Have you ever heard the remark that age is relevant only if you are a cheese? All of my career it seemed I was one of the youngest guys in the room. Then, overnight, I looked around and was shocked to discover my perspective on age.
Especially since I was the oldest guy in the room. Working on my third career, I don’t know why that should have been a surprise to me.
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It was though … a reality check. But why? Who knows, especially since I have no fear about the value I bring and my ability to keep delivering relevance in a young person’s world going through rapid change. Luckily the feeling did not last long.
When we are young, we ask lots of “why?” questions. Why is the sky blue? Why can’t we fly like birds? Why do I have to go to bed at a certain time? It is through asking why that we learn basic things about the world. Yet as we get older we tend to think we know things and stop questioning fundamental assumptions.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, one of the first things he did was develop a marketing campaign to rebrand the ailing enterprise. Leveraging IBM’s long-running “Think” campaign, Apple urged its customers to “Think Different.” The TV spots began, “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes…”
The truth is that while people like the idea of being different, real change is always built on common ground. Differentiation builds devotion among adherents, but to bring new people in, you need to make an idea accessible and that means focusing on values that you share with outsiders, rather than those that stir the passions of insiders. That’s how you win
There’s even a technique called the 5 Whys that is designed to uncover root problems. Nevertheless, if you want to get beyond fundamental assumptions, you need to start by asking “why?”
Here are my top 5 tips on how I focus on keeping ‘one step ahead’ of the cheese:
Do not rest on past successes …
There is nothing more dangerous to life success than a great last result, is there? We are ‘only as good as our next result’. Stay paranoid.
Age is relevant … make yourself a project
Hairdressing icon Vidal Sassoon was famous for having said: “The only place you’ll find success coming before work is in a dictionary.” We have to work on ourselves. Put pressure on ourselves. Critique our days.
Give back to society. Be our own very best coaches and cheering squads. All of this applies as much for our personal lives as for our business lives.
Continue to add to your connections and be a continuous learner …
Woody Allen said: “85% of the secret of success is just turning up.” Turn up to events. Make that phone call. Read that book. Do that training. Have the courage to ask that question. Make the effort. Stay connected to what’s happening around you.
Age is relevant … is a priority ‘ninja’
Getting more of the important things done every day. Be obsessed with getting priorities rights, on what’s really important, every day, and make sure you spend the majority of your day on these priorities.
Creative minds online … embrace change
Darwin said it was not the strongest of the species that survived, but the ablest to adapt to change. There will be more change in the next five years than we’ve seen in the past 50. Get excited by change. Be part of the most movements that you can. Help shake things up.
We’ve got one shot in our lives.
Work hard on yourself to stay relevant if you want the chance to avoid being the cheese.
The bottom line
So never be scared of being curious. It is the roots of discoveries and inventions. It opens up options. You think and expand possibilities. Through curiosity, you can move from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
Just by being curious, you make your life interesting, you are always self-motivated to learn, and your imagination is always fired up.
