Age, Wisdom and Experience

About once every week I am getting surprised by how important the way you look has become. And I am sometimes even more surprised how much I am concerning myself with how I look. Whether it is make up or clothes or body shape. I want to look young and healthy and energetic. And sometimes beautiful.

However, the way I look is only one aspect that is important to me and does not even make the top 3 of my list. For me it has always been very clear that intelligence is key. If you look at the people I like to surround myself with the always have a few things in common:

• They tend to be of above average intelligence
• They have a lot of varying experiences
• They are typically well educated
• They tend to be successful in what they do
• They are very proactive and do not whine unnecessarily

And most of these people have something else in common: They are generally older than me. Since I was very young I have always been drawn to older generations to find friends. I still find experience very sexy and like to benefit from what other people have learned. I like it if my friends are well traveled and have many years of work experience.

Also at work it is very relevant to have experience. Experience can be flat spread when you have more a generalist orientation. Or experience can go deep if you a specialist. I in general am a combination. I like to learn deep, but on multiple topics. This is just my nature. I learn fast and I absolutely enjoy applying my knowledge from one situation the other.

I am very much attracted to people who are proactive. Who do not whine about a situation, but do something to change an unfavorable position. Men and women creating their own opportunities and not leaving anything to chance. I always hear that some people are just lucky. Hardly ever in a work or friendship situation is this actually the case. People may be unlucky. Accidents do happen and sometimes illness or accidents strike. But generally opportunities open up to those who are willing to use experience and wisdom to set themselves up for those.

If you smile and are friendly, people want to be your friend.

if you take risks, have knowledge, apply yourself, work hard, and work well with others, and also present yourself well, you will get opportunities. Maybe not immediately, but slowly.

Experience and knowledge are important to make yourself interesting. I always find it amazing how little these two nouns show up as desirable characteristics when describing candidates for a job or even a life partner. How are you planning on driving your organization or even your partnership forward if you have nothing to talk about?

And this is what I am planning to do; drive to continue to learn, so my experience and knowledge can grow. In both personal and work life. I will continue reading books and expose myself to new and sometimes uncomfortable things. So that eventually I will become the person a younger generation picks out as interesting and relevant.

What will you do to stay current and relevant?