Your Setbacks Could Be Setups

It hurts when you realize you’re descending, not ascending, on a career ladder you are desperately trying to climb. Take heart. What appears to be a setback now might be the setup you need later for something so significant you can’t yet envision it.

That’s the theme I hope you see and apply from my Substack series, “Remarkable Triumphs After 50.”

First, we examined Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his passion for defeating polio. This week, we examined Ronald Reagan and the contagious optimism that seemed to be in his genes.

However, his career plummeted in the 1950s, leading to a mid-life crisis and career failure. Once a leading man in Hollywood, Reagan had to take whatever role he could get, including comedy setup man for a chimpanzee in the film Bedtime for Bonzo.

Reagan left acting for a job touring the country as a spokesperson for General Electric.

With GE’s encouragement, Reagan began tackling issues such as escalating taxes and burgeoning federal regulations. In his speeches, Reagan tried different lines, jokes, dramatic pauses, and more, taking note of the reactions.

At GE, Reagan learned what resonated in small—to medium-sized towns in the heartland of America, not just California. In 1964, at age 53, Reagan got his big break into politics. He gave a televised address at the Republican National Convention that launched him to a new type of stardom.

“All of the catch phrases that he’d found worked well, all the ideology that he’d polished during his years as a GE corporate spokesman and emerging political orator, it all came together at this moment,” said Edmund Morris, Reagan’s official biographer, in the American Experience documentary on PBS.

Reagan himself called “that speech” a turning point. He said it “led me onto a path I never expected to take."

It was all a setup to make him the president that returned “morning again in America” and defeated Communism.

Have you experienced gut-wrenching setbacks? I have.

Can they be setups for something you can’t see or even imagine now?

Continue to read my “Remarkable Triumphs After 50” series. Look closely, and you will find a similar pattern in other men like you who changed the world after 50.

Substack Notes is where you can get bite-sized tidbits from me and other writers.

In case you missed them, I have assembled my Notes from the week below. I try to post inspiring and provocative stuff like this every day:

I hope I’m not just writing to myself.

I’m writing for you, my subscribers and readers, to inspire your life to new heights.

I’d like to hear more from you. Please comment, “restack,” criticize, praise, share, like, and do whatever else you can to engage with my content and tell me what you want more from “Vision for Men Over 50.”

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