Use laws that are old, but; food that is fresh.
– Periander of Corinth

“The longer a thing exists, the longer it is likely to exist into the future.”

In his book “Antifragile”, Nicholas Nassim Taleb describes the concept as “aging in reverse”:

This, simply, as a rule, tells you why things that have been around for a long time are not “aging” like persons, but “aging” in reverse. Every year that passes without extinction doubles the additional life expectancy. This is an indicator of some robustness. The robustness of an item is proportional to its life!

The effect can be seen in nature as well. Trees are vulnerable to predation in their infancy. Once a critical mass of growth has been achieved, their chances of long term survival shoot up.
The starkest contrast is seen in pyrophytic plants - those species that need fire to thrive and spread. The fire that would consume a eucalyptus sapling in its infancy is necessary for the adult tree to spread its seeds