealthy private owners [5]. He spent the next eight years managing other drivers in cars built by someone else.
1939, age 41. Alfa Romeo dissolved the Scuderia and brought racing back in-house. Then they fired him outright. His exit agreement included a non-compete clause that legally barred him from putting his own name on a car for four years [6].
1940 to 1945, ages 42 to 47. He built two cars during the non-compete, technically not under the Ferrari name, that broke down at the Mille Miglia. World War II started. His small factory was bombed twice and rebuilt twice.
By age 47, here is what Enzo Ferrari had on his resume:
Orphaned at 18
Rejected by the obvious employer
A racing career that never reached the top
A racing team that fell apart
A firing from the company he had worked for
A legal ban on using his own name on his own product
A factory that got bombed twice in the war
And then he started Ferrari at 49
In 1947 the non-compete had long expired, the war was over, and Italy was rebuilding. Ferrari was 49 years old. He commissioned an engineer named Gioacchino Colombo to design a small V12 engine, dropped it into a chassis, and called the result the Ferrari 125 S.
The car debuted in May of 1947 and broke down on its first race. Two weeks later, on May 25, 1947, it won the Rome Grand Prix [2]. It was the first race ever won by a car bearing the Ferrari name.
From that point the company moved fast, and compressed time tables and executed on their vision:
1949. A Ferrari won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
1951. A Ferrari won a Formula One Grand Prix.
1952. Ferrari had its first Formula One World Championship driver.
1969. Enzo sold half the road-car business to Fiat to fund the racing program.
1987. At age 89, he personally unveiled the F40, a 200-mile-per-hour road car celebrating the company's fortieth anniversary. It was the last car he saw launched. He died one year later, at 90 [2].
He ran the company he founded at 49 for the next 41 years of his life.
What Ferrari is today
The company that Enzo started at 49 is now publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RACE. As of mid 2026 it carries a market capitalization in the range of $60 to $80 billion depending on the trading day, with operating margins above 39 percent, the highest of any major automaker on earth [1, 7].
It is one of the most iconic brands the world has ever seen. Beautiful, elegant, fast, a combination of art and machine.
That brand started when its founder was 49.
What this means for a doctor who is considering starting a concierge practice
Many great founders started their companies later in life. Starting something new will almost always feel a bit scary, have a lot of risk, and involve long hours, but your age should not be a reason not to start.
Like many doctors Ferrari spent years building an expertise within his craft before going on to launch his own brand. He turned his age, his experience his knowledge into a superpower rather than a liability.
Conclusion
If you are a doctor and are considering starting your own concierge practice, please reach out to me personally I always enjoy helping people create their own businesses.
Enzo Ferrari built one of the greatest automobile empires at age 49 after Fiat rejected him, Alfa Romeo fired him, and the law banned his name for four years. He was able to build his business because he had decades of experience within the industry before launching his own brand. It is almost certainly not too late for you to start your own company.
Cheers,
Josh Bobrowsky
Sources
Pierre Azoulay et al., "Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review: Insights (2020). https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aeri.20180582
Britannica, "Enzo Ferrari | Biography, Cars, & Facts." https://www.britannica.com/biography/Enzo-Ferrari
Wikipedia, "Enzo Ferrari." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzo_Ferrari
Hagerty Media, "Enzo Ferrari proved empires aren't forged by the squeamish." https://www.hagerty.com/media/people/enzo-ferrari-proved-empires-arent-forged-by-the-squeamish/
Ferrari, "16 November 1929: the foundation of Scuderia Ferrari." https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/magazine/articles/foundation-scuderia-ferrari-formula-one-team
Classic Driver Magazine, "Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, the 'secret' first Ferrari." https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/cars/auto-avio-costruzioni-815-secret-first-ferrari
Companies Market Cap, Ferrari (RACE) Market Capitalization. https://companiesmarketcap.com/ferrari/marketcap/