Fifty Years Comes and Goes: Make Your Mark

Time appears to pass inexplicably quickly. It just seems like yesterday I was coaching the midpoint of the season at FSC, preparing for the conference tournament with one last shot at regional glory. The only problem with that flashback is that it is nearly a year since I announced to the administration and the guys that I was exiting coaching stage left. Those moments are engrained in my conscience but the time marches on as the people involved chase the new dreams and the next goals put forth. This one example is just a personal note on something that happens to all of us at some point during our daily existence.

50 years seems like such a long time. Many milestones occur at this numeral because it is just amazing that things, groups, couples, businesses, or events last that long. For goodness sake, one of my first crushes turned 50 this year. It was simply a boy enamored with an older lady, and it was a long time ago. Heck, my mother is eagerly anticipating her 50th high school reunion. That is amazing. I’ve been out 28 years and it still seems like a long time to get to that mark. The golden years are approaching much quicker than like years past. Turning 50 was such a long way off, but now I am only a few years away and can almost taste that McDonald’s senior coffee, silver checking, and my AARP membership. Oh geez, I guess that means I will be taking my young wife to the early bird specials.

A couple of weeks ago, I accompanied my dad to his 51st Sebring 12 Hours. They have only had 66 of them, so for a nearly 70-year-old, he hasn’t missed too many of them. Things happen at such a fast pace now, how many things will last 50 years as we move forward. Companies come and go, traditions continued to be lessened, and with the advent of the 24 news, life, and trend cycle, we are fortunate if things last five years. Some of my most favorite music is 30 to 40 years old. How many songs in the past 10 years are even memorable. Shoot, only 12 percent, or around 60 of the fortune 500 companies that made the list in 1955 are still around. Times change, but truly good things do last. I hope that we continue to hang on to some of them.

As I approach closer to that magical number, I’m still a few years off, I realize how much I have seen and how much has happened. Go back to your Google, Bing, or whatever search engine tickles your fancy and see what has happened in the past 50 years. Too many to recount in this cheesy piece of reflection. There was a time, in my late teens, early twenties, and maybe even when I first started coaching in my late thirties, that I thought 50 was old. You must get fat, grey, wrinkly, and completely give up on chasing dreams. There is only one problem. I’m damn near that milestone and the dreams are bigger than ever. The weight is coming off slowly, the hair isn’t grey but bald may be my new beautiful, and wrinkly may be caused by the years of sun damage. I don’t feel older. Well, I don’t feel older until I try to do what I used to do at the levels I used to do it. The mind is clear, the thoughts pure, but the realization that the body doesn’t want to do it has become a bit more apparent.

Think back to the last thing you were a part of that was around for 50 years. It could be the house you live in, your parents, the business you work for, or some other thing that has survived through the ages. All of those are set in their ways. Stubborn, proud, and marching on through the modern transitions that happen quicker and quicker. People become set in their ways. Why do they need a smartphone? They don’t trust technology always and don’t grasp all that is happening around them. Events and businesses, at times, act the same way. However, there are those moments where lights go off in the corporate brain and a corporate tummy tuck, facelift, or mid-life crisis occurs and the way they move forward changes. Even with the stodginess and prestige they have earned, they realize that time marches on and the virtual doors will only stay open if they embrace the necessary changes.

Fifty years comes and goes every day for people, businesses, and events. We should honor the achievement. Yes, humans want more and hope to enjoy many more years of productivity. I am curious as time continues to pick up speed how many businesses and events will stand the test of time and reach that monumental milestone. It is my hope that many will grow, adapt, and achieve that success but if recent history is any indicator we may get to the point that a ten-year celebration is a big deal. Who knows? I will be pumped for anything I am involved in to hit that marker. And yes, celebrate I will.

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