"I Am Always Remembering..."

The other day I was invited to speak to a group of young high potential up and coming managers at the global firm I work for... I referred to myself as old (which I am now) and I began to describe what I think is the most important quality of leadership... the ability to remember the past, while embracing change and the future. 

Case in point, these are all things that I used with great regularity in my lifetime that are now all obsolete.

When I was teaching, long before whiteboards and then electronic whiteboards, I used a chalkboard and an overhead projector just like this one.

When I was a child, we had a landline with three extension, the one in our basement was a black Western Electric model just like this one. When I moved into my own home in 1992. there was the same model beige wall phone in my kitchen which I used until 2006. I still have a landline, but I took the wall phone out when I remodeled the kitchen.

Until I bought my first CD in 1983, this was the way we listened to music. I still have a large collection of vinyl and several vintage phonographs to play them on.

Before they invented cell phones, Motorola made TVs and other consumer and commercial electronics. When I was a boy, I spent hours watching everything in black and white on a cherry finished wooden cabinet Motorola with 14 tubes just like this one from 1953. Despite now having a house full of flat screen smart TVs, I still have that old Motorola as well as a Crosley model that's even older.

So while it's true that I am old now, I've embraced the changes in the world and at work. Surprisingly, although I don't work in IT, I'm a technology goto guy. I'm even the unofficial level two support for some of our global tech when our young help desk experts can't figure it out.

I am always remembering...

and sometimes it's okay