Now, let’s address the elephant in the room before we move on. Yes, I co-opted thinking from Eastern philosophies and quantum physics as a “GenX SuperPower.”
I can already hear a segment of you critiquing “there goes Jeremi drawing generational lines again…” Not to fret, there is another GenX superpower1 at your disposal. “Generational Amnesia”: The power to forget that GenX even exists. Give yourself 30 seconds and you will not even remember this ever happened.
Of course, I jest.
Lately, I have been hearing more and more frustration and concern about their age and how that is impacting one’s career opportunities. This has been a legitimate concern of the Boomers for some time. Lately, I have been hearing it also from my fellow Xers.
Before I go on, I want to recognize that ageism is a legitimate issue and one that MEA is doing phenomenal work to address. That said, my experience with it has not come at this stage of my life (I turned 50 last Nov). My first experience with it was when I was 22. I graduated Wabash College in 1993 with a Political Science degree. Between the economy and having a general Liberal Arts degree, I found myself getting turned away from EVERY job I applied for. I did not have the experience. I was too young. Etc, etc, etc.
Luckily, I was coming into the job market at the same time the internet was becoming commercially available. Given that I had no other options, I decided to jump into a field THAT WAS BRAND NEW to make my own success. There were no college courses about the digital revolution that was to come. There were no certificate programs to bone up on HTML. There was …….. NOTHING. Indeed, all three of the startups I have co-founded were in fields I had little background in. My success in those startups came because I was passionate, intellectually curious, and believed in myself. In short, being a tech entrepreneur is my jam. My dharma.
As mentioned above, I turned 50 last November. My wife gifted me three weeks at MEA during their Sabbatical Sessions. This allowed me to continue to work in beautiful surroundings while getting to meet and collaborate with like-minded people. It was during this time that I realized that I was not fully utilizing the GenX superpower bestowed upon me. Yes, I was my own best proponent when it came to starting new businesses. However, I lacked the mindfulness to be an effective Self-Observer when it came to my personal life. And there was a lot at stake as I now had a wife and two beautiful children that depended on me being a good husband and father.
MEA gave me the space and the tools to expand my awareness and understand how to take my unique interest, desires, and talents and to use them to better serve others. In many ways, it was the Alfred Pennyworth to my Batman. The experience taught me the value of meditation, yoga, and community. It showed me how to calm my mind and live in the present moment. To cherish the gifts I have in front of me and to realize how truly lucky I am.
I am so excited to return to Baja two months from now for another two-week SabSesh stint with many of the people who made up my 2020 cohort. My intention is to make this an annual pilgrimage. The experience is priceless and one of the best investments you can make in yourself and your superpowers!
1One of the other benefits of being in GenX, is that “X” is the universal character for “put whatever shit you want in place of the X”. Any thinking we claim as ours can be co-opted by anyone, from any generation! There, we just invented another GenX superpower: “Transference“.
Jeremi Karnell is the CEO of Truelytics, a leading business intelligence SAAS platform in the Wealth Management sector. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife Cindy, his daughter, 9-year-old Aviana, his 8-year-old son Grayson, and his 5-year-old English Bulldog Mickey.