Over-50

Glamorizing Hustle Culture - We Baby Boomers Started That

Our parents simply went to work. Some even were in white-collar jobs like accounting or middle management. Then they came home each evening and that was that. No bringing work home. Instead they turned on the evening news.

On the popular televsion series of the 1950s "Father Knows Best" employee in the insurance industry Jim Anderson was home for dinner every night. And he was "there." He listened to everyone's problems and shared their joys. 

Then we baby boomers came along.

Low-cost college education and the opportunities of the post-war economy unleashed in us intense ambition. There was a shot at making it big and we went for it.

Along the way The Career Advice industry emerged to guide our every move.

Yes, go for the M.B.A.

Here's how to comport yourself if you sense the boss will be fired.

Dress like those do in the position you're heading toward.

We were our work.

Parents, both males and females, weren't home for dinner. There was a struggle to hire and retain the best nannies.

Single women without children like myself were what employers wanted. We could hop on a plane without notice to solve a problem in the plant in Canada or Mexico. 

And born was what LinkedIn News calls "The Hustle Culture."

Even though many of us currentlyy are beyond normal retirement age we are still our work. We can't shake that our professional identify is the primary one.

Those of our colleagues forced to retire and who can't put a Work Next together usually wither. I have observed that when I visited former college acquaintance Kathleen Huebner in Oro Valley, Arizona. Although she had had a succesful career she opted to retire in one of those retirement communities. Mostly what I had heard was those gushing about their previous careers. There was no there in the present. 

Now, The Hustle Culture, which we made glam, is being vilified. It's been fingered for everything from burnout to an inability to connect on a deep level.

In my coaching those over-50 the focus is on simply easing up, even a little, on the compulsion to keep achieving. There is no expectation of being totally liberated from an ethos which anointed work as sacred. The irony is that those letting go even just a bit become more successful. Essentially they drop the story line of past whatever and immerse themselves in the now.

As for younger generations, they are a fragmented bunch.

Some Gen Zers have decided work will be just a part of their lives and on their terms. Those include operating remotely.

Then there are the strivers captured in "Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life." It's by former Yale Professor William Dersiewicz. That subculture within youth is trapped in a constant hustle. They fear making a mistake or getting a bad grade. Therefore, they freeze into cartoon characters chasing what they have been told are the rules for success.

The good news is that hustle can be tamed. The silver lining in the pandemic was that, with one's life on the line, there was reflection about how that life was being lived. What has resulted is a deep rethinking about work. Insider reports that recently in one month five million workers quit. They refused to do The Hustle.

Since we started The Hustle, we can be in the front lines for reducing its influence. The first step is to humanize how we work. Be kind to our employees and vendors. Find  in satisfaction in serving employers and clients/customers. And, forgive ourselves, if we didn't quite make the big time. 

Intuitive guidance about your career. Drop your story line and open to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment for a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

The Memoir - A Wobbly Platform for Your Legacy, New Professional Opportunities.

Will Katie Couric's memoir "Going There" destroy her legacy in media?

That's a real danger in opening up and putting whatever out there about a life lived.

What seems like sorting out and connecting the dots to you could be taken as anything from uncalled-for nastiness to even illegal. You may not be forgiven. What you assume will be a platform for creating your legacy and new professional opportunities, forget it.

In the influential New York Post, Maureen Callahan actually tells the world not to buy Couric's memoir.

As Callahan hammers and as students of literature always knew but authors might not realize: They disclose more about themselves than they realize. And readers might not like that, not at all. Yes, that could be how your memoir also plays out.

A recent example is fallen former McKinsey head Rajat Gupta's memoir "Mind Without Fear." It's a rehash of his tough beginnings in India (which we had already heard too much about) and his innocence of the crime of insider trader (for which he had been convicted and gone to prison). Likely that blew any chance Gupta had for a comeback in America. He does have his cheerleaders back in India. The marketplace gave Gupta's memoir a thumbs-down. Its ranking is in the Amazon abyss: 1,027,900. How humiliating. 

Here's what Callahan says about Couric's "Going There":

"Couric reveals more about herself than she seems to realize: Namely, that she is the kind of terrible woman who hates most other women and likes only those she considers inferior, not as successful, no threat in the looks department. It’s the kind of self-loathing that allows her to defend monsters like Matt Lauer and blame all the pretty young things for bringing this on themselves."

Of course, given the dark aspects of human nature, many will buy this book for the gossip. Due out there on October 26, 2021, it ranks on Amazon very high: 29.

But that can quickly peter out. Gossip has a short shelf life. Folks quickly move onto the next scandal. 

Meanwhile, those Couric vilifies in her book and their allies can turn on her - viciously. They are powerful people. Not only might she never eat lunch in this town again. She could find herself living the next 15 years or so (she's only 64 years old) without significant professional opportunities. We are tending to continue to work into our late 70s and beyond. Clint Eastwood is 91 years old. He recently produced the film "Cry Macho."

On the other hand, Couric could leverage "Going There" as the bridge to The Next. 

Nastiness is the ethos of this era. So many of the best-sellers vomit up ugliness. They range from "The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power" by Max Chafkin to "The Caesars Palace Coup" by Sujeet Indep and Max Frumes. And there are no signs that demand for books dishing the dirt will let up. 

Intuitive readings about your career. Drop your story line and open to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment for a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

No Longer Unthinkable: You Could Be Working Anywhere, Living Anywhere (Circling Back to Pre-Industrial Age)

"Accounting and consulting firm PwC told Reuters ... will allow all its 40,000 U.S. client services employees to work virtually and live anywhere they want in perpetuity, making it one of the biggest employers to embrace permanent remote work." Jessica Di Napoli, Reuters Legal, September 30, 2021.

This model is exactly what worker activsts at Apple are demanding. It's not only the flexibility of operating outside the formal office they are lobbying for. It's also the ability to choose where to live. During the pandemic when Apple went total remote, some employees relocated. Currently, they are telling Apple they want to continue living where they are.

Law firms, as part of professional services, could begin to feel pressure to embrace this model. That's especially the situation since their cultures have been as rigid as that of PwC.

With demand not letting up, they have to accommodate the preferences of associates. At least for now. Those junior lawyers can point to PwC and say: Look what it's doing. This law firm can do the same.

Since office reopenings for most law firms won't happen until early 2022, they have plenty of time to consider this option for how to work.

Meanwhile, there are aspects in the PwC model which employees may balk at. One is that they have to back in the office monthly. The maximum time is three days. Also, there is a pay differential. Those who choose to reside in lower-cost locations will have their pay check docked. That location-based compensation issue is controversial. 

Obviously, PwC has provided a platform for worker activists to mount their campaigns for flexible work provisions.

It is interesting to observe that if we circle back in time, before the Industrial Revolution most work had been done at home. Part of the disruption of the Industrial Age, which Charles Dickens captured in his novels, was the wrenching experience of having to go to the factory to earn a living. 

Intuitive readings about your career. Drop your story line and open to extreme possibility. Sliding Scale Fees. Please make an appointment for a complimentary consultation at janegenova374@gmail.com.

Baby Boomers - The Story Line of Our Terrible Mothers

"When we talk with friends about childhood, we compete about whose mother was the worst." - Hayden Herrera, "Upper Bohemia, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2021.

We also talk about our terrible mothers with strangers on planes, in therapy, during recovery meetings, and with siblings.

About the latter - after years of not being close to my younger sister Anne Murga-Ring, we managed to put together several years of bonding analyzing how bad our mother had been.

Because there had been a nine-year difference in age, our bad mother ordeals also had been different. I assumed that I had gotten a lot out of hearing her version of the experience. But one commonality was that we agreed that both of us had spent years unraveling how mommy gaslighted us. 

This line of conversation holds on tight even in this era when the meme has been to drop the story line. Much of the teachings of American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron zeroes on on that. The short version is that holding on to the story hooks us into the past. And life happens in the now, right.

Why can't we let go?

Maybe Sigmund Freud was really onto to something. Unlike the genetic crowd, he believed human beings drifted slowly or propelled quickly into neurosis because of what happened to us early in our lives. Therefore, as we keep facing new challenges as we baby boomers age, we automatically circle back to those traumas. That's a sorting-out tool. 

For example, I am over the moon that I have created a new niche in my expertise. That's the ability to assist my communications clients with their ESG (Environmental Social Governance) cred. Here is the recent article I published on ESG in the bible of public relations - O'Dwyer PR. Part of me is, of course, quite pleased with myself. Part of me is drowning in anxiety. Yes, my bad mother, so insecure, had gone after my accomplishments. 

Also, no matter how old we get there is the fear of the My Mother/Myself. We baby boomers were the first generation to be alienated from our parents. Many of us want to keep it that way. Although mine are dead, the relationship continues in my head. I continue to fear I'm "becoming" my mother. That feeds the obsession with that very bad mother.

It's unlikely our generation will drop this story line. And we will continue to position and package our own mothers as the absolute worst. Your trauma doesn't come near mine in horror.

Mother's Day? I smirk . Probably some mother whose children hate her lobbied to have that created.  Yeah, another way mothers gaslighted us.

Less is more. PAN Communications found consumers are only paying attention to about 1/16^th of your content. So, together let's create the marketing communications that engage them. Fees customized for your unique budget. Complimentary consultation - janegenova374@gmail.com.

Baby Boomers - Are Your Grandchildren Considering Career Paths on Wall Street or BigLaw?

The best-selling "The Caesars Palace Coup" (ranking 7,626 on Amazon) provides an insider look on how pressure-filled, competitive, and risk-laden career paths on Wall Street and Big Law can be. Authored by Sujeet Indap and Max Frumes it chronicles the spectacular bankruptcy of Caesars. 

It was no mere transactional event. The force field sucked in every dark impulse in human nature from greed to the egoism of those Masters of the Universe the late Tom Wolfe had captured in the 1988 "The Bonfire of the Vanities."

Sure, many thrive in the versions of Wall Street and BigLaw Indap and Frumes expose.

There are those super-players who actually hunger for those kinds of dynamics. Usually they need little sleep, no work/life balance, and no pause in the whatever. Also, there is no concept of "enough" as in the acquisition of wealth. Others less driven often say they will exit those tough games on either Wall Street or BigLaw once their portfolio hits a certain number. For those looping into the Caesars brawl that kind of mindset didn't exist. 

All this could be summed up as classifying those non-stop strivers as a distinct subculture in America. The cautionary tale is that not everyone who welcomes that kind of interesting work and the associated rewards can endure such a brutal game. They shouldn't go into it. Or, if they do they should assess quickly if they can sustain doing what is required to win.

Of course, not everyone wins. They can fall with a thump and never be able to return to a position of strength.

Also, there are setbacks even for the most effective players such as the current head of Apollo Marc Rowan. A must in the gameplan has to be strategies for comebacks and the ability to shake off the past. Right now on Wall Street those in the know praise Rowan's strategy to transform Apollo into a credit powerhouse. 

Copies of or digital links to "The Caesars Palace Coup" should be in the career guidance departments of all institutions of higher education, ranging from undergraduate programs to those for the M.B.A. and JD.

Let’s talk about success. How can you boost that in your own career and the trajectory of your business? ON YOUR OWN TERMS. You owe yourself a complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail (no selling).

"Drunk" By Edward Slingerland Gives Us Permission to Have Pleasure

"People like to masturbate. They also like to get drunk ... We are inveterate pleasure seekers, promiscuously grabbing little jolts of ecstasy ..." - In the "Introduction" of Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, And Stumbled Our Way to Civilization" By Edward Slingerland, published in New York, by Little, Brown Spark, 2021.

Essentially the message of this book is that so many of the behaviors society warns us against are those which bring such joy.

Because the attitude about these is often so punitive (remember how Sally Draper on "Mad Men" was ramped into therapy when she masturbated in public) we can wind up mighty confused about what is normal and what crosses the line and gets us into trouble (remember how Jeffrey Toobin indulged himself on company time on Zoom).

That could be one reason lawyers have a tough time determining if their enjoyment of alcohol has become a problem requiring intervention.

Positioning and packaging pleasure as forbidden goes all the way back to the Puritans. 

Such a rigid sense of disapproval dominates old-line recovery approaches such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Implicitly it's banned to recount the period of excessive drinking as an experience of much joy. The speakers' stories tend to depict that time as one of great pain, not only for them but for myriad others. That's why one of the 12 steps involves making amends.

Such an unrealistic take on pleasure can be counterproductive in leaping out of the trouble. No surprise, AA is estimated to have a low success rate - between 5% and 10%. In 2015, The Atlantic published a highly critical article of AA.

A more effective approach at managing fun kinds of behavior which have gotten out of hand could be to loop into the pleasure. Yes, all that is wonderful. Now, what do you and I together do about what has turned out to be too much of a good thing? 

Such an accepting mindset might prevent so many of the crimes which could be rooted in repressed sexuality or shame even about masturbation.

Slingerland's book might be distributed free by churches, therapists, and saloons. That could be more effective in eliminating problem drinking than all the research projects documenting its prevalence.  

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Clint Eastwood, 91 - Role Model for Late Bloomers (yes, there is such a phenomenon)

Successful, yes. That had been the young and middle-aged Clint Eastwood. But in the entertainment world his brand was for B-film, action-packed with lots of bad guys and shootings.

Then, as he entered old age, he took the leap into serious filming. Among those artistic works have been "Unforgiven" and "Millon Dollar Baby." In his new works he often plays a role. No, he isn't timid about appearing on film with his wrinkles.

And, at age 91, he is still at it. His latest film is "Cry Matcho." The protagonist is a guy who is throwing in the towel on having to posture at being macho and concealing his aging. 

Clearly Eastwood provides inspiration for the rest of us over-65 who want some kind of fresh start. 

University of Chicago professor David Galenson researched the subject of late bloomers. In the arts he documented such as phenomenon. His book on that is "Old Masters and Young Geniuses." Here you can order it on Amazon.

Let’s talk about success. How can you boost that in your own career and the trajectory of your business? ON YOUR OWN TERMS. You owe yourself a complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail (no selling).

Presence - Yes, You Can Acquire That, Even in Your 50s and Beyond

It's being totally there, along with unique human touchpoints. Essentially, that's what presence is.

Both in good times before COVID and in the confusion and despair of a pandemic, ABC's David Muir has been totally there. We felt it. And we needed to feel it.

The number-one unique touchpoint is this: He has been the cheerleader for America's strengths. His presentation of the segment "America Strong" has been personal. We came to believe in ourselves, again. 

So, no surprise, ABC News is ranked Number-One. 

Another classic in presence is rooted in that very specialized niche of practicing law in an large elite law firm.

Unless we are in the C-Suite of one of its clients or a wealthy individual player who can afford its services, we rarely have a look inside.

But one of its leaders does give us access. That's through his presence in social justice: Brad Karp, head of Paul Weiss.

There he is on the front lines mobilizing other law firms to pitch in against injustices such as voter suppression and antisemitism.

Just one anecdote: Just like Tom Sawyer amazingly got friends to whitewash the fence, Karp magically tapped into the altruism of thousands of lawyers. Through that outreach, together they invented a digital center for victims of COVID. 

Karp's unique touchpoint? Wildly high Emotional Intelligence. .

Can presence be an acquired trait?

Yes.

Proof of that is one-time notorious White House intern Monica Lewinsky. She transformed from a too-eager-to-please awkward young girl with a gush of a smile to a middle-aged poised human being. With that acquisition came the career path in media which has had extreme success.  

Another example is the fictional Jay Gatsby from a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Along his journey from being a nobody to being a wealthy man of influence on prestigious Long Island he studied the attributes of presence among old money. He got all that down just right. 

How to enhance presence?

Of course, there's a book on that. There always is. A recent one is "Presence" by social psychologist Amy Cuddy.

There are Dale Carnegie Systems introductory and advanced courses (including in marketing and sales).

And there is the old-line tactic of observing. By cherry-picking from the best of those with presence, you could be on your way to connecting in ways you have never envisioned and a career that gets lit.

Let’s talk about success. How can you boost that in your own career and the trajectory of your business? ON YOUR OWN TERMS. You owe yourself a complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail (no selling).

Everyone's Right to Rebrand

Tabloids such as the New York Post, of course, create clickbait by presenting former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as "hiding." 

But we in communications know he's engaged in the first step of reputation restoration. That's laying low. There is that universal in crisis management: Get out of sight and leave the space open for someone else to screw up. That will shift the spotlight from you.

Some might have noticed that former head of Apollo Global Management Leon Black has been keeping a low profile since his former Russian mistress sued him and he countersued. Smart boy, Leon.

On the other hand, former head of McKinsey & Co. Rajat Gupta blew rebranding. At the top of the list of what went very wrong was publishing his book "Mind Without Fear."

That was positioned and packaged as the platform for proving his innocence of insider trading. That was even though he had been convicted by a jury and sent to prison. Also, as if it were a Dickensian novel, the book chronicled his early adversity in India. That had been told and retold myriad times. Obviously, he's never going to be let back in. 

The odds, though, are excellent for a politico like Cuomo to re-establish a presence. 

Where Cuomo's laying low is probably in the Hamptons - Southhampton, more specifically. There, a long-term friend Dr. Jeffrey A. Sachs could be providing him shelter and support. That's what friends are for.

After an appropriate time away from the limelight, slowly Cuomo can begin to experiment with how to reimagine his professional and personal life.

He has many successful models to borrow pieces from.

In real life there have been Mike Milken and Jimmy Carter.

In fiction there's Jay Gatsby whom F. Scott Fitzgerald created. 

When Cuomo puts together the next, it's imperative for him to not let the old story intrude. Skillfully and smoothly he can steer media and personal conversations away from that narrative of rise and fall. If he does that often enough and well enough he can prevent debris from the past from washing up on his present. Few remember that Milken spent time in prison. 

Meanwhile, jury selection begins tomorrow in "US v. Elizabeth Holmes." If convicted of fraud the defendant faces 20 years in prison. But if the legal team at Williams & Connolly gets her off then she too can move on to the initial phase of reputation restoration. 

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Sirhan Sirhan and Leslie Van Houten - We Baby Boomers Remember When the Music Died

The controversy, including within the Kennedy family, over Sirhan Sirhan's first step in getting parole should have gotten lots more media attention. However the announcement is competing with the killer Delta variant and what will probably turn out to be killer Ida.

However, the attention it has gotten ignores another major parole issue in California. And that's how many times Mason family member Leslie Van Houten has not made it through the last step in parole. That's the governor's approval. If liberal current governor Gavin Newsom is recalled and a conservative takes his place, again Van Houten will face a setback at the end of the parole-application process. 

Some contend the rejection is purely political. Many agree that Van Houten is a different person than what she had been in her youth. But they also pragmatically admit that the crimes committed by the Mason family had been so horrific that forgiveness is not out there. 

However, Sihan Sirhan's murder of Robert F. Kennedy was also embedded with political issues. And it certainly had been horrific. Yet, he could have a shot at obtaining the governor's approval for parole.

Some posit that Van Houten can't be released because no one as yet has provided a creditable explanation how a seemingly together middle-class young woman could not only fall under Charles Manson's spell but also murder for him. In "The Manson Women and Me" Nikki Meredith details that enigma.

It could be such a puzzle may be what makes the governors wary of allowing her back into society. If we don't understand how she got to become a murderer how can we ethically release her into the mainstream? Hovering over this had been the memory of Norman Mailer's support for parole for gifted writer Jack Henry Abbott. Soon after Abbott was back in society he killed again. 

We baby boomers lived through the shock of both the Manson murders and the assassination of another Kennedy. For us, the music died. It's personally painful to be considering the ethics of forgiveness for those who at one time committed such egregious crimes. But that we must. If we ignore the very human touchpoint of forgiveness we lose our own humanity.

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