Old people are phsyically incapable. I'm talking 55-60+. But after 37-40 you really don't have to much time to excel in any field unless you're intelligent and the field is based in thinking. If you're 40 without any direction, you'd better have a woman who loves you or else, in my books, you're useless, just another number, a product of capitalism/commercialism etc.
I'm pulling this out of my ass (all but the age 37 bit), but I think I genuinely believe it.