John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Being 50

Being 50 years old gives one a lot of advantages over those young upstarts gunning for us in the rough and tumble business world.

But sometimes you try and try and try and try again.

And no matter where you are or who is around or who there is to look to for help….

And no matter how hard you keep trying as everyone around you is watching and waiting and listening and waiting some more….

You just can’t remember what you were going to say.

At least you think you can’t remember it. In fact, you can’t even remember if you forgot what you originally thought you forgot and now realize you may not have even been talking about the topic you thought you had lost your train of thought on in the first place.

It’s not so much embarrassing when that happens as it is liberating.

So, you just laugh and go along with it and finish that story just the way you feel it probably was supposed to end. Or at least possibly was supposed to end. Or hope, if it wasn’t the way it was supposed to end, no one notices. Or if they did notice, since they are about your age, maybe they will forget in about 15 minutes.

And if there are any of those young hot shots standing around looking at you and grinning knowingly like a vulture circling its prey before it breaths its final breath, stare them down with a look that says unmistakeably, “All I have to do is make one call and you’ll never work in this industry again. Got that?!”

Now….what were we talking about again?