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People are reluctant to leave their jobs due to a sunk cost fallacy.

In our second act, we also know what we are looking for, so it is easier to find.

The skills that we have learned are directly transferable to the next career we pursue.

I have seen a trend among my friends and colleagues whereby, upon reaching middle age, they are unhappy in their jobs. Through the twists and turns in their careers, they have ended up in an industry, team, or role that they never intended to join and don’t know what to do next or how to get themselves out.

They experience the sunk-cost fallacy. They are reluctant to abandon their jobs because they have invested so heavily in their careers, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial. As they say, “I put in 20 years to get here.”

When we have put so much of ourselves into a goal or to reach a certain point, it can be hard to change. Hard to walk away from the money, the stability, or the title, even when we know that the work no longer makes us happy, the company is toxic, or the team is not a group of people we want to work with.

What to do? I think it’s time to make a change and challenge the assumption that we do not have the time or skills to make that change. With 65 the average retirement age for men and 63 for women1, my colleagues at age 45 still have half their careers ahead of them. Not to mention the friends in their mid-20s and 30s who feel the same way with decades more time ahead. If you are concerned about making a change, consider the following:

How Much Time Does It Take to Master a Skill?

When you jump into a new industry or role later in your career, you can focus your energy on making the most of your time. The first ten years of most professional lives are not in deliberate practice. You were just working, absorbing some life lessons and ignoring others. No part of you was spending your time meticulously perfecting your craft. You were just finding your way and figuring out what you wanted to do. If you were to start over, you now know how to learn and how you learn best, so you could cut the time in half.In our second act, we also know what we are looking for. We have clear ideas of what we want to achieve or what we want to remove from our lives. This makes it much easier to focus on your work, your mentorship, and lessons learned, as you experience new things and use that guidance from past decisions to drive new ones. You have worked in enough organizations to know the types of cultures, bosses, goals, and day-to-day tasks in which you thrive, those you can manage, and those that stifle. It may have taken you years to figure those out, but they can now be readily applied to any new challenge you take on.

What Skills Can Be Cross-Purposed?

Another aspect that we fail to consider is how many of the skills that we have learned are directly transferable to the next career we pursue. The 2021 America Succeeds Durable Skills Report looked at 82 million job postings, one of the largest job-posting analyses ever done. What they found was that employers consistently demand a common set of “durable skills” across industries. “7 of the 10 most requested skills were durable skills2,” skills like communication, problem solving, leadership, collaboration, and critical thinking applied across nearly every sector.Such skills are easily applied across industries and between roles inside and outside of corporate America. I would argue that even if you left your corporate office and took up a trade, the same skills would serve you well once you learned the technical skills required of any new role. Most work comes down to working with people, solving problems, and managing the workload itself. This just takes different forms across industries and roles.

How Much Is Peace of Mind Worth?

No need to quote a study here. You can put your own price on happiness, contentment, and a lack of stress or sleepless nights. Even if the move costs you a percentage of your income, it may be worth it in the fulfillment factor of your life.

You might also make up any difference by finding more enjoyment in what you do. Not counting the days until retirement may encourage you to work a few extra years. I know many people who counted down, could not wait, and retired the day they turned 65. But others with fulfilling jobs stayed as long as they could, loving every minute of their interactions with people and the impact they were having on others.

We are too often caught in the trap of thinking, “I’m really good at this,” while not recognizing that most smart, capable people would be good at just about anything they put their mind and effort behind. You are very good at your job, but realize now if you had focused your time and energy in another direction, you would be a good firefighter, a good artist, a good salesman, or a good lawyer.

Take our Ambition Test

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Whether you are looking for a career move, worried that AI might take your job, or just asking yourself whether you really have time to learn to play guitar, the answer is yes, there is time. We all have an opportunity to change, to try to do something we love because we want to, not just because we are good at it.

It is never too late to start something new, and there is no real starting over: All your skills, strengths, and life experiences can continue to add value as you apply them to the new challenges you face as you move forward.

1. Dawn Allcot, D. (2025, August 25). What’s the Average Retirement Age for Men vs. Women in 2025? Yahoo Finance. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/average-retirement-age-men-vs-122808613.html

2. Cole, L., Short, S., Cowart, C., & Muller, D. (2021, October). The High Demand of Durable Skills. America Succeeds. https://americasucceeds.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/AmericaSucceeds-DurableSkills-NationalFactSheet-2021.pdf

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