---
title: "The 9 Embarrassments, 10 Destinations, and 3 Taboos for a 40-Year-Old Manager"
description: "A 40-year-old professional manager described his state of mind: 'Blowing the charge for a total offensive in life, entering the mature period: the best time, the richest experience, with less of the impetuosity and arrogance of youth, and more steadiness and responsibility.' Indeed, 40 is a watershed in a career. If life is compared to a football match, then at 40 one begins the second half. How the first half was played is in the past; the key is how to play the second half."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2014-10-26"
language: "en"
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# The 9 Embarrassments, 10 Destinations, and 3 Taboos for a 40-Year-Old Manager

> A 40-year-old professional manager described his state of mind: 'Blowing the charge for a total offensive in life, entering the mature period: the best time, the richest experience, with less of the impetuosity and arrogance of youth, and more steadiness and responsibility.' Indeed, 40 is a watershed in a career. If life is compared to a football match, then at 40 one begins the second half. How the first half was played is in the past; the key is how to play the second half.

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A 40-year-old professional manager once described his state of mind: “Blowing the charge for a total offensive in life, stepping into the mature period: the best time, the richest experience, with less of the impetuosity and arrogance of youth, and more steadiness and responsibility.” Indeed, 40 is a watershed in a career.

If life is compared to a football match, then at 40 one begins the second half. How the first half was played is in the past; the key is how to play the second half. Regardless of tactics, 40-year-old managers share a common psychological trait: they have abandoned the fantasies of their 20s and the arrogance of their 30s, and begin to seriously take stock of their professional lives. What do they take stock of? They review their knowledge, wisdom, skills, experience, life experience, resources, and health, and based on changes in the situation, carefully choose something they believe is worth doing for the rest of their lives.

40-year-old professional managers have many advantages: maturity, rich experience, colorful life experience, outstanding abilities, wisdom, a well-rounded knowledge structure, basic control of social resources, physical and mental health at their peak, and a stable mindset capable of doing a concrete and feasible thing.

Strangely, these “advantages” often fail to be brought into play in real workplace competition: many companies they fancy ignore them, favoring less mature young people. You are furious, but then you look up and see that people in their 50s are quietly taking office, making you even more embarrassed... Why is this?

First, the embarrassment of stage mission. At 40, you may not want to change jobs easily; you just want to choose a company and a position and work steadily to make something of yourself. But often the opposite happens: the more you don't want to jump, the more you are forced to jump, and quickly—the boss politely asks you to leave, and you have to go.

Why? Because enterprise development is staged; due to experience, no professional manager is omnipotent, so the use of professional managers by enterprises is also staged. Once your talents are used up, the enterprise can only dismiss you and recruit new professional managers suitable for the new stage of the enterprise.

Second, the embarrassment of recruitment. Because you are mature, capable, well-connected, healthy, and stable, and want to accomplish something, suitable for major responsibilities, the boss wants to use you, but who interviews you becomes a big problem. If the boss interviews first, then the rest can only speculate on the boss's conclusion. If the boss interviews last, you might be eliminated early and never see the boss, the talent scout. Because at 40, you are the most threatening age to others. Even if you are very humble and approachable, to others this may seem even more frightening.

Third, the embarrassment of maturity. Maturity is your advantage, but also your disadvantage. What does maturity mean? Like a watermelon that is ripe, although sweet and fragrant, it can no longer grow. So, people in the workplace at 40 are at the stage of outputting experience and wisdom; how much they can do is roughly set. You have grown with the enterprise; if you cannot continue to grow with it, you are in danger of falling behind, and you cannot blame the boss for being ruthless.

Fourth, the embarrassment of experience. The richer the experience, the more likely one is to act by experience. In reality, empiricism kills, and reality often surpasses experience. So those with experience but without wisdom often make mistakes.

Fifth, the embarrassment of life experience. A colorful life experience is an advantage for your career, but not necessarily in the eyes of the enterprise and others. When things are viewed from a different angle, deviations appear; the difficulty in achieving consistency between each other is that they see problems from different angles.

Sixth, the embarrassment of resources. Your extensive resources are an advantage, but converting this advantage into enterprise productivity requires a process, costs, many additional conditions, and environmental support; otherwise, these resource advantages often cannot be brought into play. Once the enterprise transforms, your resources may no longer be an advantage.

Seventh, the embarrassment of ability. Although your abilities are outstanding, their exertion also requires conditions. Modern enterprises have bid farewell to the era of relying on individual strength to win market competition, and have begun to rely on systems and teams. Even if you are good at operating large systems and teams, how do you lead the fight when facing a guerrilla force that is not yet systematic?

Eighth, the embarrassment of a complete knowledge structure. Your knowledge structure tends to be complete, which is an advantage. But in other words, your learning ability is also declining. Because your knowledge structure tends to be complete, you often know what cannot be done, but when faced with new things, you cannot judge whether they can succeed because they exceed your knowledge structure.

Ninth, the embarrassment of health. Because you are physically and mentally healthy, you can remain calm in the face of change and sit firmly in the commander's seat, but at the same time you will lose your ability to adapt to the environment. Also, although you are healthy, if you compete in strength with a young man in his 20s, you will definitely lose. So at 40, even if you are healthy, you are not suitable for charging into battle in many situations.

So, where should a 40-year-old professional manager go?

First, start-up enterprises. Many investors are very optimistic about a certain industry, but lack experience themselves, or they are simply investors, so they need professional managers who are experienced and willing to take risks. We call this type of professional manager a start-up professional manager. Starting a business is very hard; you have to start from scratch, create something from nothing, so it suits those who can endure hardship and whose passion is undiminished. They contribute their experience, wisdom, and effort to complete the enterprise's start-up and realize the value of their career.

Second, growth-stage enterprises. After a successful start-up, the enterprise enters a growth period, which requires experienced and innovative professional managers to promote growth and standardization. We call this type of professional manager a growth-stage professional manager. Growth-stage professional managers have accumulated rich experience in business management in their past careers, which can be fully applied to these growing enterprises, promoting growth and gradual standardization, and realizing career value.

Third, mature enterprises. In a mature enterprise, everything operates routinely, so relatively steady professional managers are needed. We call this type of manager a mature professional manager. The characteristics of a mature professional manager are steadiness and proficiency in standardized management and using systematic strength to handle daily trivial matters, and in emergencies they can rely on their experience, so not much innovation or risk is needed. But note, enterprise maturity is relative; enterprises have different stages of maturity, and different maturity stages require different types of mature professional managers.

Fourth, breakthrough enterprises. Enterprise development always encounters bottlenecks, and due to the limitations of old members' wisdom and resources, breaking through bottlenecks is difficult or impossible, so they need to hire professional managers from outside who have experience in breaking through bottlenecks to help the enterprise achieve strategic breakthroughs. Professional managers suitable for this stage are called strategic breakthrough professional managers. Also note, in the process of enterprise growth, there is not just one strategic bottleneck; different strategic breakthrough stages require different types of strategic breakthrough professional managers.

Fifth, transformation enterprises. Enterprise strategic transformation is different from strategic breakthrough. Strategic breakthrough is upward breakthrough, moving toward higher scale and higher quality goals, without changing the direction of development; strategic transformation is a fundamental change in the direction of enterprise development. At this time, professional managers who are experienced, possess and are good at integrating internal and external resources are needed to take on the heavy responsibility and promote the enterprise to achieve a change in strategic direction. We call this type of professional manager a strategic transformation professional manager. But note, because the characteristics of enterprise strategic transformation differ, some are complete transformations, some are partial, so different types of strategic transformation professional managers are needed.

Sixth, problem enterprises. In the process of development and growth, enterprises inevitably encounter problems, crises, and setbacks, manifested as declining profits, low morale, or even financial crises and near bankruptcy. This requires professional managers who are adventurous, experienced, and have great wisdom and courage to play the role of savior and turn the tide. Such professional managers are called problem-type professional managers. They are born for problems and realize their professional value by solving various enterprise difficulties.

Seventh, bankrupt enterprises. Bankruptcy-type professional managers are relatively scarce in the current market. Enterprises have their own life cycles; any enterprise has a time of death. As a professional manager, if you have the ability to close a bankrupt enterprise, you are definitely a master. Many enterprises, when on the verge of bankruptcy, lack the operation of a bankruptcy-type professional manager, so they sit and wait for death, even leaving a bad reputation and huge debts. If a bankruptcy-type professional manager helps with the operation, the enterprise not only avoids debt but may even make money. For example, IBM closed its PC business with billions of dollars, which is a successful closure case. Of course, this does not mean the buyer is a fool; although enterprise A is at the point of bankruptcy and closure, for the acquiring enterprise B, it may be a very good deal, which is called a win-win. So, mergers and acquisitions are always a hot topic in the market; being bought at a good price and then dying a natural death is also a success. So, if you are a bankruptcy-type professional manager, you will have great opportunities in the increasingly active capital market.

Eighth, consulting institutions. 40-year-old professional managers, with rich experience, mature and stable mentality, wisdom to deal with complex market problems, and a well-rounded knowledge structure, are often recruited by professional consulting institutions to work as consultants. This is also one of the main destinations for professional managers.

Ninth, academic and research institutions. As the marketization degree increases, both universities and research institutes increasingly pay attention to absorbing professional managers with rich practical enterprise experience, inviting them to serve as visiting professors or researchers. This is also one of the relatively ideal destinations for professional managers. If these professional managers have high academic backgrounds or can fill gaps in their knowledge structure, they can also serve as full professors and researchers in academic institutions.

Tenth, self-founded enterprises. Most professional managers have more or less had the idea of starting their own business, and some have actually invested in entrepreneurship. 40-year-old professional managers should have many resources suitable for entrepreneurship, but being suitable does not guarantee success. Why? Because entrepreneurship requires passion; maturity often loses passion, and risk-taking spirit is insufficient. The cost of starting a business at 40 is too high, mainly the cost of hesitation and indecision leading to wasted time.

Even start-up professional managers may not succeed in entrepreneurship. Because start-up professional managers play with other people's money, they start businesses for others, earning wages, and their monthly income is positive; once they play with their own money, not only is there no income, but they have to continuously draw from their original savings, resulting in negative numbers. When the negative can turn positive is highly uncertain. So, can start-up professional managers endure the huge income gap when starting their own business? How long can they endure? Perhaps just as they reach the door of success, they run out of ammunition and food, and ultimately fail to enter the door of success...

In addition, because 40-year-old professional managers have mature thoughts and their values and behavioral habits tend to solidify, when they start a business, especially as legal representative, it is difficult to change quickly; and the psychological pressure of a start-up boss is many times greater and more complex than that of a professional manager. These are unimaginable for professional managers who have never started a business. Therefore, the younger the age of starting a business, the lower the cost of success.

First taboo: overdrawing health. Physical health is something many professional managers do not pay much attention to. 40-year-old professional managers, no matter what kind of enterprise, are pillars and core backbones, under great work pressure, and they work too hard; as a result, the string is too tight, and they become ill from overwork, greatly reducing their career prospects or ending their careers prematurely. It can be said that once physical health problems arise, everything else ceases to exist.

Second taboo: defensive mentality. How can 40-year-old professional managers bring their advantages into play? How can they maintain fresh creativity? There is much homework to do, but the most important is to maintain an open mindset. In this world, nothing can be defended by being defensive. If you take a defensive posture, wanting to keep your position, income, and treatment, it is impossible.

Third taboo: refusing to learn. How can 40-year-old professional managers not lose their advantages? The way is continuous learning and absorbing new things. As a professional manager, if you make excuses of being busy all day and do not pay attention to learning and absorbing new things, you will eventually become obsolete. Learning is not just about getting a certificate or degree; more importantly, it is about learning new knowledge. The world generates new ideas, knowledge, and skills every day. Not accepting new ideas and learning new knowledge means a decline in innovation ability. There are many ways to learn and absorb new things; communication is one of the most effective, especially communicating with different people, and maintaining independent thinking. Learning should be for use; after learning, you should output and share with others, not hoard it like a treasure. Knowledge is only knowledge when used and communicated; otherwise, it is just mechanical symbols. Managers should also learn through continuous summarization; summarization itself is the most effective way to learn.


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