WELCOMING FAILURE AND KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE

I was struck this weekend with the amazing feat of Diana Nyad, who managed, at the age of 64, to be the first person to complete the Cuba to Florida swim without a shark cage. This was not her first attempt, in fact it was her 5th. The first time she tried was at the age of 28.

Two things she said upon reaching the Florida shore were "never give up," and "you're never too old to chase your dream." 

Let me comment on the latter first. I've written about this before in "Age is Not an Excuse" when 80-year-old Yuichiro Muira became the oldest person to reach Mount Everest's summit. At an age where many are sitting around saying "woulda, coulda, shoulda" Yuichiro accomplished a feat that most of the population, regardless of age, would never attempt. Similarly with Diana Nyad.

What is interesting about society today is that even though we have the healthiest and most robust population heading into their 60's, somehow we haven't yet stopped calling them twilight years. We fear the click of each decade believing that it will herald a deterioration of unfathomable proportions. We convince ourselves that there is a limit to what we can do, what we can change in our lives. In other words we settle, professionally and personally, therefore  ensuring a self-fulfilling prophesy. For me settling would be akin to inviting the grim reaper for dinner.

Furthermore, many employers are ageists. Not on the surface, but there is an underlying current, and sometimes not so underlying, which is pretty evident. Recently, through linked in, Human Resources from one of the largest companies in the world emailed me about a role. In their preamble, and this is word for word, the following was written:

We have some of the best and brightest talent working for us from a 40 year 
old CFO....

I sat there reading this several times, trying to figure out what this was supposed to mean. Is this CFO the best because he is 40? Would this person not have been mentioned in this preamble, had he been 50, or maybe 60? I'm pretty sure that would not have been the case. 

In my LinkedIN profile, I have removed a lot of factors that would enable someone to figure out my age. Not that I'm ashamed of having the experience, and being a trailblazer for things that today may seem commonplace. No, I've done it because other people judge you on whatever norm they have established for that age group. I consider that in all areas of my life, intellect, emotionally and physically I am probably at my peak, but alas, poor Yorick, others would not see it the same way.

I don't limit myself by the number. The number is just the number and I've seen many depressed people hitting milestones going "OMG." I particularly chuckle when some of my friends turning 30 espouse the "I can't believe I'm that old!" 

So just like Diana and Yuichiro, don't limit yourself because of a number...dare to dream. If you don't like your life, career wise, personally or in some other way, change it. You might be living another 30 or 40 years, so make things happen, change it up and accomplish that "Impossible Dream."

Which brings me to the second statement that Diana Nyad made "Never Give up." This was actually the advice that Nellie Kroes had also given in my book 1 Piece of Advice.  Again I've written about this topic is several previous blog entries but let me just say it simply with a quote for Albert Einstein:

You never fail until you stop trying

Failure is actually a gift. Those who have never failed have never risked anything. And they have never had the opportunity to learn and recover from failure. In job interviews I always ask a potential candidate to tell me a time when things didn't work out how they expected them to, what they did to retrieve the situation, and what would they do differently given the 20/20 hindsight. If they can't think of a situation, then I won't hire them, because either they are lying or they've never pushed the envelope.

I have had many "failure gifts" in my life, both professionally and personally. In each case I've learned and kept moving forward. I am a person who embraces risk and will probably do so until the day I die. Because as before, if I was just coasting, it would feel like the grim reaper was a constant companion.

So no matter where you are on the age paradigm or whether you've "failed" at something either personally or professionally, keep the dream alive. You are the master of your own destiny!