The sting of public humiliation is never a welcome one, though some might argue it’s a healthy ‘grounding’ influence for those whose egos might otherwise run away with them.
I’m not sure if I fall into that category, but I certainly felt the heat last week when Adrienne Lawler publicly poked fun at me as she hosted the Startups Awards, where I was presenting the business plan of the year gong.
As I greeted the former BBC journalist and Everything Must Go! (me neither - a “popular daytime antiques and collectibles programme” according to her agents) presenter on stage with the customary fake media kiss, she leant in to whisper conspiratorially.
Imagine a woman who has “broadcast to over 300 million across three continents” sharing a quasi-private joke with the likes of me! It felt good to be a momentary media darling.
Unfortunately for me, I’m not what Lawler calls a ‘studmuffin’. It’s a horrible, horrible term, but I’d certainly rather be called that than what Lawler had in store for me. So well done to my boss, Crimson chairman David Lester, who’s a serial studmuffin in Lawler’s book, and also Keystone Law founder James Knight, who got an honourable mention in the host’s aesthetic roll of honour, which seemed to be running in tandem with the awards.
No, apparently, I “looked about twelve”. That was bad enough, but that was just Lawler’s pre-sledging whisper. She then went on to publicly reel out a string of age-related jokes as I played the perfect straight man: agape, frozen and mortified.
None of them were particularly witty (“does your mother know you’re out this late?”), but the delivery must have been sound enough, as the audience were suitably amused. I hear that Concert Live founders Adam Goodyer and James Perkins almost fell off their chairs.
‘Never mind, good for the ego’, I told myself as I sat back down. But surely all of this was a classic example of reverse ageism? How could I be an editor if I was still so young? The implication of her remarks was that I was inexperienced and lightweight. That might be true but she shouldn’t have assumed, should she?
Ultimately, I was being sensitive and precious, and Lawler was simply doing her job, and doing it pretty well. But I wonder how much this happens in the workplace, where it's a different matter. In the US, many workers have sued employers for what they see as examples of reverse age discrimination. In the UK, we’re more likely to expect youngsters to ride it out until they’ve earned their wings, which, on reflection, is probably fair enough. But as Arsene Wenger has always insisted, if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.
Instead of looking at Arsenal’s recent form as evidence to back up that statement, look instead to the US, where I’m confident that Barack Obama will tomorrow become the third youngest president of all time.
The support that Obama is getting from Europe is remarkable, which is hardly surprising after eight years of Bush and Cheney. I know of a number of UK entrepreneurs who are holding sleepover election parties, which illustrates just how much the US election has caught the public imagination here. Maybe we’re inspired by the American electorate’s passion for democracy, with a 70% turnout predicted for this election, compared with just 61% for the last UK general election.
There are a number of areas where we can learn from the Americans, including entrepreneurship, in which they’re world leaders. On Friday, I’ll be attending a ‘fireside chat’ with US business journalist Sarah Lacy in Soho. She’s reported on startups and venture capital in Silicon Valley for nearly a decade, and has just released The Stories of Facebook, Youtube, and Myspace: The People, the Hype and the Deals Behind the Giants of Web 2.0, so I’m hoping she’ll provide some fascinating insights into the entrepreneurs who drove the rebirth of silicon valley after the bubble burst. If you decide to come along, do say hello: I’ll be the baby faced one.