A Riff on Hitting 60 – Waxing Between Leaning-in or Leaning-On

(Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental or is it?).

You have hit 60.

You don’t run your own business.

You are neither a top honcho of a business, nor do you sit on boards of business where 60+ is encouraged for their 30+ years of navigating choppy waters and stormy weather or for their simple ability to read a balance sheet.

You are not an investor or representing the principal investor to get a seat on the board of a profitable company. You don’t get sitting fees. Strange that’s what my boss accused me of - sitting on my - when denying me the patently-deserved, eagerly-awaited promotion and increment. Unfair! Must become a board-member. “If I have not got there yet, I am going to get there sometime.” (To quote Marshall Silversmith)

Digressed. Back to one’s life story.

Nor is an heir hunter knocking on your door to announce that your grand-aunt has left you a million-dollar inheritance.

You have what you thought was a great management education or experience which is of zero relevance now.

Your slow-paced world has been bowled over by the want-it-now-world. Your knowledge-focused pursuits have become a skill-focused nightmare. When someone said, ‘code’ you understood it as something to do with honour. Not C++. Is that English, even? Its bit, byte, byte. A form of Morse Code that only computers understand. What language will computers speak to us when they take over the world. Aye! Come here. Aye, go there. Why? I am AI. Algos so yougos! Comprehendo? (Marshall Bronzesmith).

Your experience does not count for much in the digital world.

Your boss has his own way to telling you that. He gifts you Marshall Goldsmith’s ‘What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There – How Successful People Become Even More Successful’.

You receive it as a gift. Not as a pink slip that it is meant to be. You read the blurb.

“America’s most sought-after executive coach shows how to climb the last few rungs of the ladder. The corporate world is filled with executives, men and women who have worked hard for years to reach the upper levels of management. They’re intelligent, skilled, and even charismatic. But only a handful of them will ever reach the pinnacle — and as executive coach Marshall Goldsmith shows in this book, subtle nuances make all the difference. These are small “transactional flaws” performed by one person against another (as simple as not saying thank you enough), which lead to negative perceptions that can hold any executive back. Using Goldsmith’s straightforward, jargon-free advice, it’s amazingly easy behaviour to change. Executives who hire Goldsmith for one-on-one coaching pay $250,000 for the privilege. With this book, his help is available for 1/10,000th of the price.”

I always wondered whether Goldsmith was a name he was born with or he marshalled all the resources at his command to become one of the ‘most sought-after executive coach’?

Or he began calling himself ‘Goldsmith’ after a desperate CEO cut him $250,000 cheque from the anticipated golden handshake – one last hurrah before saying goodbye - by putting Marshal’s Plan into action in his firm that has posted four quarterly losses?

I did not ask my boss. I asked myself. How does this book help? It is for successful people who want more success. What about me? I have overrun my time in the company. My boss is desperately hinting that I should make space for some young ‘un. 

I take the book and leave. Leave. You know what I mean. Yes, leave.

With no pressures of work. A book in English not C++. No one screaming, ‘Aye’ this and ‘AI’ that. I read the book. Brilliant stuff!

Over last 110 days I have written 110,000 words. Faith-based articles. Business articles. Stories and even a screenplay. All at www.matchatter.blogspot.com Screenplay on request. My blog has 2,24,947+ views. I am anticipating a gold rush to the blog to help me bump the number further.

My articles like this one posted at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/mathewanthony/detail/recent-activity/posts/ have willy-nilly given me 2007 connections. I have 24 article / posts with an average view of 17 and one personal story of my daughter cutting my hair has 77 views. It did occur to me if I mention my daughter as having something to do with the other articles perhaps the views may jump.

I stopped looking at views, pathetic as they were. I realized I am under ‘view siege’. I want to be applauded and appreciated. That is what social media is all about. When you are not, then you need to argue that it is an addiction that requires detox. It may even be illegal this desire for likes, comments and claps (the hand coming together one). Morals held high I cease such pursuit. Settled for forced anonymity. Fox and sour grapes. Yes, one of those. 

At 60 I am pivoting. Doing stuff, I can do with ambulation, not of my feet, but of my fingers, on a keyboard (until voice-based typing is error-free). Then back to the put-your-leg-on-the-desktop secretary-dictation days, where a good secretary made you feel you graduated from Oxford. As long as one kept one’s mouth shut no one who read your secretary-crafted memo knew better.

That’s how I got here! Hmmm! Now to get there! Damn, Marshall Gold-Smitten. Thank God I learnt speed typing during summer breaks in school. Now the only thing faster than my typing is my mind. May it be so to my 90s. 

P.S. Mr Goldsmith - all said in jest. Don't sue me and make me famous. I like my anonymity.