NOVEMBER 2023

- Good Enough Really Is Good Enough! -

By Rev Protodeacon George A. Haloulakos

For Baby Boomers who completed their schooling and embarked on their respective career paths in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the world was vastly different.  There were no mobile phones or Internet access for mass markets.  Personal computers (PCs) were in the very early stages of being introduced into the workplace.  No DVDs or streaming, but video cassette tapes, recorders and players were starting to emerge as "must have" consumer products.  This segment of Baby Boomers were fully immersed into carving out significant corporate careers, and then following up with creating their own business enterprises or reinventing themselves several times over by starting entirely new professional and personal pursuits while building households, raising families and caring for aging loved ones.  Now forty years later, we are a generation that has helped usher our parents into that "long day's journey into night," have seen children grow up and move on with their own lives while we now approach the end of our careers and our young selves are gone forever.  In fulfilling this lifetime journey, much was forsaken to climb the ladder of success.  But now a different reality awaits: what do we do now?  It is this theme that is addressed in this special Blog and an accompanying GNN podcast.

This month, Galaxy Nostalgia Network features a podcast in which we interview retired attorney and award-winning businesswoman Laura Black, who has authored a clear, concise and compelling autobiography titled Climbing Down the Ladder: A Journey to a Different Kind of Happy.  Through the prism of Laura's life and career, we are able to come to terms with such questions as just who are we without a business card?  In this hour long podcast, we are able to gain some keen insights from Climbing Down the Ladder that will certainly elicit interest in wanting to learn more.

As one who read this book and was given the honor to lead this interview, I can fully attest that Laura's story becomes your story as the reader learns that the things we leave behind or cast aside to more rapidly ascend the ladder of success are the very things one will need when stepping back or climbing down the ladder as one wraps up a career and transitioning to a new cycle in life.  The absence of psycho-babble and biz-speak while offering sobering insights and life lessons makes this a must read for anyone who has spent much of their life focused on accomplishment that now faces the daunting task of charting a new path with entirely different rules of engagement.  The takeaway or realization from Climbing Down the Ladder that good enough really is good enough makes this a worthwhile read.  Please join us for this very special podcast featuring our interview with this truly extraordinary person, retired attorney and award-winning businesswoman Laura Black.