The Underground is the New Mainstream

Companies have an age. It isn't measured in the years they've been in operation. It isn't measured by the age of any of its employees, partners, or shareholders. It has little to do with the customer base, though it can be used as a gauge of its effects. And last, but not least, a greater age is usually not a good thing—at least, not anymore.

I submit the following colloquialisms: "You're only as old as you feel," and "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." Are you starting to catch my drift?

There was a time when older was better. More experience meant a better product, more customer satisfaction, a broader, livelier media image. Those days are gone. Industry is saturated. Media is saturated. Yet the system still values seniority. The ones that float to the top are the biggest and most bureaucratic, while the companies and people that matter are pushed out of the mainstream.

Nevertheless, communication is booming, and those who are looking for innovation are looking to smaller sources. Social leaders with the ability to create media and products that resonate with a smaller, but more invested crowd, are creating a mosaic that is hidden behind the obviously smoke and mirrors of big media. The underground is the new mainstream.

Companies that are young-at-heart—enthusiastic and a little naive—feel so much more like home than a mahogany boardroom, even if it does have 150 years of experience. So what? The best of the best is found in books, and FIT media creators are fighting to put truth out there in the mainstream.

Forget the stream, the riverbed is changing.

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