Youth is Wasted on the Young

Reprinted from my book,

 Shut Up and Draw

 

It's a youth oriented world...

Many have spent a lifetime wondering if they could have made a contribution with their talents and many go to the grave still wondering.

Rich Karlgaard wrote a book entitled Late bloomers and in it he explains the tendency in America to espouse a youth oriented culture. The media and society in this country favors early success and the prevailing attitude among many is that if you haven't struck it rich by age 30 you have  missed the boat and somehow doomed to a life of mediocrity.

This is not only untrue but would be terrible news to the millions of late bloomers who have yet to hit their stride.

Many don't hit their stride till their later years which is testament to the value of years of life experiences innate in late bloomers and their potential contributions. 

It can be early programming as in my case that slows things down but many times it takes wisdom and experience to discover it. 

I'm impressed with today's youth who find their calling early, go on to great success and they deserve all the credit they have coming to them but when you look at the statistics the odds are not in favor of early success.

I'm also impressed with the late bloomers who discover their purpose after years of tempering and hardening:

• Harland Sanders was 65 when he created Kentucky Fried Chicken.
• Rodney Dangerfield's first break was the Ed Sullivan show at age 46.
• Duncan Hines was 55 when he wrote his first book on food and hotels. At age 73 he licensed the rights to use his name on cake mixes.
• Julia Child's first TV appearance was at age 51.
• Laura Ingalls Wilder was 65 when she published Little House on the Prairie.
• Jack Cover received a patent for the taser gun at age 54.
• Harry Bernstein published his first book at 93. Before that he was a freelance writer and editor till age 63.
• Peter Marsh Roget was 69 when he began Roget's Thesaurus and completed it at age 73. He improved upon it until his death at 90.
• Kathryn Jooster was 42 when she began pursuing an acting career. She played bit parts till age 66 when she won an Emmy for her role in Desperate Housewives.
• Anna Mary Robertson, Grandma Moses, started paintng in her 70's. Her work was displayed in New York's Museum of Modern Art at age 78. She was 92 when she wrote her first book.
• Edmund Hoyle wrote Rules of Card Games at 70.

Abraham Maslow put forth his hierarchy of needs in The Theory of Actualization. He said not only is it vital to live uo to our full potential but it is also our moral obligation to do so.

"Musicians must make music. Painters must paint. Poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What humans can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature."

                                              Abraham Maslow

My mistake, and the mistake of so many others, has been the mismanagement of priorities. I've given undue regard to my early programming and the social expectations competing for my attention. I deferred to my fears in order to satisfy my sense of security which led to unhappiness and, in an ironic twist, I never found the security I sought.

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Your Mindset is Your Greatest Weapon 

Life is hard. It's Harder if You're Stupid

I Do but I Don't

These words were written by the immortal Ernest Hemmingway and even though it was specifically penned for the subject of writing, the same could be said about nearly any project or endeavor ever conceived. Substitute, if you will, the word "writer" and "writing" for another venture:

• Artist/drawing
• salesman/selling
• runner/running
• cook/cooking

I often doubt if I truly want to do any of the things I say I want to do  because so often I might choose to take a nap instead, or watch TV, or surf the web or anything else unrelated to my stated desires. 

The late Brian Klemmer wrote in his book 

If How-to's Were Enough We Would 

All be Skinny, Rich and Happy

that if we set a goal to make $100,000 a year but instead we made only $70,000 then we really didn't want to make $100,000. We say we did but our deeper, more focused desire was, instead of doing what was necessary to reach the goal, we were unwilling to do something uncomfortable, or something that would make us look ridiculous. Maybe we didn't want to to do something that would be interpreted as pushy and as a result, we lost sales and we fell short of the goal we set. 

This can be said of anything we say we want to do. What is the stronger desire?

The Geek and Pablo Picasso

 

There's a story of a business whose internet crashed and in a panic, the owner reached out to the nearest computer expert to solve his problem. Not long after, the computer geek showed up with his clip board, wearing a white shirt and thin necktie and he was shown by the owner where the servers were located.

The repairman leaned over and looked at some flashing red and green lights and exclaimed, "aha".

He placed his clip board down, reached behind the server and gave it two gentle taps and just as he did, everything was back online.

"Thank you so much!", said the owner. "You've saved my business and I don't know what I would have done without you! How much do I owe you?"

At that, the repairman pulled out his invoice booklet, wrote down a number and handed it over to the owner.

With horror the owner exclaimed "A thousand dollars? Why, that ridiculous! You were only here for 5 minutes and all you did was tap the server! I want an itemized invoice!"

So the meek repair man wrote another invoice only this time it read, 

Tapping the server.......$1

Knowing where to tap......$999

There's another story of a lady who was drinking a cup of coffee at an outdoor café in Spain who was seated directly behind the famous painter, Pablo Picasso. 

Pablo was sketching on a paper napkin and as he was working his magic with his pencil the lady was watching from behind. 

Eventually, having finished his coffee, Pablo rose to leave with his sketch when the lady stopped him and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Picasso. I was watching you while you were drawing and I was truly impressed. May I please buy it from you?"

"Certainly" he answered, "It's $500 dollars."

The lady was shocked and said "That's a lot of money for a pencil drawing that you did on a paper napkin and it only took you 5 minutes to draw."

"No ma'am your wrong" said Pablo, "it took me 50 years." then he put it in his pocket and walked away.

The Man Who Didn't Play Checkers With Einstein

 

Not everyone’s life has transformational moments that set one’s life on a different course as did George Allen’s. During the 60’s and 70’s, George Allen was one of the most eccentric, superstitious and winningest coaches in pro football.

But in 1944 he was a midshipman at Princeton, and he became obsessed with meeting Albert Einstein, also at Princeton. He heard that Einstein was a checkers player, and George became obsessed with the desire to challenge him to a game so one Sunday after church, George walked to Einstein’s off campus house and knocked on his door. Einstein answered, George introduced himself and told him of his intentions and asked the Professor if he would oblige.

Einstein said he was not much of a checkers player but after being persuaded by George’s pleading, he reluctantly agreed and said he did not own a checker board and asked George if he had brought one. George had not, so they said their goodbyes and George turned to leave.

On his way back to campus George began an extended, self-lacerating, internal dialogue. What haunted him wasn’t the fact that he forgot the checkerboard because he had not. In fact, he strongly considered bringing it but what stopped him was the thought that walking across campus to church and then into town caring a checkerboard would make him look crazy.

Having lost an opportunity, George made a vow never to worry about what people thought of him ever again and by the time he took the coaching job with the LA Rams in 1966, he had left it far behind.

George Allen was a winning coach and was known and sometimes ridiculed for his eccentricities but after the Einstein experience, he let them talk. He was a perennial playoff team with the L.A. Rams and Washington Redskins and also won the NFC Conference Championship in 1972.

Statistically Speaking

 

I read somewhere on social media that a certain percentage of people who returned their shopping carts to the chorale situated in the parking lots of retailers are more successful than those who don't. I don't recall the exact numbers but they overwhelmingly favored the cart returners, of course.

How do they know this? 

Is there any conceivable way an accurate number can be given regarding these arbitrary statistics. I've never seen people in parking lots wearing white shirts and thin neckties, holding a clipboard and asking shoppers about their income. Certainly, no one has ever approached me in a Kroger parking lot to ask about about my personal success and if they did I would either lie to them or respectfully refuse to answer. Has anyone ever received a phone call from Tass news agency concerning shopping carts?

Regarding the subject, nowhere is it required that a person must place there used cart in the chorale. The service is provided as a convenience but not required. But some shoppers think it repugnant that a person would not participate in the practice. One comment from Reddit said,

"People that don't return their shopping carts to the cart return are probably horrible people."

That's a very strong and presumptuous remark. I define a "horrible" person as someone who is a criminal, thief, abuser, swindler or con-man. But not returning a shopping cart?

I must admit, at the risk of being villainized, I don't always return the cart. If I've had a long day, and I'm tired, it's hot and I want to get home, and the corral is not close, I just might decide let the employees do it. 

I remember when I was a sacker for a grocer in high school, one of my jobs was to retrieve carts from the parking lot which was part of my paid obligation. It was my job. My job put some money in my pocket. I was young and full of energy. I didn't mind doing it and in fact I was happy to get out of the store for a while and it wasn't the shopper's obligation to make make my job easier. 

I also sacked peoples groceries, carried it to their car, and brought the cart back in with me. There wasn't a chorale to make my job easier. Now-a-days if a store employee retrieves carts is he considered being taken advantage of? 

Is he being treated horribly?

People are also very divided on the subject of self-checkouts. Some feel they don't get paid to check out their own groceries; that's the checker's job. Right? Taking the shopping carts into consideration, how long will it be before shoppers who prefer to have the store employees check out the groceries are considered unsuccessful and horrible people?

There was also a time when service stations had attendants fill our tanks for us, wash our windshield and check the oil. One would be hard pressed today to find a full service station. Every gas station in my town is self-serve. If someone were to open a full service filling station, I think it would be very successful.

But I don't hear anyone complaining how they don't get paid to pump their own gas.

Would companies have to hire more sackers, checkers, and gas station attendants to do the work instead of putting customers to work? What wrong with that? We already pay enough for our things and now do they want me to make it easier on their bottom line?

Whats Wrong With Me?

 People often ask introverts "why are you so quiet? You should talk more. Smile, life's not so bad." Being an introvert I find it not only a silly remark but also a very off-putting one. I never ask the extroverts...

 "Why are you so loud? You should 

frown more. Life's not that good." 

Introversion is commonly looked upon as some kind of malaise from which we need to be cured when quite the opposite is true. Being reserved and reflecting is how some people work best as we don't talk to think. Instead we think to talk. And we don't need to be "cured".

 I've also been told, "I'm going to bring you out of your shell." Would it be appropriate for me to answer to the talker, 

"On the contrary. I'm going to put you in a shell." 

Introverts have a way of being alone and being very happy about it. I, for one, like to eat alone. I like going to the movies alone, I like to watch TV alone, I like to fish alone. Generally, I like being alone most the time. Sometimes I might be plotting how to conquer the world but other times I may be thinking of nothing at all; literally nothing. Many times when a man is asked "what are you thinking" and when he says "nothing", he really is thinking of nothing and there is nothing wrong with that.

Boss Toss

 

William Magear Tweed (1823-1878), also known as "Boss" Tweed, was the head of Tammany Hall, the most powerful political machine in the history of New York and possibly the country. Tweed bragged openly about how much power he bought with huge bribes and scoffed at reformers, who couldn't touch his organization no matter how much noise they made.  

"As long as I count the votes", he said to one do-gooder, "what are you going to do about it?"

Tweed treated the press with the same contempt telling them to print all the disclosures they wanted, but one activity of the press did concern him. Tweed was incensed by the caricatures of him drawn by Thomas Nast supplied by Harpers Weekly.  

"My constituents can't read", he said, "but they can see pictures!"

Eventually, Tweed was arrested, charged, convicted of bribery, and subsequently sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. However, his influence was so great that he was allowed to visit home every day till one day he simply slipped away. 

He escaped to Spain where he was certain he would be concealed from the prying eyes of the press. However, within months he was identified and extradited to the USA to complete his sentence. His downfall? Someone recognized him from a Nast caricature.

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