They have always been eventful times.

My fun-loving aunt’s birthday card says, ‘Age is like wine, it has to be a good vintage.’ Mine is 63.
In August 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous speech ‘I Have a Dream’. It was also the year JFK visited Berlin and was shot. George Harrison encouraged Decca Records to sign a new band he had discovered, The Rolling Stones. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to launch into space. Everything was happening. I happened. Boomer Optimism happened. Let’s make this world a better place! It is the story of my life.

How do I feel at 60?

Young. Full of hope. Full of energy, like a supernova. A hundred million suns! Definitely not old. Due to the fact that I learn and philosophize an incredible amount every day, I never ‘get old’ as in ‘there is nothing new under the sun’. A pension, on which I could rest, does not exist after decades abroad. So what? Deceleration would kill me. Spending old age on cruise ships snapping selfies in front of polar bears on melting floes would be my personal idea of hell. In this light, the best years are yet to come.

What are the blessings of getting older?

I had a conversation about this the other day with a dear colleague from the BDU and a professor of individual psychology. I think we can intuitively recognize patterns better and react to them in a more structured way than we did when we were younger. We are talking about highly complex pattern recognition. This includes being able to see, accept and understand people holistically in their biographies, develop a deeper knowledge of human nature, recognize cultural patterns more clearly, and track down societal trends in a more multifaceted way, while at the same time being increasingly open and curious. The more we learn, the more open we should become, otherwise it is a process of self-affirmation, but not a genuine learning process. Genuine learning transforms. This is how deep learning usually doesn’t happen in social networks.

I understand the world and people on many levels simultaneously, multi-dimensionally, and become kinder and milder. In return, my tolerance level for bullshit is dropping. I don’t have to be everybody’s darling.

What were some recent, beautiful experiences?

Three experiences come to mind immediately. INCLUSION. What really, really warmed my heart was the experience of being able to connect with groups of ‘older’ people (like me, LOL) – we’re talking about the workshops for principals I’ve conducted in Celle, Soltau, Hildesheim, and Osnabrück – just as meaningfully and deeply as I do with my students at university. I was able to prove myself as a coach in the challenging chapter of organizational culture development and was able to give a lot to the participants. At the same time, the very empathetic school principals and admins invited me to join their circle and rewarded me with trust and deep appreciation. Many schools in Germany are falling apart, socially and, looking at infrastructure, quite literally. Not giving up is a crazy job. Earned trust seems to be the most powerful factor that can unravel and reorder organizational complexity.

The second experience: INTERNATIONALIZATION. It was an extremely beneficial experience to work internationally again the other day as part of a small design job. Interacting with a team from Spain, France, and Romania as well as a talented designer from Pakistan was like the awakening of my superpower: finally, I could act on the familiar world stage again. How much I had missed this feeling! I felt like a dolphin that found its way back into the sea.

Last but not least, HOME RUNS. Many of our meetings at NEXTGEN.LX are moments of amazing synergy. Ego never plays a role in our meetings. We can step back when necessary and intuitively feel where the next Eureka moments might shine. The focus on Learning & Development this year has put more emphasis on the human side of enterprise: Our work is concerned with the interaction between the lifelong development of people and the organizations in which they work. Perhaps with our process-based model we will finally succeed in making the model of a ‘Learning Organization’ (Peter M. Senge) fly. Without learning organizations and learning companies, we won’t get the ecological transformation right. Leaving the world a better place than we found it, even in our modest field of expertise, is what it’s all about.

How do I deal with hurtful experiences?

I think I have emancipated myself from fairly frustrating experiences with the German bureaucracy, especially the KMK (Note: The Standing Conference for the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs decides on the verification of foreign degrees; mine was an M.Sc. from the University of Liverpool), who managed to block great future opportunities for me. Months of depression after the rejection of a Ph.D. opportunity I had worked towards for many years, and the indifference of my superiors, who never (!) ever, in all those years, talked to me once, I can write off on a grander scale, but cannot forget.

I differentiate between people and systems though. In Singapore, I worked in a highly efficient system with good people. In Thailand, I worked in a corrupt system with good people. In Germany, I work in a hopelessly bureaucratic system with good people. My verdict: It is rarely people who are the problem.

The indifferent, institutionalized top-down bureaucracy is typically German, and I had not experienced any similar disinterest in HR in Singapore, Shanghai, or Bangkok.

I developed my software startup NEXTGEN.LX (Next-Generation Learning Experience) as an alternative way to build my future because, if no one helps you, help yourself! Become an entrepreneur. Not only talking, doing! We are personally responsible for our life choices. Mostly 🙂

Psychological inclusion and exclusion experiences.

When decades of life’s work are not recognized, I can at least partly understand the East German frustration, the never-ending resentment against the government. After reunification, the West German bureaucracy became the norm. This meant that the previous achievements of East Germans were reset to zero. As an effect, you feel like a migrant in your own country. You are told that your life so far has been rubbish, at least not worth mentioning and that you deserve recognition solely ‘on their terms’.

I share an almost similar experience with many East Germans, albeit coming from a completely different direction. In addition, for citizens of the former DDR, it was a matter of the Treuhand (the “Law for the Privatization and Reorganization of the People’s Owned Assets”) flogging off their life’s work and companies on the West German bargain market. They didn’t stand a chance.

It was a bitter, existential experience of exclusion. People experienced this as disenfranchisement and negation of their life’s work, as maximum humiliation. Since I am socialized differently than some people in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt (here’s a cheer for the majority of nice East Germans, they exist too! ), I do not get fooled by the right-wing wolves in sheep’s clothing. I’d rather visit a temple and light an incense stick for Ganesha. A line by George Harrison from the grandiose ‘Within You Without You’ spontaneously comes to mind: ‘With their love, they could change the world. (…) If they only knew….’ How beautiful. Unfortunately, there are too many biographies beyond love and reason. And there are, besides the misled ones, real hardcore neo-Nazis out there.

The ‘Better Self’ finds a voice

In the end, we must not lose faith in ourselves. We are not victims of history as long as we write our own. My better self tells me: Have the courage to take your life into your own hands. Or as a variation of Kant: Summa tibi vitam capessendi animi esto. Leave the old leaders and the crumbling systems they defend behind. Don’t spend yourself correcting the stupidity of others, because we are not gods and goddesses and our human energy is limited. Just get things done, don’t complain. At least not too much.

Instead, create something new that is based on the real joy of life, something you can be proud of in the end. Don’t wait for anyone, not even yourself. The most beautiful moments are those in which we surpass ourselves, especially in a team.

My thanks and our Tao

This is part of the maturing process: To be able to deal with the great diversity of people, the contradictions, and the obstacles of the world in a respectful and friendly way. To be able to differentiate. To be able to be pragmatic and wise and to be able to correct oneself self-critically, strictly with oneself.

A deep thank you goes to all my friends, companions and coaches, my family, and especially to the best sister in the world. Without you, I would never have gotten to where I am at the age of 60: On a wonderfully open, fluid, somewhat chaotic mental field together with all of you, where many exciting futures are just waiting to be gently kissed, awakened, and developed.

It’s time for new success stories. And songs.