Senior Entrepreneurship – Where’s the Fire? (Pt.1)

The Slow Journey

When I was a teenager, I would watch my father shuffling from his bedroom to the breakfast table on Saturday mornings.  You know the shuffle I mean.  Draped in a bathrobe after a tiring week at work, clearly looking forward to the day when he could retire — he would take his time, one foot slightly in front of the other.

I remember being slightly amused as I watched his slow journey and thinking, “Where’s the fire?”

As teenagers, we simply didn’t get it.  The truth, hidden from the young by youthful exuberance, is that one day we would be taking that same slow journey.

But at the time we were full of energy and impatience.  It seemed incomprehensible to us.  Remember?

Well, guess what?  I will soon be 64 years old.  During a business career that spans at least four decades, it is safe to say that I seldom considered what I might be doing “when” — when I reached the age where society decides that I should slow down, enjoy retirement, and if not quite shuffle, at least stride off confidently onto a white sand beach somewhere to enjoy my remaining sunsets.

Sunsets?  Hold on folks — I’m just getting started.  Enjoy retirement?  Not yet.  I’m still working twelve hours per day and enjoying it.  Sure, there’s a white sand beach ahead of me somewhere — my imagination tells me there’s one in Fortaleza, Brazil with my name on it — but not today, and not really tomorrow.  There’s still a lot I want to do.

To the fire!

To the Fire!

To me, the whole concept of retirement is like the proverbial Dalmatian, sitting excitedly in a firetruck for his entire life.  Never fully sleeping — even at night — he is poised for the welcome sound of the fire bell.

His mind is prepared:  He has learned over many years that there will always be another fire.  And when it comes he knows exactly what  to do.

His body is ready:  Muscles primed, eyes searching, he knows what he is called to do — and he is simply waiting to be called.

Most importantly, his heart is still in his work:  He often is a little tired.  The dash to the firetruck takes a little longer each day.  But deep within himself the excitement has never diminished.  The fire is still there.

Where's the fire?

Where’s the Fire?

Then one day he wakes to discover that he has been “rewarded” with a comfortable bed in the back room — and despite patience and long-suffering — can no longer answer the fire bell.  He no longer sits with his paws grasping the firetruck window, with a smile of anticipation as he waits to smell the smoke.  He sits alone with a look of puzzlement and resignation on his face, wondering:  “Where’s the fire?’”

The Fire Is Still There

The Fire Is Still There

One morning in the not too distant past, I had a troubling experience.  After another long and mostly sleepless night spent chasing various fires, I walked slowly from my bedroom to my office.  As I passed the bedroom mirror I was astonished to see my reflection:  Was I shuffling?

For a fleeting moment I felt terribly alone.  But as it turns out I was not.  I did some quick research and the results were interesting to say the least.  According the U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States 2011, there are 74.4 million of us — men and women — over the age of 55.  What was even more interesting, was that at my age of 63 I had 16.8 years left to live.  That’s a very long time to sit on the beach.  There aren’t that many paperbacks in the whole world to read.

So What’s Next?

So if permanent relaxation seems unappealing, what should we do?  The answer was as crystal clear to me as the azure blue water I was supposed to spend my declining years enjoying: 

If our our minds are prepared … if our bodies are ready … if our hearts are still in our work … and, most importantly, if the fire is still there … we should continue answering the bell.

Why us?  Why now?

Called the “Baby Boomers” because we were born during the Post-World War II baby boom, we have tended to think of ourselves as a special generation — very different from those that had come before.

If that’s true … let’s prove it.

Instead of buying sailboats and Harley Davidson motorcycles, let’s knuckle down and take action!  Instead of reading emails that promise — “Your Dream Vacation is Now Available” — let’s share the business skills we have developed to promote the businesses of others.  I don’t just mean the very young, aspiring entrepreneurs, who of course will appreciate our help.  They can learn on their own if they must.

I am speaking to the Senior Entrepreneur:  Help if you can.  Ask for help if you need it.  Do it again if you want to.

We did it before, let’s do it again.  Or let’s help our fellow Seniors — who may have never had the chance — to achieve their long-ignored dreams of business accomplishment.  There is a different bell to answer.  Can you hear it?

Keep The Fire Burning

Social Media Entrepreneurship:

It’s time for the Baby Boomers to boom.  For many sitting in the sun, playing golf and sipping wine is not enough.  While their numbers are steadily increasing along with their health, patience is not.  They want action.  They thrive on it.

After a taste of traditional retirement, many boomers are turning — or returning — to entrepreneurship.  With their immensely valuable business skills acquired through years of experience, many are seriously considering launching their own business, or providing the venture capital so that others may launch theirs.  One way or the other, they want and deserve to get back on the firetruck.  And why not?

Look at the advantages:

• Resources: For years they toiled and saved. Boomers as a generation have accumulated more, from higher incomes than any other generation before them. They put their children through college and paid off their homes. They gave to charity. They invested wisely, always saving for the proverbial rainy day that never came.  Now many have more than they need.
  
• Equanimity Under Pressure: Unlike their younger counterparts, who must still take their lumps along the way, many boomers have already made their portion of mistakes.  And they have learned from them.  Now settled and secure, with a long comfortable life ahead of them, they are more willing to take risks and better able to to display equanimity under pressure.
  
• Know-How: Experience is better than money in the bank. You can’t lose it if the economy falters.  It doesn’t lose its value when the market drops.  And no one can take it away from you.  It represents a resource of incalculable value.  With this valuable resource at their disposal, they are primed for the next step.
  
• Willingness To Learn: During their working lives they may have been consumed with the day-to-day travails of making a living.  Even in a perfect world, there would never have been time to keep up with a world that changed so quickly.  But now there is. They may have never fully understood technology and its unbridled power.  They may never have taken the time because they didn’t have it.  But now they do.
  

This is the first in a series of articles that will reach out to Senior entrepreneurs everywhere, a clarion call — loud and clear — to get involved, to get back to work, to get back on the firetruck … and to get the fire back.

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