If you learn anything with age, it’s that life can be a funny old dog, chock full of unexpected ironies. For me, last week’s New York City mayoral election drove that lesson home once again. Those of you who know me or read my blog are aware that my first job out of college more … Continue reading When Donald Trump Endorsed Andrew Cuomo For Mayor, in 1992
We’re Not Done Yet: On Dreams and Regrets In Our Fifties
We all long for something: love, family, success, money, connection. How our longings evolve in middle age, and the opportunities those changes bring, have been central themes of this blog. Not long ago, I visited Portugal with my family and found myself intrigued by a particular kind of longing the Portuguese refer to as saudade. … Continue reading We’re Not Done Yet: On Dreams and Regrets In Our Fifties
Taking A Big Swing
The future of media is bright. So bright that I decided to launch a new entrepreneurial media venture called Big Swing Media. There isn’t much optimism in media these days, especially from those of us in our fifties who have worked in the industry for decades. So why am I so sunny about the business? … Continue reading Taking A Big Swing
Thinking About Bill Gerber (1964-2025)
It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Fairfield, CT, my home of more than 25 years. On July 15th Bill Gerber, Fairfield’s First Selectman (the mayor, basically) passed away from brain cancer. He was 60 years old and left behind a wife, two grown children and a large extended network of family and friends. … Continue reading Thinking About Bill Gerber (1964-2025)
Your Commencement Speech
It’s graduation season. We are celebrating two in our family this year: Sammie, our oldest, finished her MBA and Juliet, our youngest, graduated from college. Of course, graduations mean graduation speeches. Like carols at Christmas and pumpkins at Halloween, the commencement address is foundational to the season. A good speech can make all the difference … Continue reading Your Commencement Speech
Fathers, Sons and Heroes
I had a birthday recently, which always makes me think of my dad. This isn’t unusual, birthdays cause many people to think of their parents. Although in my case there is a more uncommon connection: my dad and I shared a birthday. On the day I was born he turned 49. I used to joke … Continue reading Fathers, Sons and Heroes
What Is LinkedIn For?
I’ve been asking myself that question a lot recently. As a longtime user and fan, I want to believe LinkedIn sees itself as a platform designed to help professionals expand their networks, learn new skills, discover job opportunities and grow their careers. But lately it seems LinkedIn’s primary purpose is to get us to spend … Continue reading What Is LinkedIn For?
Which Way Are You Running?
Maybe it’s the commute. Or the job. Or the boss. Or the company you work for. It happens to those close to retirement and young executives unhappy with their current roles. No matter the issue or where you are in your career, at some point all of us feel the urge to run away from … Continue reading Which Way Are You Running?
What Did You Do This Week?
This simple question has caused quite an uproar recently. It’s a common question for those of us who like to spend part of our Sundays preparing for the upcoming week. Of course, the controversy isn’t about the question itself, but the manner in which it was asked. Normally employers don’t coldcock their employees with a … Continue reading What Did You Do This Week?
The Reason to Work Past the Number
What’s your number? If you’ve done even the most basic financial planning, you’ve got a number–the amount of savings needed to retire. For many people, that number represents the finish line and the primary motivation for working. And once that line is crossed, retirement quickly follows. However, not everyone stops working once they’ve attained financial … Continue reading The Reason to Work Past the Number
Coming Clean
Sunday is a good day to talk about coming clean. Owning up to our mistakes is core to many religious faiths. Judaism sets aside a day each year, Yom Kippur, for it. Catholics are expected to go to confession at least once a year. This idea that “confession is good for the soul” extends far … Continue reading Coming Clean
Kicked to the Curb
We're seeing more and more examples each week of companies and government agencies (DOGE) mishandling layoff notifications. Every professional knows layoffs are part of the deal sometimes. But there's no excuse for telling someone they're out of job over email or Slack. It's just kicking a person to the curb like a piece of garbage. … Continue reading Kicked to the Curb
The Ones That Got Away
During the Super Bowl, Tom Brady made an intriguing revelation. With the Eagles cruising in the second half and the outcome no longer in doubt, Brady reflected on how he processed losing Super Bowls. He admitted to dwelling much more on his three Super Bowl losses than on his seven victories. As a long-suffering Giants … Continue reading The Ones That Got Away
Practicing Silence
Sunday is a good day to talk about silence. Not the kind we experience in our sleep, but a waking silence. It’s hard to come by these days, usually because we are never truly alone in our digital “always-on” world. The buzzes and bells of alerts and notifications constantly interrupt and command our attention. Yet, … Continue reading Practicing Silence
Where do you find inspiration?
I started experimenting on TikTok a few months ago. Mostly because it's a great platform for promoting books. I've got a long way to go and a lot to learn, but it's a fun process. If you're on TikTok, I'd love it if you follow me. You can find me @fredbucherbooks. Every once in a … Continue reading Where do you find inspiration?
Celebrating the Little Wins
LinkedIn is an awesome place to celebrate the big wins - the new job, the promotion. But what about the little wins? I had one this week in my fiction writing. To be honest I haven't always been good at recognizing the importance of little wins. Here's a quick video I made for LinkedIn today … Continue reading Celebrating the Little Wins
Riding Wild Horses
Every artist has their muse. One of the legendary muses in rock history died last week. Marianne Faithfull lived a colorful life – pop star, model, actress, addiction survivor. For all her experiences and accomplishments, she’s probably best known for her intense (and very public) relationship with Mick Jagger in the 1960s. Legend has it … Continue reading Riding Wild Horses
The Road to Forgiveness
Sunday is a good day to talk about forgiveness. Walk into any church on Sunday and you’ll get an earful about forgiveness. It cuts right to the heart of religious faith. The reassurance that there is a God who knows us better than we know ourselves and never fails to forgive no matter the offense … Continue reading The Road to Forgiveness
Sorry, Not Sorry
For a Peak Years Friday bonus I thought I'd share a fun little video I made for LinkedIn about our cultural epidemic of non-apology apologies. Hope you enjoy it. Feedback always welcome. Speaking of apologies, watch for my post this Sunday about forgiveness. Have a great weekend.
TikTok and the Real Dangers of Social Media
I’m all for the TikTok ban. To be clear, I have nothing against it. I use it myself. However, allowing a hostile foreign power to own and control the dominant media platform used by America’s youth presents an obvious national security threat. It’s the same reason why foreign individuals or companies are forbidden to own … Continue reading TikTok and the Real Dangers of Social Media
Gratitude: The Essential Career Practice
Sunday is a good day to talk about gratitude. For the religious, setting aside one day a week to rest and give thanks is foundational. However, you don’t have to be a person of faith to relate to the idea of regularly scheduled gratitude. A need to give and receive thanks is hard wired into … Continue reading Gratitude: The Essential Career Practice
Taking Time to Celebrate 32
This is what thirty-two looks like. For a long time, a significant part of our lives revolved around that number. Why thirty-two? To complete a bachelor’s degree generally (but far from always) requires four years of college or eight semesters. That’s eight tuition payments. (I’m defining tuition broadly to include room, board, and all other … Continue reading Taking Time to Celebrate 32
Confidence and Humility
Sunday is a good day to talk about humility. It’s a timeless virtue that feels out of step with the times. Attention is the name of the game these days. Politicians, athletes, entertainers, influencers, and brands crave and trade on it. The social media platforms that consume so much of our time harness and profit handsomely from it. … Continue reading Confidence and Humility
Your Productivity Isn’t the Problem
There’s nothing wrong with your productivity. Yes, I know the prevailing wisdom in our corporate cultures today is that we must learn to be more productive. Work longer. Do more with less. Our futures, and that of the companies we work for, depend on it. The never-ending pursuit of productivity has many of us running … Continue reading Your Productivity Isn’t the Problem
A Matter of Faith
Sunday is a good day to talk about faith. How much faith do you have and in what do you place it? Raising questions of faith on a Sunday naturally evokes religion. It’s not a topic most people like to discuss in the context of work, but all of us have faith in something: ourselves, … Continue reading A Matter of Faith
A Requiem for Venu
For a brief moment last week Venu had new life. But then Disney, Fox and WBD hammered the final nail in the coffin and buried it for good. According to reports, the threat of continued litigation from DirecTV and Dish was too big a risk for Venu’s founding partners. They feared that if the satellite … Continue reading A Requiem for Venu
Circle of Life – When A Parent Needs Help
Sunday is a good day to talk about circle of life moments. Growing older and hitting our peak years brings many opportunities, but it also brings its share of challenges. Caring for aging, declining parents is a big one. We’ve had a bit of that in our family recently, including this week. Fortunately everyone is fine, but it … Continue reading Circle of Life – When A Parent Needs Help
The Right Way To Worry
One of the wonders of this time of year is we experience a calendarized, culture-wide commitment to wiping the slate clean and beginning anew. But for many media execs and marketers, particularly those in their peak years, the good cheer of the holidays is quickly being replaced by worries and anxieties about the future. It’s … Continue reading The Right Way To Worry
There Are Only 10 Commandments
When I was the CMO at Weather Group the company’s founder and CEO, Byron Allen, used to tell me, “Fred, there are only 10 commandments in life, everything else is negotiable.” It was a reminder that one’s approach to problem-solving or decision-making should never be carved in stone. Byron is a true maverick and one … Continue reading There Are Only 10 Commandments
The Two Best Ways To Spend Your Time
A quick Peak Years riff on the value of time before we head into the weekend. Time, as everyone knows, is our most precious asset. We pay nothing for it, but it isn’t free. None of us knows how much of it we have. And we can’t make more. Therefore, the choice of how to … Continue reading The Two Best Ways To Spend Your Time
The Seven Steps To Finding A Job In Sports
“Hey Fred, would you mind talking with my ______, (insert son, daughter, niece, cousin, next door neighbor’s kid, etc). They want to get into the sports business?” Like many friends and colleagues in the business, I’ve been asked this question more times than I can remember. Make no mistake, this is not a complaint. I … Continue reading The Seven Steps To Finding A Job In Sports
Be Indifferent
Forget passion. What all of us could use at work is more indifference. I realize in many quarters such a notion is career blasphemy. Coaches, educators and pretty much everybody who likes to blog, post or pontificate about building a career says the key to professional happiness and success is finding work that ignites our … Continue reading Be Indifferent
Worn In Good
It’s your favorite chair or a spot on the couch. It's your trusty, old baseball glove. If you like to cook, it could be your old cutting board or cast-iron pan. In the Fall, it’s a well-worn pair of jeans or, in my case, an increasingly frayed but still unbelievably comfortable pair of NY Giants … Continue reading Worn In Good
The Blank Page
The blank page. Where every project and creative endeavor starts. A symbol of hope, endless possibilities, and abject terror. I felt all those things when I sat down in front of the computer this week to start my third novel. After spending the past few months casually noodling an idea for a murder mystery set … Continue reading The Blank Page
Woj – A Peak Years Role Model
(Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images) I wanted to give a quick shout out to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. He's a Peak Years role model. After a stellar career in journalism and while still at the top of his profession, in his mid 50s he walks away from ESPN and millions of dollars to pursue … Continue reading Woj – A Peak Years Role Model
The Only Way Out Is Through
Readers of this blog know that I’m a firm believer that the peak years of our lives can be our best years. But there’s no denying they can be challenging times as well. As my mom reminds me, “sometimes getting old sucks, but it beats the alternative.” One of the most rewarding parts of writing … Continue reading The Only Way Out Is Through
Venu is Dead, Long Live Venu
There’s been a lot of speculation about the future of Venu, or its lack thereof, since a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing its launch. Given the snail’s pace of the appeals process, there is virtually no chance the product will be available this football season. It's a massive setback, no matter how you … Continue reading Venu is Dead, Long Live Venu
Little Things & Big Things
The text not sent. The call not returned. The email ignored. In the moment, they seem like such small things. Not as urgent or important as today’s fire drill. Or maybe we just don’t think that person deserves our attention right now. So, we tell ourselves we’ll get to it, later. But too often we don’t. We like … Continue reading Little Things & Big Things
Old Dogs & New Tricks
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Faithful readers of Peak Years know that I don’t buy into this notion. Sure, it can be harder to learn as we get older. But can’t? No way. I thought of the old dog trope recently while watching the terrific new Netflix documentary, Inside the … Continue reading Old Dogs & New Tricks
The Silver Lining of the “Cable-pocalypse”
The bloodbath of cord-cutting and advertising declines in legacy media continues to accelerate. Following the latest round of dismal quarterly reports, Matt Belloni at Puck cleverly labeled these times the “cable-pocalypse.” That about sums it up. From the moment video first appeared on the Internet it was clear that the cable party was living on … Continue reading The Silver Lining of the “Cable-pocalypse”