seniors at Texas A & M ’ s school of business . My central message to college seniors is that you will encounter a lot of things to bet on in the future — things like the economy or a fad or a business start-up — but your best investment is to “ bet on yourself .” As a part of this talk , I ask the students to write down their future dreams for their marriage , their vocation , their health and fitness , their spiritual growth , and their community involvement . The exercise is usually met with such enthusiasm that I have to interrupt their feverish writing so we can move on to the next category .
This activity worked so well with the students that I thought I would try it with the older adults I also had the opportunity to speak to , who were typically in their forties and fifties . I didn ’ t continue it for long though , because each time , my older audiences quickly grew irritated ; they huffed and crossed their arms , and cocked their heads sideways as if to say , “ Doesn ’ t this joker know that dreams don ’ t come true ?”
The exercise that had been so invigorating to twentysomethings was frustrating and futile to the seasoned “ veterans of life .” Why ? What happens between the ages of twenty-two and forty-two ? I didn ’ t get to talk with each of the adults personally , but based on my innumerable conversations with company clients over the years , I ’ d speculate that for some in those audiences , the school of hard knocks has suppressed their dreams , or fear has consumed their hopes , convincing them that bold vision is the fairy dust of youth , not real life . For the majority of them , though , their choices to follow the crowd and fit in at all costs have caused them to gradually lose their way . And that lostness has produced a listlessness , an apathy , in adulthood that has
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