Fellow Baby Boomers:
Are you ready to move into the next challenging and exciting phase of your life?
Are you afraid that the years may be slipping by with your dreams unfulfilled, your bucket list unchecked and a gnawing feeling that your life is missing something?
Sure, you have done everything that you were supposed to do and likely more; fulfilling all of your family and career responsibilities. But have you done what you really wanted to and now you’re worried that it’s too late?
But it’s never too late to achieve your goals and fulfill your unique purpose.
Is there an idea or a passion or a business that you’ve always wanted to pursue, but for some reason never got around to it. Maybe you lacked the time or even the confidence to pursue this opportunity. But it continues to interest you and it should.
Are you concerned that you haven’t quite left your unique mark in the world and now would like to? You can
There are many people who have enjoyed their most productive and fulfilling years later in life, such as a finding a new career or even starting a new business. According to a report by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom, people age 55 to 64 comprised the highest rate of entrepreneurship over the past decade. The valuable lessons and wisdom learned through life experience often provides an important edge to the startup.
It may not necessarily be a new career or business, but simply a hobby or activity that makes you feel happy and productive, an opportunity to make a difference in the world.
So what’s holding you back? It’s usually fear, fear of failure, fear of the unknown and fear that your actions won’t quite measure up to your aspirations.
But don’t be like the servant in “The Parable of the Talents” from the Bible who buried his talents when given them by his master. If you remember the story, the master was leaving on a journey and gave three servants “talents” to work with in his absence. At that time, a “talent” was a considerable sum of money. The first servant who received five talents produced five more. The second servant received two talents and produced two more. However, the third servant, who received one talent, buried it in the backyard and didn’t even bother to try to earn interest on the sum. The master was very upset with the third servant and ordered that he be thrown into the “outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
The moral of the story is – Don’t Bury Your Talents. We all have unique gifts and experience and insights that can help others, while helping us fulfill our unique purpose. But we’re not going to get anywhere if we don’t pursue our aspirations. I can think of nothing more depressing than being on your deathbed and regretting that you didn’t follow through with your dreams.
So do it! And if you’re a baby boomer in relatively good health, there’s still time, but it’s time to get going. .
As you probably know from personal, the milestone birthdays often result in the most reflection and sometimes even panic. Shortly after turning 60, I ran into one of my grammar school friends, who greeted me with a death stare, “Do you know that we’re turning 60 this year?” he whispered harshly, afraid of being overheard. He did seem relieved though that his birthday was a few months later than mine, providing him a few more months to live before turning the dreaded 60.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. According to a study by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, we baby boomers are no longer considered old, but rather middle-aged. That’s because age can also be measured as time yet to be lived (instead of time lived) based on human life expectancy.
Daniel Pink, the author of “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” has high hopes for us Baby Boomers. He points out that when the odometer flips to 6-0, people are a bit surprised and then become alarmed. But then they realize that they have at least another twenty-five years left, but that the years go by fast. “Will the next twenty- five years race by like that? If so when am I going to do something that matters? When am I going to live my best life? When am I going to make a difference in the world?”
According to the author, “Every thirteen minutes another hundred people – members of the wealthiest and best-educated generation the world has ever known – begin reckoning with their mortality and asking deep questions about meaning, significance and what they truly want. When the cold front of demographics meets the warm front of unrealized dreams, the result will be a thunderstorm of purpose the likes of which the world has never seen.”
Wow! Sounds like we all have some very exciting, very consequential opportunities ahead of us. So what are we waiting for?
The purpose of this blog is to help those who want to continue to be productive in their life and even take the plunge into a new venture. For the first time entrepreneur, this task may seem quite daunting. That’s likely because our generation were never conditioned to be entrepreneurs in the first place. The lessons we were taught was to go to school, get a good job, and climb the corporate ladder. If you worked hard and performed well, you could support your family well and then retire 25 or 30 years later with a gold watch and comfortable lifetime pension.
Back then, the so-called “entrepreneurs,” were those people who couldn’t get jobs and had no other choice.
Today, boomers are embracing entrepreneurship more than ever before. Boomers have gained confidence and knowledge during their careers and have yearned for the day when they can finally be their own boss and answer to no one
Unlike our parents’ generation, when many enjoyed lifetime employment in exchange for their loyalty and service, the implied social contract between employers and employees broke down in the 80’s and 90’s as companies downsized, laying off employees and forcing early retirements.
So many boomers have learned the hard way that they can only rely on themselves.
This blog will help you pursue your new venture. My name is Tim Burns and I am an attorney and Certified Public Accountant who specializes in helping people start and expand businesses, careers and new ventures. I am the author of numerous articles and several books on entrepreneurship and self development , including Break the Curve – The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Small Business Development, entrepreeuship.com and Mid-Life Tune Up.
I’ll help guide you through every aspect of starting a new venture with timely advice and the most current information on business start-up and expansion.
We will address all aspects of starting and succeeding in a new business or venture including both its technical aspects as well as its personal aspects. I like to call them the external and internal portion.
The external portion are the business fundamentals that culminate in attracting sufficient customers to your product or service for the business or venture to be successful.
This portion is the interaction of your business with the outside world. But, in my experience, all the management books and marketing fundamentals will not make a difference, unless the entrepreneur learns to self-manage.
Self management is the internal portion. Often there are books that provide dry business advice without the internal intangible part which is just as important. All the sound business principles are not going to help you succeed if you’re fundamentally unsure of yourself or lack the proper beleifs and attitudes to withstand the “slings and throes of outrageous fortune. Let’s face it! Starting a business is hard! Behind every successful business is much dedication and hard work. In order to succeed you not only need the knowledge, but you also have to have the proper attitude, to persevere and be positive and proactive with respect to running your business.
Many business books focus solely on business fundamentals and ignore the internals of self management. .
On the other hand, many of the self help books just tell you to believe in yourself and the universe will provide for you. NOT! You need both sides. You need to believe in yourself and also need to basically know what you’re doing. And you know what you’re doing in a business plan which is addressed in another blog post.
There are natural entrepreneurs but most people are not. Entrepreneurs are made not born. Instead of the other way around.
So why should you listen to me?
Providing insight and information to fellow baby boomers is actually my passion and purpose. I am the author of Mid-Life Tune Up: Six Simple Steps which offers fundamental, reliable steps to turn a midlife crisis into midlife clarity. My book garnered many positive reviews including the following ones from well known authors:
“This book gives you a simple, practical, and effective way to tap into your unique powers for greater success and happiness.”
—- Brian Tracy, author of Create Your Own Future
“Midlife Tune-Up provides a comprehensive and holistic guide to dispel aging concerns by empowering yourself spiritually, emotionally, professionally, financially and physically.”
—– Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., author of Age Wave, Age Power, and The Power Years: A user’s Guide to the Rest of Your Life.
I’d like you to spend time with me each week improving your life and helping you realize your dreams. My promise to you is that I will bring you the best and most current information and advice in the areas of business and new venture development, entrepreneurship, financial planning as well as personal development to help you maximize these wonder years of your life. Follow this blog and you will embrace fully the fact that 60 is your new 40.
Tim