Last week I read an article in the guardian about Sheryl Sandberg stepping down from her role as COO of Meta Platforms (read the full piece here). The whole premise of the article is that women over 50 face sexism and agism at work and these challenges get exacerbated with age. Hence many women make the decision to leave the fake gloss of corporate life and move on to more meaningful pursuits which impact the larger community.
I agree that when you hit 50, instead of limiting your impact to one organisation and a few people in the organisation, which is your team - maybe you want to do something which is a higher calling or a higher purpose, and you want to impact people who really need it. It could be something as simple as giving English tuitions to government students, teaching singing to special needs kids, going to an old age home, or starting a passion project.
I chose the passion project route. All I have achieved in my career is because of Sales, and that is why I wanted to elevate and position Sales as a profession of pride - and hence was born SalesWomentoring, India’s first and only community inspiring women to succeed at selling. That is the way I am giving back to the profession which has given me so much. I am also helping impact a larger number of women by preparing them for a career in sales. Whatever I have learned in my life - whether it is being confident, communicating well, being able to speak in front of large audiences without nervousness - has been due to the fact that I’ve been in Sales. It has prepared me for this passion project and for helping so many others gain the confidence which they should have.
The value we place on ourselves sometimes diminishes with age and when we work towards a higher purpose and find our calling, then the age doesn’t matter so much as the wisdom, the learnings, the experience and what we have to give to the world, because all our lives we have received and now its time to give, and sometimes a corporate career is limiting because it requires a lot of time, effort and investment and leaving that to pursue your own projects gives you the freedom, space and time to take off and have a larger impact.
Go out there and do all you can to make the world a better place.
Age doesn't matter, Intent and Action are what will make a difference.
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