Now that I am 45

When I was 25

When I was a young and brash 25 year old, I often dismissed people as ’45 and going nowhere”.

I expect the young of today to be equally as intolerant. And I forgive them. Our twenties are heady time.  We achieve autonomy and we reassure ourselves that we are able to take our place in the adult world.

Now I am 45

I want to honor the promise of my 25 year old self.  I think

• We have a responsibility to the young to make opportunities for them and to allow them to make their mistakes but in non-career threatening ways.

• We have a responsibility to create institutions where they can progressively take on larger and larger projects.

• We have a responsibility to ensure that the young have access to information about what is worth doing and what is not. We should not allow them to spend time on speculative work that will be career-breaker and undermine their confidence for ever after.

• We have a responsibility to espouse a vision and work towards it systematically.

• We have a responsibility not to sulk. We are not 25 any more. We can not longer start projects with only the thought “I can, I can.”

It is our job now to bring together all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. The people. The money. The processes. The customers. The parties. The comfort when things don’t go our way.

We are 45 now. The 25 year olds are right. We aren’t going anywhere. We are gathering together all the resources we need for larger works.