I take people pretty much at face value.

I don’t group them by gender, race or religion. I’m basically category and prejudice blind.

A series of posts, one by Fred Wilson on Ageism, caught me off guard around the idea of being locked in and limited by these cultural groupings. Specifically ageism.

What struck me in the comments of Fred’s post was that age was a hard and fast market bracket, something to be overcome.

One commenter asked what the breakdown of his portfolio CEOs by race, background and gender was.

My response was who cares?

What you measure is what you use as a metric for value. The last thing we need are categorical measures that divide and discourage diversity.

Who of what age is doing what is, of course, data, but neither relevant nor I think very useful.

In my naïveté, I was a bit blown away that there was a downward stigma attached to it.

We all know that pro basketball is a younger person’s game, but I didn’t think that carried over to CEO, CFO, marketers, sales people, corporate account managers and on and on.

At the core of this is not age of course, it’s relevance and group dynamics.

Discomfort with age diversity within groups is a trend that, while understandable in some respects, has a rough and stupid side to it.

The rub is that ageism is not about how our parents will get treated. It’s about the 40 year olds in 10 years, the 30 year olds in a decade if they aren’t VPs and the entire turmoil in the fat part of the employment marketplace for whatever group is right of center at the time.

It’s also about how our culture is addressing (or ignoring) the reality that our lives are now 20+ years longer and that extra decade or so of productive work is in the middle, not the end.

And that in a world excitedly embracing entrepreneurship as a mass market occupation identified with youth, ageism is a problematic piece of the puzzle.

One that I never thought about much  til a week ago when I read in post after post that in your 50s and 60s, your relevance, except for the exceptionally talented or successful, was fading to grey. Literally.

I challenge those who are funding and staffing this generation of new start ups to think about diversity cross ages and experiences as a plus.

I’m not a head in the sand type of individual.

I’m also potentially not the norm here as I’ve packaged my extensive experience as the very definition of relevance to a new world. That’s what I sell.

Of course age does indeed matter. We see it front and center.

We worry about it from the age of the candidates we elect to public office.

We want to hire young unattached people who will work 24/7 and buy into the dream.

We sit back as executives and think that some spots on our teams are best for the analytical or the creative, the experienced or the just break the wall down types. We know that carrying a bag three times a year for thirty days at a shot is just not suitable to all.

Diversity of age, impacts teams and dynamics and fit. This is as much reality as age itself.

I love New York at dawn now, as that is when I like to begin work, get on Skype with European clients and write.

Back in the day, dawn was breakfast at Lucky Strike in SoHo then heading home after a long night out. As the song so rightly goes–Oh – Blah – Di, Oh – Blah – Da.

To be clear, as an advisor, my clients are invariably younger than I am. Some considerably.

We get along better than fine. We work like maniacs together. We do dinner, and I choose the wine. We even go to the gym, do floor intervals and Burpees.

Afterwards though, they go out to clubs and I grab a movie on my couch with Sam the cat and start the next day at 5 again with purpose and energy.

All is good. This is as it should be.

Do you think layering in people from culturally different backgrounds was not disruptive at one time? No question.

Do you think that layering teams that are as diverse as society itself is a new way to work? Without a doubt.

The market is changing, as is the workforce and the level of talent at a younger and younger age is a reality.

People whom I work with are smarter, more mature and aware of themselves than I certainly was at their age.

Brilliant actually at times, but with a narrower focus as they simply don’t have the exposure and breadth of experience as yet. I provide that. I mentor their teams. More diversity on the teams would not but help.

A while back, in some string on Facebook I made a comment about being in the middle of life. A dear friend (and I know exactly who this is) said ‘In!! middle age’. I told her oh so politely to fuck off.

Age can sometimes be a number with benefits.

Be open to it.