Thinking About Midlife – Azu Ishiekwene

It feels somewhat like nostalgia, but it’s not. Life, they say, happens. There was something else I used to hear while growing up: A fool at 40 is a fool forever. I suspect that the wit here, if I may call it a wit, is that whatever one cannot achieve in life at age 40 may not be achievable thereafter. 

This saying may be valid only in some cultures or inapplicable in all cases, even in cultures where it is commonly used. It suggests that whatever is not achieved by age 40 – believed to be the beginning of midlife, marked by identity crises, choices, and fear of mortality – would be even more challenging to achieve afterwards. 

How true is this? I’m well past 40 but still forward-looking. And I might add that I’m not nostalgic. If Virginia Miller Reeves could produce her first book, Once in the Blue Moon, after 80, why should anyone, many years younger, feel their productive years have passed, especially with advances in medicine, science and technology? 

Life in the years

Isn’t life, whether at 25, 50 or 70, largely dependent on how well we use the knowledge and information available to us as we respond to the challenges we face? My new book, A Midlifer’s Guide to Content Creation and Profit, is partly inspired by my 2024 book, Writing for Media and Monetising It, to which I also published a workbook as a complementshortly afterwards. After its release, I met many midlifers who felt stranded and left out. 

One of them was Nengi Owei-Ilagha, the former chairman of the Bayelsa State Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), whom I first met at a book reading sponsored by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), in Yenagoa. My new book was partly inspired by my reflections from that encounter. 

An accomplished writer in his younger days, with several published books to his name, Nengi asked me if it was still possible for him to receive a reward or, to put it bluntly, earn money for his labours of earlier years, several of them either out of print or forgotten by a generation riveted on Kindle. Has he not been left behind by the new tech wave of e-books and digital migration?

Self-reinvention 

He was keen to know how to capitalise on current opportunities, especially in new media – or put another way, how to get a new lease on life. My book on content monetisation seemed to be aimed at millennials or Gen Z – the tech-savvy, social media-obsessed digital natives – with very little, it seems, for the likes of Nengi, who is in his 60s. 

That got me thinking, so I decided to engage with this demographic – my demographic – more intimately. When the phrase “content monetisation” is mentioned, it’s tempting for those nearing 60 to think they are approaching life’s departure lounge or that the train may have left the station. Yet, in some parts of the world, 80 is the new 60. 

Midlifers got the money!

Concerns about potentially diminished earning power in later years may exist. However, studies in the US and the UK suggest that the populations in this cohort are wealthier, often more so than the baby boomers (born 1946-1964), millennials (born 1981-1996), or Gen Z (born 1997-2012).

Although A Midlifer’s Guide to Content Creation and Profit is written for midlifers (people between 40 and 60), it is strongly biased towards Gen X (born 1965-1980). It shares insights with midliferson the possibilities for rewarding their mental exertions handsomely, whether through literary, artistic, or acoustic talent, or the sheer capacity to curate and tell a good story from their experiences, using new technologies. The book, published by Premium Times Books, taps into the experiences of some midlifers, including Teju Oyelakin, famously known as Teju Babyface and Jude Nebanmor, a leading Nigerian content provider based in Canada.

It also offers them suggestions about relating to other age groups in their day-to-day life or at the workplace, mainly through personal anecdotes and interviews. This book argues that older adults can profitably interact with and expand their frontiers in the evolving landscape, despite the challenges of adapting to new technologies and social media. 

Tech to advantage

It also argues that the social values that shaped them, particularly those in midlife, can help them adjust. Yet, social values are not enough. They must be reinforced with know-how and the ability to identify and apply information to beneficial, practical use. This guide aims to fill the vital knowledge gap for midlifers. 

Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the registrar of Nigeria’s higher institutions’ admission board, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which is similar to the UK’s UCAS, shared a story of how two journalists aged 50 and above seized opportunities once thought to be the preserve of academics to boost their careers. 

After many years of doing the usual – getting and writing news and features and later working as editors – they decided to try something new. They submitted their short stories in a competition organised by JAMB for standard texts, which areusually selected periodically for the body’s examination candidates. 

Lekki Headmaster

An entry by one of the journalists and Editor of the Weekend Guardian, Dr. Kabiru Alabi Garba, was adjudged best, scoring even higher than that of a professor with many years of experience. Alabi’s book, The Lekki Headmaster (2024), might fetch him a tidy sum in gross earnings in two years or more, if the deal is extended up to a maximum of four years. 

Sharing his experience with me, Garba, 56, spoke of how using tech tools for research and editing made his work faster, more efficient and easier. “In the past, it might have been a lot more difficult to combine my day job with writing a book, but embracing new tools for transcription, research, and editing took the drudgery away and kept me focused on the creative part of my work, Dr. Garba said.

The Lekki Headmaster speaks more to young adults on the japa train than it does to midlifers. “I was motivated to write the book to lend a voice to the japa phenomenon,” the author said. “But in doing so, I harnessed the advantages of technology and new media.”

Means to an end

Technology is not an end but a means to an end. A Midlifer’s Guide to Content Creation and Profitdiscusses how midlifers can use the core values of resilience and resourcefulness that shaped that generation in adapting to the digital age. It examines built-in design and marketing biases in new tools and provides practical guidance on how to navigate them. 

It is a story about constantly finding ways to make lemonade from life’s lemons. This may well be the life-changing story you have been waiting for. Who knows, some endlifers might even find it helpful.

Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the new book, A Midlifer’s Guide to Content Creation and Profit.