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Written by and about Austin Karrick

Those that know me, know that I am an old soul.

I would rather listen to Led Zeppelin than Drake or Post Malone. Yes, I did have to google “Billboard top 100” to make sure those two were still relevant. A fun night for me is hanging out at home watching DIY shows or a good Netflix series. Now I have done my share of partying, but as the saying goes, “those days are behind me now”. I’m not quite to the point of sitting on my front porch and harassing the whippersnappers about staying off my lawn, but who is to say that day is not around the corner.

But I digress.

Yes, I am an old soul, but when I walk into our office every day, I am the Young Buck.

Prior to bringing on Erica as part of the team and into Commercial Partners, I was the youngest person by 15 years. Being that I enjoy the things of a person older than myself, I did not find it too difficult to connect with my coworkers, but I do still run into the frustration of being the “tech guy”. I have lost count of how many Word or Excel documents I have been called into someone’s office to fix (I’m looking at you Scott and Dan).

When I first started, being the young buck had its advantages. I was able to mess up and it be overlooked, everyone was quick to offer help whenever I had a question or couldn’t figure something out on my own, and I had an ever-growing group of people supporting and cheering me on. Now that I have some years under my belt, and some grey hairs to prove it, I am left with a much shorter leash, but there is still some slack.

The position of young buck is not all glitz and glamour, there are some downfalls. Solving others’ tech issues aside, there was/is a significant age gap and cultural differences with many of my clients and potential prospects that I have to bridge, a constant struggle of how much of voicing my opinion is too much, and the introduction of an eat what you kill type of earning system. I had entered into a whole new world, and it was sink or swim.

While the advantages obviously helped in my current position, it was the process of attacking these issues, failing at it, and trying again that I think really built me into the person I am at this moment. One of my favorite people in history, Abraham Lincoln, is quoted as saying, “I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser than he was yesterday.” I really like this quote as it embodies my personal mantra every day. I approach each day, learning from the last, and applying those lessons to be better, not just in business, but in life.

This is me. I am Young Buck.