What’s Wrong with Young Guys?

Written by Mike Ellsworth

Tuesday, 28 July 2009 16:55

Not to get into a youth vs. age rut here, but I was recently featured on the cover of New Business Minnesota magazine, a monthly periodical targeted to startups and growing businesses and shared the cover with three other social media experts, two of whom were of a certain age. And by that I mean under 24.

The four of us took part in a round table discussion about social media featured in the cover story, and in general had a great time exchanging ideas and expressing our enthusiasm for our favorite sites, like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and on, and on.

Read the cover story .

Then, on July 21, the panel spoke at the New Business Startup meetup at the Bayview Event Center . More than 300 people attended the Social Media workshop which was so popular that there will be a repeat performance on Aug. 12th.

So, great. I went first, the two young fellers went after me, and another older gentleman went last. But the funny thing about his speech was that he constantly hammered at the two younger guys, pointing out, apropos of nothing, that they hadn’t been born when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon or at other times he mentioned.

Now I understand what he was trying to do: to show that he had way more business experience than the young whippersnappers. Got it. When you take a look at the social media landscape, it does tend to be dominated by younger folks. But why turn it into a generation war? Sure both us older gentlemen have more business experience than the two very smart young guys, and, sure, we would use that to our advantage in any competitive situation. You know, age and guile beat youth and a bad haircut any day.

But there’s no need to get personal. These guys can’t help it if they’re age-challenged! Why I was young once, meself!