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With the passing away of Ronald Reagan, former president of the US, I followed some reporting and comments by the media with interest. I had to smile when several media reports pointed out with glee that he was never a very good film actor. However, the same reports would claim that he only won his second term as president with a landslide because his presidency was a well rehearsed act!
My first visit to the US was in February of 1980. Carter was president of the US. Morale was low because of the American hostages in Iran. Inflation was high. Their economy was in a severe recession. For one South African Rand, I got $1.33!
From 1980 to 1992 I visited the US 14 times on business plus one holiday visit with my family. Over this period I spent a total of about 40 weeks in the US and was a keen observer of their presidential election process. In 1980 a sixty-nine year old Ronald Reagan campaigned for president. I didn’t quite understand the antics of the process, but I was impressed by his performance.
As an observer I got the impression that the American people voted for him because of the experience he brought to the presidency. He was president of the Screen Actors Guild for many years and he was later elected Governor of California for two terms. His track record was just too good to be ignored in spite of a very critical media onslaught. Even the Baby Boomers, then thirty something, must have voted for him.
By 1984 when Reagan campaigned for re-election, things looked much better for Americans. Morale was up. The economy started its boom that would turn out to be the longest sustained boom America ever experienced. The media tried to make his “advanced” age an issue. In a television debate with the Democratic Candidate, Walter Mondale, the question was asked: Should age be an issue in electing a president? Reagan’s response, or perhaps his rehearsed act, was brilliant: No, I don’t think my opponent’s youthful inexperience should be an issue in this election! (Or words to that effect.)
An interesting side note from a South African perspective: It was during Reagan’s watch that the pressure on the South African Government became fierce. American companies in South Africa had to disinvest because of US legislation. The most common transaction was management buy-outs. US companies collectively lost a fortune. Some of these new South African owned companies survived. Many did not.
It certainly contributed to the SA Government’s change of policy in 1992. After the 1994 democratic elections in South Africa, many US companies bought back shares sold under the US’s disinvestment programme.
The irony is that those foreign companies must now again disinvest under the new South African Government’s Black Economic Empowerment programme! Collectively they are again going to lose a fortune.
It’s a strange, strange world we are living in!
What we can learn from Reagan’s life is that you don’t have to fade away into retirement at age sixty. The wealth of experience and knowledge can turn nations, and companies, around. More people today are approaching retirement than ever before in history. It’s crazy to lose all that cumulative knowledge.
With the power of the Internet retired people can still be very active. Even if you publish your knowledge purely as a hobby. But chances are that you would build a small manageable business based on your knowledge, hobby, or passion.
The company that hosts the Web site for Diaspora Solutions has an excellent all-in-one product for building a business on the Internet. And it need not be only for information products. If you haven’t done so yet, have a look at some of their case studies by clicking here. It might trigger an idea.
But what about the Gipper?
In one of Reagan’s final speeches during his re-election campaign he passionately asked his audience: “Win this one for the Gipper.” I didn’t know at the time what he was referring to. Neither did the TV anchormen. Even the press thrashed around in the next morning’s papers with all sorts of explanations.
It turned out that Reagan starred in an emotional 1940 movie based on a true story. He played the roll of a famous American Football player, George Gipp, who died at the age of 25 of pneumonia. His last words to his coach were:
“Some time when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper.”
The coach used these words eight years later in a game when all the odds were against his team and it so inspired the players that they won the game.
The actor, Ronald Reagan, knew his audience. He had the experience and the knowledge. He knew when the emotional story of the origin of those words became known, the nation would rally behind him. And they did, in spite of his “advanced” age.
Kind regards.
Philip de Bruin
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