by Gary Maclean

Created on: January 13, 2009   Last Updated: August 26, 2011

If I was considering how to get someone older than me to like me I would be thinking of a very select group of people. I am 59 years old so that would mean I would be working on those 60 years old and above. Since I am starting at such an elevated age already, my group of potential targets diminishes significantly. None the less, older or not, I tend to like to have anyone and everyone like me.

I look at those older than me, seriously, as leaders, trail blazers and teachers. I work in a field that expects everyone to have a Bachelor's degree; well, I don't, but I do have years of experience in my field. I constantly sell my experience and learned skills as an equivalent alternative to a four year degree. It sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't. I look at older people with that same approach. They have so much more worldly knowledge and skill than I do that, I would do good simply to sit there and listen to them sometime.

For me, I really want older people to like me so I can openly converse with them, ask them questions and use them as a living library so to speak. I have yet to spend time with an older person that I have found not to be simply engaging and deeply interesting. I have so much to gain by being in their presence. It is so important to you and me to gain their trust and confidence that we should always consider a few very important things.

1) CLEANLINESS: This covers a lot of ground. By clean I mean neat and tidy. Jeans are fine, as long as they are not falling off my butt and they are intact. A clean pair of jeans with a white T-Shirt would be great for any young person to show up in. My hair should be clean, not greasy, stringy and clinging together. Long hair is fine, just keep it out of your face; pony tail it. There is nothing wrong with facial hair either, as long as all the food has been plucked out of it and it is neatly trimmed. Nothing looks worse on any age man, than facial hair that has been grown simply because it can be. You know the type, little splotches of it all over the place. It looks very rough and dirty.

2) RESPECTABLE: Most older people grew up in a time when kids respected their Mom and Dad. If you truly want an older person to like you, or even to tolerate you, pay them some respect. Just look at it in the sense that you too, will someday, be where they are. You will grow old and will be on the other side. You wouldn't want kids poking fun at you or teasing you or laughing at you, would you? That old lady or old man

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