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This is Rainomoto's Podcast, The Creative Mindset.
Welcome to The Intersection, an audio version of my written essays exploring what the future
holds at the intersection of creativity and technology. I'm Rainomoto, the founding partner
of I&CO, a global innovation firm based in New York, Tokyo, and Singapore.
Based on the conversations that I have with the top creative practitioners from various industries,
I write a weekly essay to dig deeper and analyze where we may be headed as creative
and business professionals. We'll be bringing this segment as a bonus episode to you.
So, let's get started.
年齢と関連性の逆説
Aging and Relevance
The relationship between age and relevance is paradoxical.
In 2025, with AI threatening creative jobs and experience becoming both
asset and liability, this paradox is more pronounced.
While our industry fetishizes youth and disruption,
true relevance comes from something deeper than age or tech progress.
I felt this paradox in my 20s at RGA when the digital agency was invited to pitch for Nike's
first-ever digital agency record account. At 26, RGA's legendary founder Bob Greenberg
asked me to present work to Nike at their headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.
The team traveling from New York included Bob, Dan in his early 50s and twice my age,
several other senior leaders in their 30s and 40s, and me, the youngest by far.
Today, I'm closer to Bob's age than.
In my 20s, I was often the youngest in boardroom meetings.
When people asked my age and I told them, most thought I was in my 30s.
I guess my aging look worked.
I stopped sharing my age. It was counterproductive.
When I joined AKQA, a growing digital agency, at age 30, I found myself in the opposite situation.
My new boss, Ajaz Ahmed, was barely older than me but had built AKQA from his college dorm room
into a global agency network with hundreds of employees.
My creative partner, PJ Pera, was just a year older than me
but had earned international acclaim and numerous awards.
Next to Ajaz, PJ, and many others in their early 30s with tremendous successes, I felt underqualified.
Around this time, I found a quote and book by Paul Arden, a British art director.
Quote, it's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be, unquote.
I wish I had discovered it a decade earlier, but better late than never.
With this quote in mind, I spent my 30s trying to catch up with my contemporaries.
I felt starting my own thing would give me more control over my relevance.
So as I turned 40, I started a company. It's still going, thankfully.
I didn't realize being in your 40s was a different ballgame.
In your 40s, you hit the halftime of your career, except that you don't get to sit down and rest.
関連性を保つための課題
For one, you have more responsibilities and burdens, mainly financial, than you did in your 30s.
Life becomes more complicated and stressful.
By 50, you suddenly notice people a decade younger than you getting all the limelight.
Most of us didn't expect AI to emerge in our lifetime.
Current developments are making the future both bright and green.
Here we are. This makes the question of relevance more urgent.
The short answer to how do I stay relevant is that you just have to show up,
learn new skills, create stuff, and keep going.
Bad news, there's no long answer to this question.
One thing I stopped is comparing myself to my generation. It can get depressing fast.
I've found it useful to draw inspiration from people 20 years older and younger than me.
I see John Hagerty, the legend in the creative industry who needs no introduction,
active on LinkedIn, publishing a weekly newsletter, and teaching the Business of Creativity course.
He may have a team helping him, but he's got passion, he's not cynical,
and he's doing new things. And he's 80 years old.
Or Angela Onuoha, whom I met in Europe in 2024.
She went from being a college dropout to a trichology-certified haircare influencer.
She's nearly 20 years younger than me,
but hearing about her journey as a full-time content creator was invaluable for me.
関連性のパラドックス
Staying relevant isn't just about showing up and learning new skills.
It's about understanding that relevance comes from the unique point of view each life stage provides.
Sir John Hagerty isn't relevant at 80 because he forces himself to stay current.
He's relevant because he brings decades of wisdom.
Angela isn't relevant because she's young and cool.
But because she combines scientific knowledge with fresh perspectives on haircare.
And then there's my father who turned 80 earlier this year.
He started a YouTube channel.
This is the paradox of relevance. It's not about chasing trends or fighting against time.
It's about leveraging a unique position in life,
whether you are the youngest or the most experienced, to see things others do not.
It's about maintaining curiosity while building wisdom and understanding that
each life stage offers its own relevance if we are open enough to embrace it.
It's never too late to learn, start, and create something new.
Relevance isn't about age. It's about action.
ニュースレターの執筆
I started writing this newsletter in 2023 as a way to organize my thoughts
that come from various conversations with many creative practitioners.
Over the course of several months, I see and notice new patterns and new insights
gained from multiple people and I take the time to organize and write them down
so that they can be useful and hopefully helpful to you as listeners and readers.
If you're listening to this on Spotify, there's a Q&A field
so please do send us your questions and comments.
And if you like our podcast, please leave us a 5-star rating. We'll be so grateful.
I'm Reina Moto and this is The Creative Mindset. See you next time.
