Old Dogs, New Tricks

Let me begin with a disclaimer--I am not old, and I know virtually nothing about dogs.
 
Okay, now that we have that out of the way--
 
While "Not washed up yet" has been about the search for triumph in the face of change, it is just one piece of my ongoing adjustment to a world different from the one in which I worked comfortably for many years. Even when you are a person (like me) who likes to impress people, it's not necessarily hard to do that in a place where everyone knows you. People know your strengths and weaknesses, your baggage and your history--all the things that come together to make you the person they know. It's when you go into a place where no one knows you that the "new tricks" come into play. Your baggage is just baggage, your history is just old stories. Who you know might--just might--get you in the door, but it's what you know (or what you can learn really fast) that makes you stand out. It's not about working your way up from entry level--that happened a long time ago. It's about building new history with the new tricks. The tricks are learnable--just like the directions to that doggone cappuccino maker in my first boss's office and the best places to find gourmet foods in New York (this was courtesy of my first boss too). It's just a question of being willing to learn. And that applies to most of life, whether you're an old dog or a new one.