In a blog by Bronwyn Fryer, a question was posed:
Do you overlook young people, or do you go out of your way to listen to them? If the latter, what are you learning from them, and how are you helping them?
A very interesting question - but frankly, I am more interested in how the "elders" respond.
A few years ago - when I was 25 - I became one of the youngest country managers for a large network of communications planning companies in the world. True - the operations that I handled were not as massive as my "peers" (I dared to call them peers back then) - I had a team of 10 with a business that is perhaps 15% the size of the biggest average-sized operations in the Asia Pacific network.
Whenever I took the stage to report on the status of the business of the office I was managing, everybody looked encouraging. They had questions - and I had answers. There was - I felt - mutual respect, in spite of my age.
But when I moved offices and countries, age became an issue. In spite of the fact that I had 8 years of working experience in a field that I was truly passionate about, age always became an issue. The first question that clients - and potential employers - would ask me was "How old are you?" And I would answer, 27 - because that was the truth.
The second question - which I supposed was to placate them that I was not some inexperienced guy trying to tell them what to do - was one that somehow also irked me: "So how long have you been doing this job?" And I would tell them "8 years".
And the seemingly surprised response would be "You started working when you were 19?", as if that were an impossibility.
And I would go on and explain that "Yes, I did - I was accelerated twice, I was a merit scholar in my university - with advanced credits in most of my sciences and math courses, and in English and communications - and filled my university summer breaks with full-loads of electives so I can graduate early and well, learn more than I can and be prepared to face you and answer mundane questions that you are asking now."
(OK, I didn't verbalize the last couple of statements.)
But seriously, why can't older people trust younger people? We may not have the experience - and we know that experience is a good teacher. But history - as we all know - is not the best of teachers. Sometimes, history repeats itself - but only because we let it repeat itself.
Young people - young managers like myself - can offer something - an untainted view of the world which to the untrained elder would mean "inexperience, unrealistic, too idealistic".
I am now 33 - and still, I am nowhere near the age of my direct sups. I have been blessed to have worked with the best of bosses who listened to my advice and my counsel - and have formed partnerships that resulted to new business ventures that resulted to better margins, better profits, better processes, better workplaces.
I am still young - and I still have a lot to offer.
Just ask me.
Because if you don't ask me, I won't offer it.
There's only so much resistance - a resistance that is borne out of the perception that I am "too young to understand" - that I can take.
Ask me for advice - for my thoughts - for what I think the world will be ten, twenty, thirty years from now.
I just might give you something to inspire you - if you'd only ask.
