I remember being in my twenties and looking at the older guys around me — the senior chiefs, the seasoned officers, the veterans who had been in the Navy longer than I'd been alive — and thinking, man, they move slow. They ask too many questions. They second-guess everything. I thought experience was a weight that slowed people down.
I was wrong. And it took me a few decades to fully understand just how wrong I was.
What Experience Actually Gives You
Experience doesn't slow you down — it gives you perspective. And perspective is one of the most underrated advantages in business, in leadership, and honestly, in life. When you've been around long enough, you start to see patterns. You've watched the same kind of problem show up in three different companies, under three different names, and you know — you just know — how it tends to end.
That doesn't mean you know everything. In fact, the longer I've been on this journey, the more aware I am of how much I still don't know. That's not discouraging — it's humbling in the best way. Because it keeps me curious. It keeps me learning.
The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know. And that realization is one of the most valuable things experience has ever taught me.
Better Questions, Better Decisions
Here's the thing nobody tells you when you're young: the goal isn't to have all the answers. The goal is to ask better questions. And experience — the real kind, earned through mistakes and hard calls and moments you'd rather forget — teaches you exactly that. It teaches you which questions actually matter.
When I was building my first business, I'd rush past the uncomfortable questions. I didn't want to slow down. I wanted to move fast. But fast without direction is just expensive chaos. Now I take the time to ask: What problem are we actually solving? Who does this serve? What are we assuming that might not be true? Those questions — simple as they sound — change everything.
Don't Underestimate What You've Already Lived
I talk to a lot of people — entrepreneurs, veterans transitioning out of service, folks starting second careers — and one thing I see over and over is people discounting their own experience. They think because they weren't in tech or finance or some "relevant" industry, what they've done doesn't count. That's just not true.
Every deployment, every difficult manager, every failed project, every team you led — all of it built something in you. That something is judgment. And judgment, at the end of the day, is what separates good decisions from costly ones.
— Kelly CampNever underestimate the value of what you've already lived through. That's not baggage — that's your edge.
At 64, I'm not slowing down — I'm finally asking the right questions. The experience I spent years accumulating isn't holding me back; it's the foundation everything else gets built on. If you're somewhere in the middle of your journey right now, take a breath and recognize that what you've been through matters. It's shaping you for whatever comes next.
Keep learning. Keep building. Because the journey continues.