The other day, Mindshare announced that the agency had turned 20. I had one of my colleagues create a jpeg in a jiffy announcing that I was proud to be a friend of Mindshare for twenty years.

And that got me thinking: how many people (other than those who joined Mindshare on the day it started) could claim to have a relationship with Mindshare from the day it began till today.

Not many.

To begin with, discount all those who are below 41 years of age.  To have conducted any kind of business with Mindshare, one can safely presume that you had a job and that you were a graduate, which makes you 21 in 1997 and 41 in 2017.

And to have a continuous relationship with Mindshare since then, you needed to stay active in the media business since 1997, which will cause a lot of other people to be discounted as well.

And so on. Which is why I am one of the few people to be able to make the claim that I have been a friend of Mindshare for 20 years.

But, enough about Mindshare and more about age.

Because age is on my side, I know a lot of people for 20 years.. Or 25 years. Or 30.  Professionally.

I know brands and companies for 20 years. Or 25 years. Or 30 years.

I know the satellite television business from the day it began in India, I know mobile telephone services  providers from the day their business began, I know private FM companies from the day they began operations in India.

Because I am 56 years old, and all these developments happened in my professional years.

Age, old age, is on my side.

So is it with many of you – except that we are so conditioned to thinking that being young is an advantage that we haven’t flipped it and thought of how being older could be an advantage as well.

Hindustan Unilever has age on its side. They know Indian consumers for over 100 years.

The Times of India has age on its side.  They know Indian newspaper readers for over 150 years.

I could go on endlessly, but I’ll stop here.

Think about this if you’re ‘old’. What does age give to you that youth cannot? All this knowledge can be turned into a sustainable advantage in the market you operate in.

It’s something that a younger competitor can never boast of – and can never catch up on.

Think about that, Hindustan Unilever, when you think about Patanjali.

Image courtesy Pinkvilla.com