Gatorade has been feeling wistful lately. Or at least, they have a heart for former high school football players in their 30’s. More specifically, giving former high school players in their 30’s a second chance.
You see this past weekend, two archrival high schools played a football game. A springtime game played by guys who are hardly spring chickens. These are grown men who once met on the football field in 1993. And 15 years later, Gatorade brought members of the Easton Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg New Jersey high school football teams back to play, or perhaps more specifically, play it again.
It’s something men approaching middle age might only dream about. Point is, Gatorade made a dream become reality. And as someone in your 30’s, 40’s or even beyond, you can too.
Maybe it’s the economy. Maybe it’s a crisis of midlife. Whatever the reason, it really doesn’t matter. Fact is, I do get my share of inquiries from perspective clients in their 30’s, 40’s and even 50’s. Often times, these are men and women who’ve always wanted to have careers in television broadcasting but, for one reason or another, never made it a career. These people may have great jobs as doctors, attorneys, accountants or what have you, only to lament they never answered their earlier yearnings. Instead, they now look back, wishing they had taken the road “less travelled by” as Robert Frost wrote in his poem about important choices in life, “The Road Not Taken.”
If you want a TV journalist career or radio career or you want to be a sports anchor, don’t be afraid to deal with those yearnings. Put them in perspective, assess your situation and your talent level then decide. Also appreciate that, as Steely Dan once said, you can “go back, Jack (and) do it again.” You’d be surprised at what can happen at your age.
As the late comedian Jack Benny once said, “Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.” And often times, it really doesn’t.
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