Hey, I'm 40, Yo

Just turned 40. So now I get to pretend like I've learned some things and that they are worth passing on to others in a blog.

If we practice gratitude, disappointments can reveal a sense of purpose.

The secret to progress is rhythm. The longer you keep a similar rhythm of life, the more your mind will come up with natural and easy improvements to efficiency and effectiveness.

But too long in the same rhythm is stagnation, and you'll get depressed. So do something wacky every now and then.

In the professional world, we are all replaceable. So we distinguish ourselves primarily through loyalty and effort.

And a rant: The longer I spend in professional life, the more convinced I am that there is maybe $1 trillion of hidden value waiting to be unlocked in our economy but hiring managers are too lazy and too lacking in creativity to understand how and where to look for real talent. Like this LinkedIn article (link) in which a hiring manager tells about this laziness and lack of creativity and tells everyone to adjust accordingly instead of telling hiring managers to stop being bad at their job. This is the opposite of Liz Wiseman's Multipliers, which is my new favorite corporate leadership book.

My business partner and I were hiring an administrative assistant years ago. We received many resumes from former and current administrative assistants and one resume from a restaurant kitchen manager. My partner threw the kitchen manager out immediately. But I said, wait a minute, what do we know about restaurant kitchen managers? She receives urgent instructions delivered without regard for politeness, she deals with angry people, she delivers urgent instructions, she manages (in her head) a hundred micro-details about patron dishes and keeps it all straight. This is exactly the skill set we need. Let's interview her. We eventually hired her and she was perfect for the job. Plus she was more grateful and therefore more loyal. I changed careers but she is still working for my former partner 9 years later.