Over-50

Everything Changed - Older Women Seeking Friendship with Other Older Women

It used to be college was the place those close friendships with other women were made. That meme hovered over Mary McCarthy's 1963 best-selling book "The Group." In 1963 I was a freshman, just like those in "The Group," at an all-women's college. 

Then, as more women became careerists, the place for bonding was the corporation, law firm, or hospital. It took a close female friend to clue us into the unwritten code of the workplace culture. At Gulf Oil (which merged with Chevron) my friend, mentor, and inspiration had been Dorothy Brown who managed media.

Eventually, those all-important careers wind down as we age. Some of us retire or semi-retire. Others, as The Wall Street Journal documents, experience reduced mobility and/or earnings.

So, we shift our focus to other parts of our lives. One of them is socializing and we find that as we age there are fewer barriers to female closeness.

The competition for whatever is less. Also, we like ourselves. And that helps us to accept other women as they are. Although single and always self-supporting, I stopped resenting women who were married and not self-supporting. 

The rub, The New York Times details, is that it is more difficult to find female friends when we are older women.

The workplace isn't the center of our lives. That's out as a meeting place.

Many of us have relocated from areas with high costs of living to more affordable regions. We have to adjust to the norms of our new hometown in order to attract friends. That could take two years or more.

In addition, social networks have already formed - and hardened. No "welcome" sign is put out there for us to attempt to enter. This ain't the college dorm.

One solution, reports The New York Times, is to launch our own network. That's exactly what Dale Pollekoff did when she relocated to Los Angeles at 70-something. She formed the group Finding Female Friends Past Fifty. Within two weeks it had 200 members. Currently it has 800.

Pollekoff's network is involved in plenty of social events such as visiting museums. Once at the setting members tend to do their own thing. Therefore there is a sense of belonging but also freedom to be totally the person we have become.

Starting over in forming female friendships may pan out better than returning to the past to revive dormant ones.

In 2014, I learned that hard lesson. I was thrown off my game by aging. After all, I had done a lot of things in life but aging hadn't been one of them. Also, I had uprooted from the pricey life on the East Coast to then low-cost Tucson, Arizona.

Long story short: Reaching back to college acquaintances was a disaster. The world had changed. They had changed. I had changed. Also, I was in a vulnerable state. That's no time to be reaching back or out. Wait until you are in a position of strength.  Here is that saga. Maybe you will learn something you have to learn.

So, what was effective in building friendships among older women in AZ? Here are six tips:

• Go slow. You don't arrive at 50+ and not be wary. Being too eager to enter a woman's life can scare her off. Observe the three time rule: Encounter each other at least that many times before suggesting coffee or a drink.
• Hold the story. No one wants to hear it and it can and will be held against you. Let this be a fresh start in a relationship.
• Keep busy through whatever, including volunteer activities, to artificially create superficial social bonds. That prevents desperate loneliness. Talking about the weather or traffic is better than not talking at all to another human being.
• Start a business, scale an existing business, and/or grab a part-time job or gig assignment. That involvement makes us more socially "marketable" because we remain embedded in capitalism. And, capitalism is the unofficial religion in America. The big breakthrough in friendship came when I grabbed a part-time job in order to learn CRM technology. Other women in the residential complex gravitated toward me. Because I had been hired "at my age" by someone, anyone I was a bit of a celebrity.
• Try out self-help groups. Members tend to be older. 
• Refrain from dishing advice. In Buddhism, the student must knock on the teacher's door three times before guidance is provided. There is absolutely no reason to assume we know how to fix anyone or any problem. And that will go down in the grapevine as our being bossy.
• Keep in touch with the old crowd through Facebook. 

Unfortunately, after I developed a few friendships, my business required that I move to Eastern Ohio, temporarily. Next September, probably I will be returning to AZ. However, I have a hunch I will have to return to Square One. The world changes. They change. I have changed.

Out of the Box Communications = Unexpected Results

Complimentary Consultation janegenova374@gmail.com – I help, not sell.

Instead of Volunteering at Soup Kitchen, Tutor Folks about How Media Really Works

More powerful than governments, business enterprises, and nutty leaders is the media.

So, it's predictable that its own activities will be the big story of 2019. After all, it's heading into so much change.

The story of media could even upstage the saga of the coming global economic slowdown.

In The Wrap, Sharon Waxman reports how digital natives haven't yet found a sustainable model and a way to scale revenues. 

That's been obvious, of course.

Gawker pushed the envelope too far. A jury in Florida pushed back with a $140 million verdict.

Liberal HuffPost, after a strong start, lost traction compared to the conservative Drudge Report.

How long will Vice and Buzzfeed be around?

Meanwhile, establishment media, with a print legacy, has bounced back.

The New York Times got the hang of digital subscriptions and is thriving.

The Atlantic received fresh funding from Steve Jobs' widow.

The New Yorker found a second life with choosing the right juicy topics for investigative reporting. On social, Ronan Farrow put out a call for tips (ronan_farrow@newyorker.com). I sent him two. 

Network television, which was supposed to die, is still around.

Part of the reason why is that we are enjoying the turbulence. In addition to the sexual harassment scandals we wonder what old-line shows such as "Criminal Minds" will be renewed and which new ones like "A Million Little Things" will be allowed to grow an audience.

Also, there is the medium of blogging. Mature, but still packs a bunch. Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler shook up that enterprise with one post.

It was through my three syndicated blogs that I righted wrongs, at least to my satisfaction.

Those ranged from a financial institution which had wasted my time and use of my money to a client who was trying to stiff me.

Also, I got to stand up, toe to toe, to those "good girls" from the days when there were all-women's Catholic colleges barricaded in the woods - here and here. Thanks to that, I took the leap into self-love, which includes self-acceptance. All's well that ends well. In my late 60s I found inner peace. 

Given the media's power, it's the game so many iGens want to play. That's even if the money for the majority isn't up there with first-year associate salary at law firms (nearly $200k). They contact me for advice.

Because of the volatility in the media industry, I recommend their spreading the earnings risk: Develop multiple sources of income.

For example, as side hustles do marketing communications and tutor preparation for the SAT. Here is my article, published on Odwyepr.com, about managing what I call "mutt branding." That is, a diverse professional identity. 

Perhaps the most useful tool we can give the global underdogs, as well as those here in the U.S., is insight about how media works. That could be the greatest gift to mankind since Prometheus passed on the know-how of fire. 

Out of the Box Communications = Unexpected Results

Complimentary Consultation janegenova374@gmail.com – I help, not sell.

"They" Really Did Cast Spells - From Polio Epidemics to Funding Retirement

There was no online WebMD.

As yet, the masses hadn't begun to become college-educated. So they were unable to think in a scientific manner about the causes of diseases. That was very different from the current analysis of acute flaccid myelitis - AFM - in Scientific American. 

Everywhere, from the elite boarding school the late newspaper editor Ben Bradlee attended to the hood where I grew up, the severe after effects of polio were obvious.

So, no surprise, superstition ran wild among parents in the 1940s and 1950s, concerned their children would develop polio. 

The brand of voodoo had been primitive. It reconfigured summertime, when most cases seemed to develop,  from funtime to a spreading list of restrictions. 

Don't go into a public pool, and you will be safe. Eventually not many public pools opened in those brutal summers before air-conditioning became standard. In the hood the "they" turned on the hydrants.

Stay indoors from noon to three P.M. when the heat was the worst.

Don't run. 

Despite those precautions, when school reopened there would be tales of classmates who had "caught" polio. Most we would never see again. They were "being treated." In St. Boniface Roman Catholic parish school in downtown Jersey City, New Jersey, for a few weeks the nuns would lead us in prayer. Then that would be that. 

Those who did return to the classroom, usually with a limp or even mobility contraptions, became grassroots celebrities. For those of us who craved attention, polio seemed a blessing. We hoped that we might become lucky next summer and also become stars.

Then one day we were told to go to the nurse's office for the Salk vaccine.

The collective consciousness shifted to how we would prepare to get into and succeed in college.

That was a whole different type of angst, but also permeated with superstition. Few of our parents had gone to college. The terror was more horrific than that which hung over the polio epidemics. 

The next rounds of voodoo for baby boomers were all the guidance inflicted on us about our white-collar careers by a new industry: the advice experts. Do this. Never do that. 

For most of us those spells cast in our youth and middle age have only be broken by the wild professional ride we have been on in a global economy driven by digital.

Any of us who didn't get it that we have to think for ourselves - and in a harsh capitalistic way - aren't working any more. Not working, just like polio, can be crippling. In America, the headquarters for capitalism, we are what we do to earn income. I actually tell off anyone who mandates I comply with the standard tribal beliefs about success and failure. 

The journey from the 1940s and 1950s to the 21st century could have been fun. But, as during the polio epidemics, that had been snatched away, at least for those who passively accepted what the self-appointed witch doctors were foisting on a new generation.

Reflection: Currently the witch doctors take the form of financial services pros who warn us that anything less than $5 million socked away for the days of semi-retirement or retirement will render us homeless.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Wire Up! Pushing Back on Financial Services Players Who Are Using "Boo Marketing"

We received a 2.8% boost in our Social Security monthly payment, beginning in 2019.

Medicare only went up $1.50 a month.

At my apartment complex I get 25 bucks off a month because I am a senior.

At Regal Cinema I got to see "A Star Is Born" for peanuts.

Despite the gyrations in the stock market, my investment portfolio is holding up.

The concept of "rational suicide" is catching on. My friends and I candidly discuss how we will off ourselves if we find that we are sliding into dementia. 

And two out of my three businesses have caught fire. When in southwestern Arizona, I was able to pick up three part-time jobs to learn technology "on the company."

Probably no aging population in human history has had it better than my generation of those over-60.

Yet, the financial services types have become downright compulsive in figuring out new and better ways to scare us about tomorrow. I call it "Boo Marketing."

For instance, in MarketWatch, Paul Brandus headlines that "seniors are in trouble." Here is the article.

Essentially his message is that the future is uncertain. Smirk smirk. When was the future not uncertain?

So many in the financial services box trot out that Social Security could be cut back about 21% when I am 89. Mmnnnn. Should I really be in total angst about that now? Let me enjoy the Young Old Age.

For the now, my lifestyle is not only good. From my government entitlements, self-employment, and a side hustle working for someone else here and there I can even continue saving.

Watching my pennies has been fun, rather than emotionally and socially degrading. This month I knocked down my VISA credit card bill by $250 simply by shopping more wisely for groceries. 

The time is overdue for a regulatory agency or Congressional committee to ban the scary commercial messaging that the financial services folks are using. Boo Marketing has to be stopped.

Any individual financial planner or any financial services firm engaging in it should be fined $100,000 for each incident.

If government doesn't do its part on this one then on a grassroots level, we aging must create a version of Nader's Raiders from the late 1960s. Yeah, trap and catch the miscreants. You bet, wire up, fellow seniors.  

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

The New Smugs - Retirees/Semi-Retired Who Seemingly Have 2 Dimes to Rub Together

The world of the aging has divided into two.

That's what I first bumped into but didn't understand around 2014.

It was then that I had circled back with my seemingly more financially well-off classmates from Seton Hill's Class of 2017. They ranged from Kathleen Huebner to Irene Nunn.

For instance, Huebner, although not married to a successful man, has made the right professional moves. She purchased a house in an Oro Valley, Arizona upper middle class retirement complex. A creative bohemian and risk taker, my career had not been linear. It still isn't. And, the rollercoaster ride suited my creative metabolism just fine. 

Back then in the early years of the 21st century, I was struggling, financially, emotionally, and socially.

The shock of becoming older had grabbed me by the neck, shook me hard, and threw me to the ground. Lesson Number-One: Never reach out when vulnerable.

I only came to connect the dots on my former classmates' behavior - I coined the phrase "The New Smugs" to capture their essence - this summer.

That's when a lovely couple relocated to our residential complex from 1,000 miles away.

Of course, they had interesting stories to recount of how it had been where they had been, why they moved, and what they think of their new home.

We were all ears. Storytellers cast spells.

Then something familiar happened: The conversation seemed to shift to what they had which they assessed we didn't.

For example, The New Smugs kept hammering that they owned a getaway several hours from their rental here.

Of course, they were going to invite us all to stay. As yet, not one of us has been invited.

Oh, the getaway is real. (One hat I wear in my communications/coaching career is investigator.)

Also real, though, is that the gateaway seems to be positioned and packaged as much as a status symbol as the beach house in the Hamptons which our bosses and clients back in the New York Metro area used to boast about, promise to have the office over, and never did. 

Currently, I am not in the limbo I had been in 2014. Things are actually good.

There's that emerging adage among the aging: The first 50, 60, 70, or 80 years of my life hadn't been too hot. However, there are definite signs of a turnaround. 

But financially I am not among the 1%. And after embracing The New Minimalism or Enoughness I have no desire to have more than I have.

Somehow I got lucky and was able to leave the Hunger for More in the 20th century.

However, it still annoys me to have those my age seemingly continue to indulge in those games of youth in which making others feel less-than had been necessary for their sense of self.

From the hood in Jersey City, New Jersey (pre-gentrification), I perceived myself having been tormented by many of my classmates as well as  professors and the members of the administration at Seton Hill. 

Perhaps "annoy" is an understatement. The correct phrase might be to apply that phrase executive coach Henry Cloud made famous: Necessary Endings. Here, his book by that title can be ordered from Amazon. That is Lesson Number-Two: Prune and keep pruning the tree of life. 

Although I did not understand the phenomenon of how those from the past can have negative effects in the present, I dumped those members of the Class of 1967 in May 2014. That was one month after I had relocated myself, my two businesses, and my four-legged son from Connecticut to Tucson, AZ. I was based about a 25-minute ride from Huebner's house.

That radical purging (of Huebner et al.) response came from something intuitive inside me.

It was that same inner psychic which helped me navigate off the dangerous streets of my hometown to something different. Different does not necessarily mean "safe," at least not emotionally and socially. Hahaha. No wonder smart young people have no goal to leave the housing projects in the inner city. For decades I have wondered if I would have suffered less in life had I stayed in Jersey City.

Currently, I have made enough progress on the learning curve with The New Smugs to exit that toxicity without extreme disruption.

For example, when they bring up a future invitation to Paradise, I just smile and go my way. Of course, the Jersey City kid in me is tempted to respond: Inviting folks to a vacation home had been the plot line in one of those serial-killer crime shows. Might have been "Criminal Minds." Then, run off laughing like a fiend. 

In addition, I am not all ears about what neighbors have come to say about The New Smugs. That sort of gossip simply mirrors the ethos of our insecure youth of meanness.

Lesson Number-Three is to forgive oneself for not sizing up the situation accurately faster.

Only now, 53 months later am I able to do that. When stuck, it's wise to lay low. We put alligators in the moat and pull down the drawbridge. From the top of our tower, which represents our little lives, we evaluate what is both safe and useful to let in. Only then we make a move. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

Middle Age Becomes The Hanging Times

Extreme success. A New Yorker. Middle-Aged. And, struggling with clinical depression.

Lawyers, if that profile fits you, your colleagues, and/or your loved ones, then recognize that these are The Hanging Times.

In New York City, there has been the third hanging.

High-profile clinical psychologist, best-selling author of "Brave Girls," and animal-rights activist Stacey Radin took her life yesterday. It was by hanging, just like the recent suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. Both Spade and Bourdain were middle-aged.

Radin was 52. She reportedly battled clinical depression. Here are more details from The New York Post. 

There seems to be a copycat phenomenon in play. Hanging is a relatively  slow, painful way to die. Also, it's not usual for women to take that route of self-deliverance.

According to the website Lost All Hope, suicide by hanging:

Is effective (leads to death) only 89.5% of the time. That means that a botched job could result in permanent brain or physical injury. In contrast, a gun shot to the head is effective 99%.

The process requires 7 minutes. Those can be a period of both physical (difficulty breathing) and mental (reflection on one's life) agony. In contrast, death by a gun requires only 1.7 minutes.

On a scale of 100, the amount of distress is in the 25.5% slot. When using a gun, that's at 5.5.

Clearly, the method of suicide can provide one of the dots on what might have been the mood at the time this decision was made.

Was the person so lacking in hope at that moment that the act was one of impulse? The mindset could have been: I can't take this one more minute. There's a way I can hang myself right here. In a support group, I have heard that line of thinking often.

Was the person full of self-loathing? In clinical depression there is a tendency to turn on oneself. 

And, was the act, in its theatricality, a kind of rebuke to others? There is the thinking that all suicide is homicide. Those committing it are sending a message to those whom they perceive let them down.

A member of my nuclear family left an unfilled bottle of blood pressure medication on the kitchen table. My sister found her in the nearby bedroom dead of a massive heart attack. Some interpreted that as a passive suicide - and act of rage.

Lawyers in all locations, not only New York City, have to recognize the pull power of the hanging ethos in these chaotic times. It is difficult to hold on to anything - a nest egg in a portfolio. a high-powered job, looks when hitting middle age, trust in relationships, and a doable plan for semi-retirement or retirement.

Recently, I asked a 53-year-old colleague who sensed he was going to be forced out of a job, if he planned to kill himself. Maybe because he was stunned, he answered "yes." I made the appointment for him with a cognitive therapist who specializes in displaced professionals. And, as a coach I am helping him navigate the search for how to make a living. He was on the money: He had been forced out. He blamed both his age and that his boss had been fired. 

Full Disclosure: I have been clinically depressed since age 11. What I have observed is that the mood can become so dark that it shifts into psychosis. It took relocating from the New York Metro area for me to finally get the upper hand in battling this monster. OF COURSE, I had sought out many traditional modes of treatment. I could teach a course at Harvard Medical School on all that and more. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

PR Agencies - Are the Digital Natives Stealing Your Business? - Push Back on Halloween

One of the time/interactional burdens of being in professional services, such as public relations, is the requirement to attend or host so many client events.

Yet, it's at those in which new business is developed, client churn is prevented, and fresh strategies are floated for feedback - and acceptance.

That's why what costumes public relations players put together for their clients' (probably multiple) parties are critical to the agency's survival and scaling.

According the Holmes Report, in the U.S., the public relations industry only grew 2.6% in 2017 versus 4.6% in 2016.

Right now, the game is mutating into a zero-sum one. 

Competition is coming not from only other established agencies.

Digital natives graduating from the Ivies with degrees in communications are hanging out shingles. With their influencer sites and social media fast talk, they are dazzling clients. That's pulling market share from traditional firms. 

Halloween parties demand the performance of a lifetime.

Here are the 5 coolest costumes. They align with the key flashpoints in the public relations industry.

The Ghost of Branding Past. Should a client invest so much in building a brand?

After all, the current loudest voice in communications is Scott Galloway, author of "The Four."  Search engines and Alexa, Galloway hammers, have killed branding. The best at search engine optimization (SEO) and who's embedded in the Amazon empire get the business, influence, and power, not the biggest brandname. So goes the gospel according to Galloway.

The public relations representative's elevator speech at the party must contain statistics. They must deal with both the positive outcomes from branding and the results achieved through the great SEO firm the agency partners with. 

Robot-Like Figure. As the current cliché goes, today Don Draper from "Mad Men" would be a data guy.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a must-have. Both for predicting how and when clients could get into trouble and for identifying opportunities for influence and sales. 

In addition, it's imperative that a public relations agency indicates it knows its way around this tool.  

That demonstration entails chatting up at the Halloween party both the pros and the limitations of AI.

Hype scares. Overselling, forget it. The most effective approach is starting the conversation with the question: Have you been wondering if your competitors are using AI?

Logo of Digital Media. There is plenty of confusion about earned media vs. paid media (including sponsored content), old-line news centers such as The New York Times vs. digital hotties such as Axios, and focusing on media vs. just turning whatever over to influencers. 

Being dressed with the Axios logo opens up the issue of emerging realities in influence and marketing. No one wants to be sold to. After all, trust is so 20th century.

Therefore, the discussion dances around concrete examples of outcomes. That provides an opening for prospects or clients to confide their own angst. Have prepared a loosely constructed proposal. Keep stopping for yes-buts.

Symbol for Frugality. That could be coming to the party dressed as Ebenezer Scrooge before he had been born again Christmas eve. Or it could be as a budget graphic.

A dog fight is going on over pricing. A few agencies at the top of the food chain can still bill like everyone did pre-crash. But even that comfort zone can be blown into a million pieces by upstarts leveraging low-cost digital tactics and bypassing expensive traditional media strategies. Their signature is that they are the go-to people for over-performing and under-billing. 

More requests for proposals are stating: Individuals only, no agencies. 

Crisis Shaman. The costume will require some imagination. The challenge is to be able to communicate instantly that the public relations representative can cast spells on all those bearing down on the client. Yes, the game is the art of voodoo and the science of perception management.

One outfit could simply consist of a Gene Grabowski mask. A partner at kglobal, he has established the aura of being able to transform an organization's problems into opportunity.

That's not new, of course. Turbulence as platform for scaling dates back to management consultant Peter Drucker in the 1980s.  

What is new is being totally present in the moment. That's what establishes the platform for how organizations can emerge more than whole from the crisis. So, forget templates from a less volatile era, as Grabowski explains here in PR Week.  

Another outfit could be George Bailey's guardian angel Clarence Odbody from "It's a Wonderful Life."

That's a wrap on costumes. And, no, you can't wear the same costume to multiple parties. 

Along those lines of opportunity, focused public relations professionals can extract seminal case studies from the Halloween parties as how-tos for orchestrating special events. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

The Most Dangerous Meme of the 21st Century

The misguided meme being foisted on 21st century humans is that the past can be eliminated.

Yet great art, ranging from Shakespeare to William Faulkner, has always played out the theme that the past is never the past.

Its stink hangs on. 

Take Brett Kavanaugh. What he did or didn't do in high school, college, and law school will never be in the past. Not the past of the history of U.S. Supreme Court nominations and not in his own past. The only way he can exit that is be placed in some version of the Witness Protection Program.

Also, there will never be a past to Sherwin-Williams' manufacture and marketing of lead paint. 

In "Santa Clara v. Arco," the plaintiff presented as evidence an internal memo from 1900. In it, the company discussed the hazards of lead. Sherwin-Williams was convicted in that bench trial of creating a public nuisance in that location in California through lead paint.

So far, it hasn't been able to shake that conviction, despite the efforts of its law firm Jones Day. The CA appeals court upheld it. The CA Supreme Court refused to review it. And, currently, the U.S. Supreme Court put on a back burner even a date on which to schedule if it will review it. That doesn't sound promising.

If Sherwin-Williams were a member of a 12-step recovery program, it would make a list of those to whom it owes an amend. Not long after that memo it promoted lead paint in its advertising. Here The Wall Street Journal connected the dots. 

Then, there's fictional detective Olivia Benson on "Law & Order SVU." Her past, present, and future all have been determined by a rape her mother endured. That resulted in Benson's conception - and birth.

Along the way Benson's mother also developed a severe form of alcoholism. For this Dick Wolf creation, it's Benson's woundedness which gives the show such emotional power. The series is still live, when the original "Law & Order" and the other spin-offs have been a wrap.

It's a bum steer for psychologists, spiritual leaders, public relations representatives, and lawyers to preach the gospel of No Past/Move On. An ambitious plaintiff law firm could conjure up a class action public nuisance lawsuit for such harmful magical thinking.

Not that the past is necessarily prologue. But, it's there.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Voodoo - Human Beings Are Sitting Ducks to Be Played (as by the Elizabeth Holmes of the world)

Overseeing the end of Theranos is its general counsel David Taylor.

The founder - Elizabeth Holmes - has stepped out of the spotlight. She has been indicted by the feds for alleged fraud. 

The latest development, reports MarketWatch, is that Theranos' major creditor Fortress Investment Group has taken over ownership of the startup's patents. However, it has not dipped into the $5 million that is still available as cash. That will be distributed to unsecured creditors. 

Given how many sophisticated and brandname players were hoodwinked by Theranos, the rise and fall of the startup and its founder have become symbols of tech delusional hysteria.

In his book "Bad Blood," The Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou put forth many theories of why there was such buy-in of a technology which didn't yet exist. And may never.

It was Carreyrou who broke the story that Theranos might be a sham. After that, the world began to turn on WonderGirl. 

And it was Superlawyer David Boies who tried to prevent publication of that story in The Wall Street Journal.

For hours with the editors at that media outlet, Boies huffed and puffed, catching it all on his trusty taping device. But he couldn't blow the story away. 

In another kind of book "Disrupted," former Newsweek reporter Dan Lyons discusses a similar kind of wild magical thinking at a startup. Those who questioned were labeled heretics.

Who might have smelled something fishy about the Holmes' show?

Answer: Fallen-away Roman Catholics.

At home, in mandatory church services, and in the special schools the church established we were hammered with a package of hardened must-believes. Those who didn't were declared heretics. They were excommunicated. My immigrant family didn't want that happening to them.

At age 23, after eight years of Catholic grade school and four of Catholic college (Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania), I finally began to connect the dots in my own way. From then on I have made it my mission to turn over any entity and take a hard look at its underbelly.

Usually, that isn't pretty. After all, as William Shakespeare noted, mankind is cankered in the grain and all our institutions are man-made. 

BTW, the supposed Machiavellian - Henry Kissinger - had been on the Theranos board of directors. 

Reflection: Do human beings need to believe totally in something? At any cost? A skilled con, allegedly like Holmes, can cast spells.

Tech is just one of many forms of voodoo. The American ethos of extreme success is another. A third is glorification of youth. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes paid sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Reason to Become Self-Employed or Live Off the Grid

Urban dwellers know and fear one thing: Once a cockroach or two can be spotted, they can assume there will be more.

Even if they are hyper clean, usually they can't halt the internal menace without calling in professional help. That would be an exterminator.

Cockroach Power is one kind of pressure tactic which famous journalist Hedrick Smith didn't describe in his book "The Power Game." Here it can ordered from Amazon.

But it's certainly operational in the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court. And, if that doesn't pan out, in his later career.

How the dynamic began was the accusation of Christine Ford that Kavanaugh treated her in a sexually inappropriate way when they were in high school. If Kavanaugh doesn't step down before 10:00 A.M. Thursday, that allegation will be investigated in a U.S. Senate hearing.

Then two other women appeared.

Now, reports Joe Tacopino in the New York Post, more recently:

"The anonymous complaint, sent to Sen. Cory Gardiner (R-Colorado), says Kavanaugh was drunk and threw a woman up against a wall in a sexual manner after a social event in Washington D.C. … The Senate Judiciary Committee is looking into [this incident which allegedly] took place in 1998 …"

What has formed and hardened seemingly is a pattern in Kavanaugh's behavior: consumption of excess alcohol and then sexual misconduct.

If that pattern can be proven or, as we in public relations all know, if enough people believe it, Kavanaugh could become undone. 

He could himself back out of the nomination.

The Senate Judiciary Committee could back out of confirming him.

The confirmation could come through but he could become a marked man on the U.S. Supreme Court. Unlike Clarence Thomas, he may not be able to recover his sense of a professional self and his performance will be lackluster. He will leave no legacy at SCOTUS.

Cockroach power not only is a tactic in politics. In any group of human beings, be it a small village in Africa or the accounting department in a Fortune10, once one or two negatives pop up in public, there is bound to be a build-up of suspicion.

The person, procedure, or policy targeted could be in serious trouble.

At that point, professionals have to be called in. They could be executive coaches, public relations experts, or lawyers.

Cockroach power is to be feared. For that very reason many opt out of organizational life (or society and live off the grid) and make their living in ways less vulnerable to that menace.

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