The Pied Piper of LinkedIn

It is LinkedIn’s 15th birthday and true to form my favourite social media site has turned it into an event about me, rather than about the site. For a decade now LinkedIn has been my favourite. It hasn’t found me a dream job. Nor has it helped me get a raise. Yet it has connected me with fellow professionals from around the world and helped me appreciate the great diversity of views, talent and outcomes that follows when we work together. It has helped build greater respect for the world of work and introduce ourselves to a global audience. (My Airbnb host in Paris recently approved my request to be hosted at her home there after she found my profile on LinkedIn. She seems delighted that I work in HR!).

But, I digress. This is supposed to be about me. LinkedIn wants to know what I wanted to be #WhenIWas15 . My dear friends, when I was 15 and not yet out of high school, I didn’t want to be. I was! The world was my oyster. I was on song (I was charming everyone with the latest songs). I was on fire, winning every debate and essay competition. The energy made me swim, run, dance with complete abandon. I was the envy of my friends, the joy of my near ones. My teachers were warily proud of me. It was spring unbridled, the genie unbottled. Time was the bubbly one washed one’s face with every morning. Life was music in the ventricles. When I was 15 tomorrow did not exist. Nor, for that matter, the next moment. There was nothing to look forward to. Everything was right now, right here.

Oh, there was the vague notion that one had to go to office one day and work like our parents. But, that would happen naturally, seamlessly, easily. There was no need to worry about or prepare for it. The bubbly would greet us every morning of our life. Being 15 was magical. 15 was Tinkerbell showering one with stardust. 15 did not foresee any of the complications we now face. The new businesses that have emerged and the convoluted path to career nirvana. 15 did not imagine that this would be typed out on a laptop and posted on the internet.

15 certainly did not foresee LinkedIn and its power to draw professionals to share the wealth of their experience, knowledge and talent with each other. 500 million and growing, there is a Pied Piper here. And it is playing a sweet recital: of connections, shared vision and value and, yesss, of belonging to a wider community. Most of my blogs have been for LinkedIn. I love writing about my work and experience and this site is perfect to host it.

So, Pied Piper of LinkedIn, if your 15 is anywhere as near perfect as When I Was 15 you must just enjoy the magic. I believe that I am able to coast through life because I had the boost of that time. The memory of it keeps me sailing. So, enjoy your 15th year, wash down that bubbly and know that the future will change and we cannot foresee every event. What we can do is keep 15 alive, forever!

Happy birthday!