We all look back at things we did and said when we were young a cringe with embarrassment.
I remember talking to my Dad about the cool agency I was interviewing with (I was 24) crowing to him, "There's no one there over thirty".
He went very quiet and said, "And you really think that's a good thing do you?", and walked off.
Yep, I thought anyone over thirty were over the hill.
Now the age of thirty feels a generation ago to me, and it actually is.
That agency, like so many others is no more, but I'm somehow still here at 50.
Some of this is luck of course, but much of it is, like a Great White Shark, moving forward or die.
I've worked in all kinds of agencies on purpose and learned something at each one, even the agency that did Media Arts.
I learned something from each boss, even the ones I'd rather forget.
I learned lots from other agencies I partnered with and the great people there.
I learned even more from the mistakes I made and the many failures. These scars are hard earned, but they're bloody useful.
I know stuff that can't be learned in books, or the latest LinkedIn profile.
But one of the simplest lessons, that's hardest to learn, is surround yourself with people who can do what you can't.
I listen to people from different backgrounds, young people who live the life a 5o year old doesn't.
I decided not to have a sell by date, but listen to those who haven't let experience dull their ideas yet.
I'm not even close to being done.
Yet look out into our industry and it's still pretty biased to younger people.
Especially when experienced people are seen as a cost rather than an asset.
Look out even further into the world and the work we make has a tin ear for age.
Brands are obsessed with Gen Z and Gen Alpha, desperate to recruit the next generation.
And when they do stuff for them, they manage to get it horribly wrong.
From work making a 5o year look like my Dad.
To horribly patronising thinking that tries to empower me to not grow up.
When growing up is actually ace, you know what you like, you have the confidence to get rid of everything you don't.
Mostly this is down to people doing the work can't relate to theme because they're too young.
Some of it is the natural mentality of the next generation to dismiss the last.
It's how Nike managed to get rid of all the people who know what they were doing.
But then again, many older folks become unmanageable because they hate anything new.
They dismiss any new thinking and new people and worship a golden age that was never there.
I dream of an industry that loves experience, but also loves genuine fresh thinking, instead of a fresh process.
That would be nice wouldn't it?
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