At the time of this writing, I’m approaching a 20-year career milestone in sales and marketing management that provided me with the privilege to be the last manager for several people who chose to retire under my watch. It was quite the experience helping them put some of the pieces of the retirement planning puzzle together.
Over time, I learned the age of my direct reports but did not learn the importance of this information until a conversation with Edith. She was my inside “telesales” rep based at our U.S. headquarters. She was a fascinating and humble person that I got to know over the two years she reported to me. I learned that she won an Olympic silver medal in track & field during her athletic years.