Yep -- I graduated grad school at 34 and got a series of amazing jobs with incredible people over the last 8 years. I was a complete pile of poop until 25, and slowly crawled out of my bad habits from 25-30, caught some ambition at 30, managed to turn it into an advanced degree by 34. Hell, I dropped out of high school and, 5 years later, still managed to fail my first year of undergrad.

In hindsight, it was a natural "1% better" progression. I stopped hanging out with bad folks, got out of a junk relationship, got into a good relationship with someone who encouraged me and was more conscientious than I was, started exercising, meditating, studying, taking measured risks, practicing, and keeping track of my accomplishments so I had good talking points when pushing into a new opportunity. I also have to acknowledge the "home court advantage", because I stuck near my family and friends until I moved to the west coast for my first big job after graduation.

Believe me, I still feel like I wasted the years from age 16 to age 25, but I no longer feel like I've wasted my entire life.