Time Heals All Wounds – But We End Up Older Too
Sep 3 2010

Time heals all wounds or so they say.  Time certainly does makes the wound look different and allows it to close up a bit, but the wound is still there to remind us of something.  In the world of high-tech entrepreneurship, people sometimes refer to those wounds as ‘scar tissue’ or ‘battle wounds.’  It means you’ve been through a lot, learned a lot, and in some cases they are looked upon as honored badges of experience here in the US.  In other parts of the world, that ‘scar tissue’ is socially a black mark which is why you have fewer risk takers and people trying new things.  The results of failure in some cultures/families are not just some scratches you can put Neosporin or Mederma on, learn from and move on, they come to define you as a person.

The trick is to learn from those wounds but also be open enough to recognize that although a situation might remind you of circumstances before you got stabbed previously, you should be aware of the subtle differences so you can move to avoid the hurtling knife or not react in a way that causes history to repeat itself.

Another thing that helps heal wounds is keeping up a strong network of friends, mentors, advisers and to watch a bunch of movies, musicals and TV shows. Talking with people about what they have experienced in life & business, really helps put perspective to what you have experienced.  We have all faced challenges and talking about things out loud with others helps heal your hurt ego and heart.

The endless debate on whether life imitates art or art imitates life might never be solved, but it’s sure great to watch them and feel better about your situation.  It’s usually never as bad, crazy, funny as what happens in the movies or TV.   I recently saw Inception in the theater, watched The Holy Grail (I didn’t have time to re-watch Life of Brian before I had to return it – Ugh!), and saw Mean Girls on TV.  I started watching a TV series called Mad Men (set in an advertising firm in the 1960’s) but missed the first several seasons I think.  Inception was incredible.  It’s about dreams within dreams and I’ve always been eerily effected by movies like The Matrix and this one Twilight zone show about spiders that bite you with this venom that makes the characters think they are fine, but they are really dreaming that everything is fine with occasional glimpses that they are caught in a space shuttle with alien spiders wrapping them in their webs (Scary!).

Last night I saw Jersey Boys: The Story of Franki Valli and The Four Seasons.  What a fabulous show.  All the drama of their families, debt, drinking, taxes.  It makes me wonder if with such talent, misery also follows.  You can point to so many great singers/actors whose lives were tragic (e.g., Elvis, Michael Jackson, Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears, etc.).  The actor that played the role of Franki Valli had a wonderful voice and I had forgotten all the songs they sang.  Some of my favorite songs were My Eyes Adored You, December 1963 (Oh, What A Night), and Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.  But behind those lovely lyrics & melodies was a lot of pain and heartache as well as good times.

The sad thing is that we get older while time is passing by and healing all those wounds, so we have less energy to do more things with those learnings.  So we have to learn fast!  Self doubt diminishes but so does the stamina.  “Youth is wasted on the young.” – George Bernard Shaw. But then there’s always the saying that apparently an internet search can’t even reveal the source “Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.” – unknown

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