{"product_id":"2940044597914","title":"Boomer Down: From Fast Lane to Crashed Lane","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe good life didn’t come to a screeching halt.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt came to a grinding, slow-motion, train wreck halt.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eQuintessential Boomer Steve Meltzer was living the limo-licious life of a Mad Men-style ad agency Creative Director and Internet guru in Hong Kong. Great money at $250,000\/year. Eye-popping, soul-enlightening travel—a regular business-class client circuit, Hong Kong-Bangkok-Tokyo-Beijing-Hong Kong, and far-flung tourism—China, Tibet, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was rosewood- and teak-paneled suites, top-shelf martinis and big-time clients all the way. It was a regular column in Asia’s leading marketing magazine, speaking gigs in Singapore, Taiwan, Manila, New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt his peak, he was Vice President, Brand-Building Partner, for marchFIRST (sic) Greater China, a rocket-hot, NASDAQ-dandy Internet professional services firm. His promised fast-lane next move—to London as Creative Director for Europe, Africa and the Middle East.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen the firm’s U.S. network succumbed to self-inflicted hubris wounds, taking the thriving Asia network with it, Meltzer returned, jobless but with irons in the fire, to his D.C. hometown with wife and two kids, healthy savings, jobless but with irons in the fire and the requisite Boomer optimism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe optimism didn’t pan out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe fire with the irons in it burned out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd the money ran out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeltzer tells his before, during and after story with wit, candor, brutal honesty and emails documenting his futile efforts to get back on the road, even if only in the slow lane.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe ends up condemning The Way of the Boomer, capitalism and himself in equal measure.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat happens when every family in your posh neighborhood (except yours) is going to ski in the Alps over Christmas, and then going to soak up some Caribbean sun?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSee the piece called Nevis Envy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat happens when a disappointed wife finally has had enough?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNot My Scotch That’s on the Rocks looks into that.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith email-bites, demographic data, essays, press clips, and guts-on-the-table soul searching, Meltzer gives us life in the crashed lane.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMillions of Boomers are having to get used to it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Steven M. Meltzer","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47157536424176,"sku":"2940044597914","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940044597914_p0.jpg?v=1763666193","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940044597914","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}