Talent

You can become overwhelmed when trying to answer the question, what is my next career pursuit? I am assuming that you want to do something different in your life. I am also assuming that you want to keep working, or maybe you must keep working. If these assumptions are incorrect, then Godspeed in your travels. For me, these questions are foundational to my current situation, and they create a considerable amount of angst and self-doubt. Whether it’s that ever-present imposter syndrome or simple lack of belief in myself and professional worth, it’s the primary issue that keeps me up at night.

What is it that makes older gentlemen like me question our worth? Maybe it’s the fact that we live in a culture where comparison is the metric we use to measure our value. Clearly all those on Instagram have lives that are that great! Right!? Beautiful homes, luxury cars, runway beautiful wives, personas right out of Mad Men, and/or travels worthy of Anthony Bourdain’s stature. These heights are attainable, at least by those who are worthy. Shit, no wonder we are a ball of negative feelings and self-loathing. The trickery of those in the upper echelons of our marketing empires are impressive. If we hate ourselves enough, we can be convinced to spend our way to bliss.

If we spend enough time in front of the mirror, holding an honest conversation with ourselves, we surely can find things in our past that we are proud of. Maybe we haven’t been able to publicly take ownership of our successes, but they are there none the less. We are all individuals with value and talents, and we must identify, embrace, and announce these talents if we are to move forward. I’m not talking about the boisterous self-promotion that is common among the narcissistic elite that dominate our various media channels and bastions of power. I’m talking about they way we talk about ourselves and how we present ourselves to others. We can communicate our value without conceit and arrogance, although we should not communicate with a whisper. Chances are we are listening more to what we say than those we are talking to anyways. What we say about ourselves becomes the truth, good or bad.

Hell yes! I have talents and I have achievements that I am proud of. You can’t bullshit a bullshitter so please don’t fabricate talents that don’t exist. No, I cannot play guitar like Joe Bonamassa, no matter what I say. But there are things I am good at, and I need to design a career path that builds on these talents. There is no reason why we older men cannot pivot in our lives and create new professional successes. More importantly, what defines success is personal. Success means different things to different people and our happiness is grounded in what fills our hearts, not what others achieve.

So going forward, I will not hesitate to state what I am good at. I will pursue paths that leverage and build on these talents. For those who want to question, critique, or dismiss my announcements, I’m not asking for your approval. If you want to walk by my side as a counsel and enabler, I welcome the company. In fact, I want the company. But I am more than willing to walk this journey alone. I believe in myself.