We all age.Some of us even get old.But we don’t have to.
I was privileged to know Colonel Harland Sanders, the poster boy for late bloomers.He was successful not because he served up pressure fried chicken coated in 11 secret herbs and spices, but because he had a story to tell.Col. Sanders took that story on the road when he was 65 and continued to tell it so long as he had breath, dying of pneumonia at 90.And his story became his company’s story and remains part of our story.
Share your story here.Once it’s here, though, it belongs to the world.If you have copyright concerns, don’t post here, because you’re letting go.
This site was conceived to attract baby boomers and 60 plussers who have something to say, more to give, and a whole lot more living to do. But anyone can post. No age discrimination here! Energy and the ambition to try something new or different don’t have to be limited by the calendar.The half step or half second slower of a professional athlete still leaves 99% of us standing with our shoes nailed to the floor.Just because you have lost a beat from your prime doesn’t mean you can’t show the world your dust.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
What thing are you better at than anyone else?
My father told me that everyone in the world is better at one thing than anyone else. What's your thing?
I once spent an evening with John Kenneth Galbraith, the economist who said "Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof." I want to believe the one thing I might do better than all others in the world is listen well and remain open to persuasion. It's not enough to merely tell people about a new idea...you have to get them to experience it in a way that is personal and powerful to them. Rather than pour knowledge into another's head, it may be more productive to grind them a new set of glasses to better see your point of view. Was it Confucius who said, "Tell me and I will forget...show me and I may remember...involve me and I will understand." I want to be good at being involved.
I once spent an evening with John Kenneth Galbraith, the economist who said "Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof." I want to believe the one thing I might do better than all others in the world is listen well and remain open to persuasion. It's not enough to merely tell people about a new idea...you have to get them to experience it in a way that is personal and powerful to them. Rather than pour knowledge into another's head, it may be more productive to grind them a new set of glasses to better see your point of view. Was it Confucius who said, "Tell me and I will forget...show me and I may remember...involve me and I will understand." I want to be good at being involved.
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