Our gender or age shouldn't limit our success but it too often does.
Before I explain further, let me provide the answer to a question. Who am I advising to live creatively? Well, when I encourage people to live creatively, I am speaking to my current and much younger selves and anyone like me. Do better than I have (to my younger self) and it's never too late (to my current self).
There are many ways to live creatively, but in this post, I'm going to hone in on one path in particular. This post is going to ruffle some feathers. It's a rant. You've been warned.
If there's one very large lesson I've learned the hard way that has taken me far too long to give in to and accept, it is that you never get ahead in this world when you trade your time for money.
You never truly get ahead if you work for someone else.
There is always a ceiling or cap in both scenarios. The only true way of overcoming the cap is to build something of your own and grow your wealth and freedom from there.
I see that now. More than ever. I spent many a time over numerous decades dabbling in the notion of working for myself but always retreating to another corporate job when things got tough and I apparently didn't have it in me to stick it out flying solo. I alluded to this in a prior post.
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I worked for myself in the two years leading up to 9/11 and until about 8 months afterward. I lived in one of the most expensive markets in the country, in a 3 bedroom, as a divorced mother, and I still made it. But the money dried up as soon as 9/11 happened. The world seemed to have stopped. For a while. And I became gun-shy about putting myself in that kind of vulnerable financial position again.
That was then.
Fast forward to 2020 when the country (and the world) stopped again. Only this time, the internet had matured enough to further expose many more opportunities for people to work for themselves.
That is what happened to a great number of people who certain politicians and politically leaning folk in this country were convinced were being lazy when they opted to not return to work after a layoff during the pandemic.
These people weren't lazy. They were seeing the light that so many of us should have been seeing all along in our own lives, and they wanted more for themselves. They were seizing the opportunities to make larger incomes with more freedoms by doing their own thing, by building something. Online.
It's called the “creator economy.” Have you heard of it?
The Internet is the epitome of a level playing field. Sure, there are entities with huge marketing budgets that can buy more attention, but for the everyday person, it's a vehicle that, if fully utilized, can change the direction of one's life.
Back in the 1990s and 2000s when I was trying to fly solo but gave up too often and too quickly, I, along with many other people, saw the potential of the Internet for the solopreneur. Not necessarily a “build it and they will come” environment because being successful in an online space(s) takes hard work, persistence, and time. But for anyone who wanted something more for themselves and/or to create something for the greater good, beyond the path we've all been spoon-fed in high school and college, the Internet was and is the great equalizer.
As someone who suffers from reduction-in-force (RIF) PTSD and whiplash, having gone through so many corporate mergers, dissolutions, and downsizings that I've walked away with at least one severance package in each decade of my adult life, you would think I would have smartened up long before now. I've also witnessed many more that didn't directly impact me but those around me. Still, no real wake-up call.
You would think I would have abandoned the insecurity (yes, insecurity) of a corporate job and finally venture out on my own. I used to try. Well, I've had a few years of quiet in my life after moving around the country for more than 20 years, and during this downtime, have done some serious soul searching, have encountered workplace attitudes I never saw coming (but should have), and want a different future for myself than the one I see coming.
Really think about what I'm saying here. Especially this next part.
Like so many other people in society, I fell into the trap of seeing my own self-worth or value tied directly to my job — its status, its pay, its title, and simply having one. That was a big mistake. Huge.
Want to know why?
Because every layoff feels like a slap in the face — a gut punch — when most layoffs really have nothing to do with the quality of your work or you as a person or worker. Layoffs are mostly financial — to benefit someone other than you. And your whole world can be turned upside down by a layoff. And it shouldn't have to be that way. And I'm tired of it. We deserve better.
And we aren't our jobs.
Also because when you reach a certain age in corporate America, you are treated differently. Because of your age. You are regarded as the old guard. Your years and decades of experience and acquired wisdom are dismissed for the shiny newness of a younger body, the latest or emerging technologies, and trendy methodologies, and you are perceived to be too old to adapt to change.
Excuse me? Have you met me?
I'm the bitch that was the early adopter – and most often the ONLY woman in my IT/tech departments for many years since the 80s — of technologies and improved/advanced processes both in the workplace and personally.
I am also the bitch that didn't sit on my ass and stay stagnant in the same town, in the same metro area, or the same state all of my adult life.
No, I flew the coop after my first major company layoff and started a 20+ year journey of relocating to different major metropolitan areas of the country in five different states. I took major risks and was on an adventure. I wanted to experience life. And it taught me a lot that you will never learn in a textbook or by remaining in the same place.
And I'm the one who doesn't adapt to change? Oh, honey, you couldn't be more wrong. Don't let this gray hair fool you.
I bet some of the people who have assumed I don't adapt to change didn't know this about me and have likely lived in no more than two places within 100 miles of each other their whole lives. Hmmph!
They could benefit from a bit more exposure to the outside world.
So, as I write this I am fuming. I wasted so many years. In corporate America, my age shouldn't be deemed a liability but an asset because of all that I am capable of bringing to the table.
The resistance to older workers is palpable, though. And we don't deserve it.
Not all of us are technophobes or stuck in some archaic mindset as stereotypes would suggest. While I appreciate art, design, and photography styles that give a nod to the past, my mind is of a feisty 29-year-old who remains just as excited or passionate about current events and the future as any 29-year-old out there. And I have much more experience.
So I'm done trying to advance up the ladder or change any attitudes in the corporate world. The ageist behemoth isn't going to deplete me of all my energies by trying to fight it. Instead, I will pivot — and I recommend women like me do the same.
This is where living creatively comes in. Be creative. Tap into that creativity and independence that you've probably stifled or ignored for so long because you've been blinded by a false sense of security working in corporate America.
I'm on a mission to set up a nice future for myself. I encourage all women in their 40s and 50s (I'm about to be 60) to seek more for yourselves too (younger women, you too). We should be reclaiming our worth. It's critical to our mental health. We should feel good about all the talent, knowledge, and experience we've accumulated over the years – all the wisdom – and we should be sharing it in environments that are more appreciative and can benefit from what we have to offer. After a certain age, corporate America is not that environment.
That stings, I know.
P.S. And if you opt to join the creator economy, no one will know your age on the Internet unless you want them to.
