What does it mean to finish well?
- David Oaks
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
At 65, I see things I couldn’t see at 30. Or 45. Or even 55.
And what I see changes everything.
I see that nothing was wasted.
Every struggle? It had a purpose.
Every setback? It was preparation.
Every season? It was shaping me for my most powerful quarter.
If you’re feeling stuck, burned out, or like your best days are behind you, this might be exactly what you need to hear.
I believe most people get this wrong.
We think of life in quarters, like a game:
→ First 20 years = learning the fundamentals
→ 20s and 30s = building your foundation
→ 40s and 50s = peak production years
Makes sense, right?
But then comes the fourth quarter—roughly 60 and beyond.
And here’s where society has sold us a lie.
The conventional vision looks like this:
Maybe play some golf. Travel a bit. Then fade away.
That’s not a vision—that’s a cliff edge.
And it’s the exact opposite of a finishing well mindset.
Your fourth quarter isn’t about decline.
It’s actually about detonation!
Detonation?
In your first three quarters, you’re building capacity:
Accumulating knowledge
Developing skills
Gaining experience
Forming relationships
You’re like a rocket on the launch pad—loading fuel, running systems checks, preparing for liftoff.
But in your fourth quarter, something remarkable happens:
Everything converges.
→ All those years of learning? They crystallize into wisdom.
→ All those skills you developed? They reach their highest level of mastery.
→ All those relationships you built? They become a network of exponential influence.
→ All that experience you gained? It becomes the platform for your greatest impact.
This is what I mean by detonation.
Not an explosion that destroys—but a convergence that multiplies.
Think about it:
A 25-year-old has energy and ambition. But they lack the wisdom that comes from decades of experience.
A 45-year-old is at peak productivity. But they haven’t yet seen how all the pieces fit together.
But a 65-year-old who’s prepared well?
They have:
Six decades of accumulated knowledge
Refined skills from a lifetime of practice
Perspective that only comes with time
The platform to multiply it all
IF they’ve prepared well.
And that preparation? It starts with a mindset.
Here’s what a finishing-well mindset looks like:
It doesn’t expect your influence to shrink in the last quarter of your life. It expects it to multiply.
It understands that your wisdom doesn’t fade at 65—it becomes your greatest asset.
Your experience doesn’t become obsolete—it becomes the launching pad for significance beyond anything you achieved in your “peak” years.
This is your Power Quarter. Your detonation season. And it’s your most powerful.
Let me show you what this looks like in my life:
The poverty of my youth? It built my compassion for the causes I’d champion now.
The humiliation of being the oldest person in all my classes in college? It developed my empathy for late bloomers.
The frustration of leading volunteers—people who could walk away from me at any moment? It taught me to inspire through vision, not authority.
The years of leading cash-strapped organizations? They prepared me to raise millions for global impact.
The gifts I’m using today weren’t handed to me fully formed.
They were forged through fire.Refined through failure.Strengthened through struggle.
Across every season of my life.
And now, at 65, they’re converging.
You can start now. Ask yourself:
What might YOUR Power Quarter look like?
If you could design your most impactful season—the one where everything you’ve learned converges—what would you be doing?
Who would you be helping?
What legacy would you be building?
Because here’s what I believe with everything in me:
Your best days aren’t behind you. They’re ahead. And everything you’re experiencing until now? It’s preparation.
It’s not how you start that defines you.
It’s how you finish.
David
P.S. I will be in Northern Uganda this week. If a few of you would appreciate a development session, let me know.
Comments