hi cj. Look... humbly said... just some thoughts from some experiences:
1. "Friends" can be a very bad influence. It really depends on their quality and most times you don't know that until a decade later. The bad influence can be insidious and barely noticeable but it adds up. The influence is not even intentional, it just comes from the inner insecurities that we all have, it's a human thing. In some cases for me it led me to some dead ends and wasted life opportunities (sometimes even bad situations I had to recover from and took a huge toll on me stress wise). Because I was weak and influential (might not be your case, but it was mine) and just a few words and ideas spoken and planted in my head were enough that in the long run I did not do what I knew inside that I was supposed to do.
Sure, that is my own weakness of character at cause, but I'm just saying.
2. I want to strongly emphasize this: you now have a successful business you say. You have something set aside to live off so look at it this way: your life starts.... NOW! From now on you can start dating and "living" without too many worries and you do not depend on anything that much. Now you can date, raise a family and everything without all the stress of also needing to grow a business or climbing the corporate ladder.
3. Do you think that after 4 years of dating you would have "found the one"? I wouldn't be so sure. I've seen young people in long therm relationships ... and most relationships started at that age fell apart by 30. And then? You would have been with no business AND no "the one". Also, before 28.... most guys and girl are still immature. They do not know what they want in life and are not realistic. I've seen marriages fall apart after 4 years in their 20s. Now towards 30s and beyond people are more mature and the quality of dating will be much higher, you will see.
4. You don't have to catch up to anyone. Just do your own thing. You now have the comfort of not worrying about a job, because of your hard work. You are free to go date.
5. Being an independent business owner might be appealing to potential "the one" material ladies, you proved that you can succeed in life.
6. Lastly if you are a bit down because of all the missing out, take some time gather some money, after this corona crisis is over, do some traveling. Go to Europe, go to Japan, spend some time trying new things if you can safely afford it. Or if you are completely worry free financially, maybe enroll in a MSc program at some university and live the campus life.
7. Now you can focus on a partner when you find one, much more that people (like me :) ) who also have to focus on career at the same time. Find someone with the same life goals as you.
Not really a comment super relevant to the article in the post, but seems to touch on some interesting subjects and probably a good conversation starter: one of the videos by Isaac Arthur - Technological Singularity ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXYcvxg_Yro )
