A recent story covering the life and times of the brilliant Roger Wolfson has stirred up some thoughts about the importance of giving things back to the younger generation. Roger’s career is a truly incredible one, having started as an attorney, then moved onto speech writing before spending his career writing for and creating some of the best shows which have ever graced your TV screens. It is not his career which I want to talk about today however, what I do want to discuss is the importance of giving back to the younger generation.
The link here is that Roger has invested a great deal of his time in sharing his experience and his expertise with younger generations as a writing instructor, and this is something which so many more people should be doing.
Offering Something Valuable
Whilst young professionals coming through of course have talent, anyone at this stage in their career will always lack that insider knowledge which the older generation can share. This is absolutely critical to helping them understand more about where they are heading, and it can also significantly increase their chances of success in the future.
The Lack of Sharing Success
The reason why Roger is a great example here is that most people who find the levels of success which he has, don’t even consider the idea of helping others. Those who generally do help others are those who found some levels of success, but not at the highest level. When it comes to getting respect from students and from the younger generation, those teaching or sharing knowledge will gain much more if they have been there and done it to a high level. This is why when someone like Roger speaks about their career, people have no option but to listen, because of the greatness that he has created.
Keeping People Inspired
Inspiration is a delicate thing and in many cases it can be difficult to keep someone inspired enough to go after what they want. If we take the world of writing as an example, a couple of knock backs is all that it takes for a young, talented writer to decide that this is not the career choice for them. If however they are able to count on some advice and some support from a person as successful as Roger Wolfson, then they are clearly going to see just what the end result could be of their hard work and dedication.
Continuing The Trend
Ultimately something like helping others is contagious and this is a chain which should always be continued. As more people support those below, those below eventually become those who will help out the following generation and so on. This is exactly why it is critical that those who do find high levels of success, go on to support those who are coming through, in order to help them be the very best that they can be.
