I recently tweeted that “Life conspires to beat, or buy the rebel out of you.” I was a bit surprised to see how often it was retweeted, but it obviously struck a chord with people. For me, though, it was actually sort of frustrating to see this idea move forward without any way to explain how I even felt about it. Did I support the rebel or was I another guy throwing up the white flag? Was I pro-rebel or pro-beating and buying them into oblivion? I felt there was more to add here but twitter was not the space to explore it. And so we blog.

This idea that “Life conspires to beat or buy the rebel out of us.” actually came as a realization as I sat around a very high-level meeting in a very prestigious boardroom of a very successful global corporation. Many of the gentlemen had actually built the company up from scratch. All were rich. But I sat there and listened, not so much to the conversation but to the subtext of the conversation, and contrasted that to the conversations that startups have. The difference was stark. The fire to change the world was gone and it was replaced by a vague unease with change and a desire to protect the money or "defend the wealth." Life had done it’s little trick to once-great rebels.

I don’t think that this is a destiny that cannot be escaped. It happens. It’s somewhat rare but I feel it will become the new normal. So I’m on the side of the rebel. The young and the old. But the old are my favorites. The history books are written by the rebels who were still getting it on even as the hairs turned grey and fell out. Give me a poor, rich, fat, skinny, bald rebel who has never given up on the dream. Or maybe spent the years discovering the dream. Their dream. But a dream that lifts us all up. The old rebels can be so powerful because they stick around long enough to realize it’s not about them. It’s about reaching down and pulling everybody you can up with you. Or bending over so others can climb up on your shoulders.

May all the rebels that have grown old and weary throw off the golden handcuffs and cut the cords of their golden parachutes and get back to business. The business of changing the world. I trust they’ll know what to do because they have the ways and the means and the historic perspective that the young rebels need.

If you’re an old rebel - just know that you are being recruited by humanity.