You hear the old on-liner, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” enough, you start to believe it. Put that old dog in a new job without even a few minutes of on-boarding and he might take it...
You hear the old on-liner, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” enough, you start to believe it. Put that old dog in a new job without even a few minutes of on-boarding and he might take it to heart.
Take that same old dog and put him in a place where they actually have a desire for that gray beard to succeed and all of a sudden, it’s easy to see the fear and insecurity for the fog it is. The best way I can put it, the fog burns off in the sunlight.
The first ten days at my new job, that fear was crushing. My decades-old chest pain brought on from excessive adrenaline came back. I was straight-up afraid I wouldn’t measure up. I thought, “maybe I just need to go back to my old, comfortable field and start over with a new company”.
My second ten days, after I found the young team I’m a part of to be exceptional, that attitude changed. I started warming to the new role. In addition, the training – and the company’s allowance for me to explore the new industry through intensive training from outside sources led to me believing I had a fighting chance.
My third ten days came with a new outlook. I was starting to grasp the pieces and parts – and the number of subcontractors I’d have to deal with became vastly more clear. I’d have to deal with about half of the trades I dealt with at my first career. They’d be much larger subs, but it felt manageable. Not only that, I found the team I was becoming a part of to be exceptional and gracious. I got to a point where I became willing to do whatever I could to learn the trade.
There’s still a little fear that lingers, but the doubt has turned to resolve. The landscape I’m playing on is vastly different from where I came. The hill looked a lot steeper on day one that it does a month later.
It’s no hill for a climber, though. You can teach an aging dog new tricks. Imagine that.