Staying Relevant

Staying Relevant

I have spoken before about the issue of people of a certain age (that would be of an older age like me) dealing with the issue of relevancy. This issue for me is less about desperately trying to find a way to stay relevant, and more about the issue of the decision we must all make at one time or another, or even on a continuous ongoing basis, as to whether or not we want to remain relevant. It seems that there are people own there who prefer to no engage and actually want to fade away into whatever pastimes they life better than the areas others might consider them worthwhile. You can tell by the way that I say that that I scratch my head about anyone that chooses to consciously exclude themselves from the productive world altogether. I know that some people feel they have done their part and have little or no interest in staying engaged actively. They prefer to play golf, play tennis, play pickleball, travel, garden or just stare out the window. Many people have earned that right and even if they haven’t, they have that inalienable right to choose to disengage if they so choose. I understand that and respect it, but I don’t think it is the norm, so I think this remains an important topic for consideration.

It’s 11am and for the last 5+ hours I have been sitting at my desk and have yet to do so much as go through my morning hygiene ablutions. Kim is off with Buddy for some errand or gathering and I have nothing on my agenda today except for advancing my current expert case, which I am reading and researching, catching up on personal online and phone chores, staying in touch with a fast-paced news cycle and perhaps monitoring some work on my spa, for which I am not technically needed, but may want to observe. Strangely enough, I feel like I have a lot on my plate and and finding the time fly by a bit more quickly than I like this morning. That’s the feeling I recall getting when I was deeply engaged in business. I know that retired people like to say, “I’ve never been busier…I don’t know how I had time for work….”, and generally, I find that reaction to be not a little disingenuous. I always think its people trying to convince themselves that they are busy, busy, busy and not getting old before their time. They’re are times I feel old, like when I stand up after sitting for 5+ hours at my desk, but I rarely feel old mentally or emotionally. That may be because I naturally tend to like staying engaged.

When you are an expert witness, you are forced every day to look yourself in the mirror about your continued relevance. Not so strangely, the mere act of working as an expert has a way of making you stay relevant. I am busy working on a case that has interestingly dredged up not only my career moments going back as far as 30 years that were in the directly related areas of the case, but also my teaching years for thirteen years. It turns out that I plan to use the fact that I taught the very subject matter at the exact same time that a business person is now claiming was novel and proprietary. I think being able to opine that it was neither novel nor proprietary is greatly advanced by showing that I taught the exact same topic to business school students, who are not usually considered at the vanguard of practical large scale business solutions. Even if you think young finance students can be on the leading edge, its hard to justify that the concepts are novel if they are being taught freely to a class of over 100 students. I was also approached today by one of our expert handlers who has narrowed in on a new case. He was referred to me by the firm’s principals as a likely expert for this case. As he read me the case and explained the circumstances I was able to say that I felt I could handle the assignment and that it was within my areas of knowledge and expertise, but that I might well not be the best expert they could find. He said they have had a hard time finding a perfect fit and he thought my experience fit as well as any he had seen yet. Hmmm…

I also had someone connect with me on LinkedIn to seek my advice on something I did 10 years ago. I reminded him of that timeframe and he said that the arena hadn’t changed that much and that he thought my experience was highly relevant and valuable to him. Based on that response, I told him I would be glad to take his call and be of council to him. I am not trying to curry favor with the person, who I only tangentially know, but to force myself to think about an esoteric arena that I was quite leading edge and expert in ten years ago. I think it helps me in ways that I do not necessarily understand at this moment. I also do not know how helping this guy will come back to reward me in other ways, but I have tons of confidence that it will. I also got an email from my expert partners asking for referrals for two specific types of case opportunities that they have. I emailed them back and told them about an Australian colleague that could help them with one and mentioned another friend to recommend on the other issue. I then called that person to tell them they might hear about the opportunity and to not have it surprise them. That friend told me she was too distant from the expertise (15 years) and while I was feeling like I should say, “Come on….go for it!”, I did not and merely suggested that she might want to refer a more current friend in the space. I could hear her nodding that that approach might have value to her. I, for one, am always trying to make connections for people, first and foremost just to be helpful, but also because I do find that what goes around comes around…in a good as well as bad way. I like being of service and I feel that has benefits for me like in staying more connected.

On an old issue that involves a half dozen of us who are owed money by a firm that went into receivership and then got sold came back to life today. I have made a point of staying in touch with the investor who handles the sale and has made the promises of recompense to us who are owed money. He emailed me and told me that there will be a final distribution in three weeks and that he will keep me apprised of what we can expect to get. So who knows, maybe staying engaged in this case will have an actual pecuniary reward attached to it. One can hope.

At the end of the day, I am unable to do anything other than stay as relevant as I can. I don’t have any false illusions of grandeur, but then again, I also just heard form someone who has prepared a two-page analysis of the book I wrote about my mother, called Mater Gladiatrix. They are telling me that they feel it is just right for a movie production. I have been around this block before, so I asked them to tell me just one thing they thought was so great about my book. I expected to hear crickets. Instead, they sent me a two-page very thoughtful analysis that impressed the hell out of me. I have agreed to go forward (no money ask of me yet), so let’s see, maybe my continued clinging to relevance will make me a star yet!