The heresy of telling new entrepreneurs they are wrong

By Neil Patrick

I know a lot of people who are starting businesses these days. It’s partly because of what I do and partly because my networking means I inevitably meet a lot of them. And I enjoy it. I get genuinely excited hearing about people’s plans and ideas and I love helping them improve and refine them.

But there’s something which troubles me. It’s the idea that anyone can become an entrepreneur and anyone can make a fortune this way. Both these notions are wrong. Not wrong because people shouldn’t aspire, but wrong in terms of what people’s goals and expectations are.

The media focus on business success stories and the absolute armies of people selling stuff to ‘help’ businesses succeed, support and encourage these aspirations. Which is fine, except if a business is doomed to fail. Which sadly is the majority. Long before this happens, any wise and caring counselor would say to them, ‘No. You’re wrong. This will NOT work. Stop wasting your time, money and energy on this RIGHT NOW.”

But we live in a society where such counsel is chastised as negativity. As lack of belief. As discouragement. For people who need and deserve encouragement. Even governments and government agencies attempt in their own bureaucratic ways to support entrepreneurs.

And because setting up and growing a business is truly hard work, most successful entrepreneurs tell us that the unwavering belief of someone else meant everything when they were so worn down and frustrated that they just wanted to quit. That belief and support kept them going. And they went on to achieve great success in the end.

People lap this up. It’s become a business start-up archetype. A rags to riches fairy tale that is deeply seductive. Just keep going. Never quit. And eventually you will succeed. It’s a simple and powerful idea that permeates so much of what we are told about entrepreneurship.

Yes commitment, passion, belief and sheer hard work are all essential for successful entrepreneurs. But no amount of these things will make up for a business idea that is so full of holes and flaws that if it were a ship, it would sink in the harbour.

Most people that new entrepreneurs meet want to sell them something. Even if that something is dressed up as ‘help’. This vested interest means no-one is likely to tell them that their business plan sucks. That it has some terrible flaw that will kill it dead. On the contrary, they express entirely fake enthusiasm, either because they cannot see the problems, or if they can, they are sure as hell are not going to mention it for fear of losing a bit of earning potential before the whole thing collapses.

So why would anyone want to become an entrepreneur? Part of the answer these days lies in the difficulty of finding and retaining a relatively secure and well paid job. People lose their jobs and think, “do I really want to go back to anything like that again?” Often the answer is “No”. So that leads inevitably to the idea of self-employment. Which in turn leads people to start up companies.

But start-up businesses have a truly dreadful record of success. Depending on who you listen to, around 80% fail in their first three years. They fail for all sorts of reasons, but one is that people might be very experienced at what they do, but have absolutely no-experience of setting up a business, let alone growing one.

Another is that what they aspire to be and what they actually are, are so far removed from reality that they chase the wrong dream. They lack the self-awareness to determine where their true talents really lie. It’s much better (and more profitable) to be a great version of you, than a second rate impersonation of someone else.

But the greatest failing is our fantasy notion of what success looks like. Business success isn’t about fabulous riches, business empires or fame. Success is about figuring out a way that your work rewards you in a way that enables you to live the life you want on your terms. And the best way I know to do that is not to become a slave to some idealized fantasy of what an entrepreneur is but just to earn our living independently by being the absolute best version of ourselves that we possibly can.

And by making sure your advice comes from someone who knows and cares enough to tell you when you've got it wrong.

Jim Clifton, former CEO of Gallup and author of 'The Coming Jobs War' has one of the most insightful (and least viewed videos) on YouTube about the problems with entrepreneurship in the US today, and its consequences for jobs and society. Clearly there is no correlation between brilliant insight and social media popularity!

Ignore the mass media herd, this is the information that matters:

Becoming self-employed? Here’s the #1 critical question you MUST be able to answer

By Neil Patrick

Whether you are setting up business as a sole trader or a company, there's one critical question you must be able to answer.

Last week, I was contacted by a former colleague from the financial sector. She had just lost her job in the latest corporate reorganization. Her reaction to job loss was positive. She was embracing it as an opportunity to convert all those years’ experience and acquisition of skills into a self-employed variant of her former job. I immediately agreed to help her anyway I could.

About the same time, I was sent a business plan for a start-up financial business. I was asked to provide my reactions and suggestions as to how the plan might be improved. The plan was ambitious and innovative. It embraced and aimed to capitalise on the financial, technology and media changes that are transforming the world.

At first, these two events might appear to have nothing in common. But as I examined both situations I realised that both were dependent upon getting to grips with exactly the same question.

It’s a very simple question to ask but a very hard one to answer perfectly. In a single sentence though, it frames the challenge for every new business venture. Being able to answer it clearly and precisely sets you up for success. Even if you cannot answer it precisely, trying to do so will instantly reveal the weaknesses in any business plan.

So what is the question?

It’s this:

“What problem do we solve for whom, and how?”

That’s it.

Time and time again when I see new business proposals, whether they are corporations or individuals, they fall apart when examined with this question.

Often it’s a variation of the age old business failure that arises because the business owner is looking to sell what they want to make or do, rather than making what people want to buy.

Today, attention spans are getting ever shorter. If you cannot articulate what problem you solve in a couple of sentences, you will struggle to get attention. And no attention means no sales. And no sales means your business is dead.

So not only must you be able to answer the question, you also have to be able to express it in a way which demands attention and interest from the people you seek as customers.

In a start-up, this can be the difference between getting investment and withering on the vine. In the case of sole traders, it’s the difference between having a queue of eager customers and an empty diary.

Why do so many people get this wrong? 

Employers don’t teach us how to be entrepreneurs

Experience of working for a large corporation provides plenty of experience and learning. But it’s not usually the sort of learning that equips you to be successful in your own business venture. Suddenly your specialist expertise itself is less important than your ability to get others to pay for it. 

When you are self-employed, before you can start work, you must obtain it

In a normal job, our employer provides a regular pay cheque. And depending on its size, we cut our cloth accordingly. When we have a job, the work is just there. We normally don’t have to actually create it. In a normal job, what’s critical is the quality of our work. When you work for yourself, how much you earn depends on how much work or business you attract. What’s critical is the quantity and frequency of our work. 

Problem solving for others is different to problem solving for an employer

In a normal job, we may very well require problem-solving skills. But these problems are internal to our employer. The problems are given to us to tackle. When we work for ourselves, the problems are not given to us. We have to identify them in other people’s lives. So these problems are external. And before we can solve them, we have to have a solution that our customers find more attractive than the alternatives.

Knowing the answer to the number one question helps us focus our actions on doing the right things to drive business success. It means you have a business proposition which people actually want and are willing to pay for.

Not being able to answer the question means your business isn’t going anywhere, until you can…

Baby boomers fueling wave of entrepreneurship

By Matt Sedensky

In a mix of boomer individualism and economic necessity, older Americans have fueled a wave of entrepreneurship. The result is a slew of enterprises such as Crash Boom Bam, the vintage drum company that 64-year-old Glay began running from a spare bedroom in his apartment in 2009.

The business hasn’t made him rich, but Glay credits it with keeping him afloat when no one would hire him.

"You would send out a stack of 50 resumes and not hear anything," said Glay, who had been laid off from a sales job. "This has saved me."

The annual entrepreneurial activity report published in April by the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation found the share of new entrepreneurs ages 55 to 64 grew from 14.3 percent in 1996 to 23.4 percent last year. Entrepreneurship among 45- to 54-year-olds saw a slight bump, while activity among younger age groups fell.

The foundation doesn’t track start-ups by those 65 and older, but Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that group has a higher rate of self-employment than any other age group.

Part of the growth is the result of the overall aging of America. But experts say older people are flocking to self-employment both because of a frustrating job market and the growing ease and falling cost of starting a business.

"It’s become easier technologically and geographically to do this at older ages," said Dane Stangler, the research and policy director at Kauffman. "We’ll see continued higher rates of entrepreneurship because of these demographic trends."

Paul Giannone’s later-life move to start a business was fuelled not by losing a job, but by a desire for change.

After nearly 35 years in information technology, he embraced his love of pizza and opened a Brooklyn, N.Y., restaurant, Paulie Gee’s, in 2010. Giannone, 60, had to take a second mortgage on his home, but he said the risk was worth it: The restaurant is thriving and a second location is in the works.

"I wanted to do something that I could be proud of," he said. "I am the only one who makes decisions and I love that. I haven’t worked in 3 ½ years, that’s how it feels."

Some opt for a more gradual transition.

Al Wilson, 58, of Manassas, Va., has kept his day job as a program analyst at the National Science Foundation while he tries to attract business for Rowdock, the snug calf protector he created to ward off injuries rowers call "track bites."

Though orders come in weekly from around the world, they’re not enough yet for Wilson to quit his job.

"At this stage in my life, when I’m looking at in the near future retiring, to step out and take a risk and start a business, there was some apprehension," Wilson said. "But it’s kind of rejuvenated me."

Mary Furlong, who teaches entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University and holds business startup seminars for boomers, says older adults are uniquely positioned for the move because they are often natural risk-takers who are passionate about challenges and driven by creativity.

There can be hurdles.

Though most older entrepreneurs opt to create at-home businesses where they are the only employee, even startup costs of a couple thousand dollars can be prohibitive for some. Also, generating business in an online economy is tougher if the person has fewer technological skills.

Furlong said many who start businesses later in life do so as a follow-up to a successful career from which they fear a layoff or have endured one.

"The boomers are looking to entrepreneurship as a Plan B," she said."

Antoinette Little would agree.

She spent 20 years at a law firm, starting as a legal secretary and working her way up to manage the entire office. The stress of working 80 hours or 90 hours a week and always being on call started taking a toll.

After being diagnosed with an enlarged heart, she said, "The doctor told me either quit or you’re going to die."

Little took a series of culinary classes and found a new passion, opening Antoinette Chocolatier in Phillipsburg, N.J. She misses her previous career and, though the store is now in the black, the profits aren’t robust. Still, she says she is having fun making chocolate, particularly when children press their noses against the glass doors to the store’s kitchen.

"I’m my own boss and you get to eat your mistakes," she said. "How bad could it be?"

Most boomer businesses are not brick-and-mortar establishments like those of Little and Giannone.

Jeff Williams, who runs BizStarters, which has helped Glay and thousands of other boomers start businesses, says most older entrepreneurs want to make a minimal investment, typically less than $10,000, to get off the ground.

He classifies about 40 percent of his clientele as "reluctant entrepreneurs" who are turning to their own business because they can’t find any other work.

Williams said owning a business also gives older adults the flexibility they desire and a sense of control while remaining active.

"To suddenly leave the corporate world and to be sitting around the house all day long? This is an alien concept to boomers," he said.

Glay says he needed the paycheck, but starting his business was also about keeping his mind engaged. He had worked for the same record company for 23 years when he was told to meet his boss at an airport hotel, where the bad news was delivered.

Though Crash Boom Bam hasn’t come close to replacing an annual income that crept into six figures, Glay says he’s busier than ever now, between the business, regular drumming gigs, and part-time work at a bookstore and a wine-tasting event company. Sitting among shelves full of drums and their shimmering chrome, he is reflective thinking about what his business means.

"The satisfaction of doing what I’m doing now is much greater, but the money is less," he said. "Even if it’s not making me a millionaire, I know what it’s doing for my head. There’s no price you could put on that."

Matt Sedensky, an AP writer on leave, is studying aging and workforce issues as part of a one-year fellowship at the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which joins NORC’s independent research and AP journalism. The fellowship is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and supported by APME, an association of AP member newspapers and broadcast stations.

This post originally appeared here:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/57010864-79/business-older-glay-job.html.csp?page=2

Baby boomers start 'encore' careers

By Rodney Brooks


“Of 76 million people above 50 and nearing retirement, about half have interest in entrepreneurship,” said Jean Setzfand, vice president of financial security at AARP. “And many want to give back to their communities.”

Sitting at home through a 20- or 30-year retirement is no longer an option for an increasing number of baby boomers.

Some are looking to do something else because they have to for financial reasons. But, increasingly, boomers are embarking on entirely different “encore” careers after retirement.

“The reality is people are living longer, healthier lives, and when they get to the point when the need to make a change - they retire, are laid off or sell their business - they are 60 years old, and they say ‘I still have another 10, 15, or 20 or more years and I want to do something,’ ” said Nancy Collamer, author of “Second Act Careers: 50+ Ways to Profit From Your Passions During Semi-Retirement.”

“It’s out of financial necessity is some cases, but it’s lifestyle in other cases,” she said.

Take Linda Lombri, 65, and Virginia Cornue, 68, both of Montclair, N.J. In their post-retirement lives they have reinvented themselves as mystery writers, even though neither had written fiction before. They began an e-book series, the “Sandra Troux Mysteries,” which is sold on 10 websites, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple’s iTunes. The first in the series, “The Mystery of the Ming Connection,” was published last year under their pseudonym, Crystal Sharpe. Their second in the series will be out this spring; the third in the fall.

Both fans of the Nancy Drew series when they were young girls, they have re-imagined her into a trio of female baby boomer characters. “Not only are we reinventing ourselves, we have our characters reinventing themselves as well,” Cornue said.

Pushed out at 62

Lombri had careers as a home economist and a marketing executive. She was forced into retirement at 62 when her job was eliminated - when she had a daughter who was a high school sophomore. “I was ready for (retirement) emotionally, but not financially,” she said.

Cornue said she has already reinvented herself several times. She started out as an actor in New York City, became a director of nonprofit organizations and ended up a cultural anthropologist. She still teaches part time at a local college.

Then there’s David Roll, 72, who ended his career as a Washington, D.C., lawyer 10 years ago and embarked on a new one as an author, historian and founder of Lex Mundi, a nonprofit agency that finds pro bono lawyers for social entrepreneurs around the world.

But it’s the nonprofit legal agency, which has taken him around the world, that occupies most of his time: “I love it,” he said. “It has its frustrations, because you’ve got to raise money to keep it going. But to have created something that is having an impact. ... Not every social entrepreneur is changing the world, but they are some doing amazing things.”

Cookies!

Yuval Zaliouk, 74, is co-owner of YZ Enterprises in Toledo, Ohio. He retired from a career as conductor of the Toledo Symphony in 1989 and decided he didn’t want to move his family to take another conducting assignment.

The answer was his dream: to make and sell cookies based on his grandmother’s recipe, starting out in his kitchen. 

“I even won entrepreneur of the year award in 2003,” he said. “I never imagined that I could be a businessman.”

The Almondina cookies now sell 12,000 cases a day, ship to all 50 states and can be found in supermarket chains such as Trader Joe’s and Publix. Oh, by the way, the co-owner of the business is his wife, Susan, a former ballerina with the Royal Ballet Company in London, where they met.

“Only in America,” said Zaliouk, a native of Israel. “There is a lot of mobility in this country. It’s not like Europe, where if you are not fired, you stick with a job for life. Here you are free to start things. It’s a different atmosphere.”

Marc Freedman is founder and chief executive officer of Encore.org, a San Francisco-based organization that helps Boomers start that second career. Its focus is getting them involved in nonprofit agencies.

Freedman spent 15 years working with children in low-income neighborhoods. He has long had an interest in mentoring, so he made his second career into a job that helps baby boomers step into their second careers.

“The larger aspiration behind the organization is to tap the human capital and population moving into their 50s and 60s,” Freedman said.

Zaliouk has advice for budding boomer entrepreneurs: “In one word, courage.”

“It really is a question of courage, making up your mind to do something - courage, tenacity or stubbornness,” he said.



http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130327/BIZ/303270026/Baby-boomers-start-encore-careers



HELP FOR ENTREPRENEURS

The U.S. Small Business Administration and AARP are involved in helping retirees into encore careers, as entrepreneurs. They are jointly promoting April as Encore Entrepreneurial Mentor Month, featuring one-on-one instruction, classes, mentoring programs and help writing business plans.

Spain: jobs crisis spawns entrepreneurs

Two years after being laid off from her job as a health and safety consultant, Ana Luis has found a new, quite different occupation. The blue-eyed, blonde-haired 46-year-old stands busy in the window of her very own dress shop in Valladolid, north-eastern Spain, deftly fixing clothes on a dummy.

For Ana, it was a childhood dream come true - one born of the nightmare of redundancy.

Left jobless like millions of others in Spain's recession, she did what many are also doing, for want of an alternative: launched her own business.

"I had a choice: stay sitting at home and do nothing, or throw myself into a project that I like," she says.

She opened the store less than four months ago using part of her redundancy pay and savings - a total investment of 30,000 euros ($40,000).

She is one of a wave of Spaniards trying to create jobs for themselves in the recession that has driven the unemployment rate above 26 percent.

The crisis sparked by the collapse of Spain's building boom had wiped out a lot of self-employed entrepreneurs: 625,000 between 2008 and 2011, says Lorenzo Amor, president of the small entrepreneurs' association ATA. But in 2012, as the unemployment rate climbed to record highs, their number grew for the first time in the five-year crisis, with 53,000 new registered self-employed, he says, citing government figures.

These entrepreneurs created 72,000 jobs, he added - just about the only sector to do generate any.

"For the next few months it is going to be easier to create your own job than to find one," Amor said.

"In Spain, every hour 67 people register as self-employed. Unfortunately, half of those don't manage to keep their business running for more than three years."

Despite everything, they are having a go.

In a trendy district of central Madrid, serving staff bustle at the coffee machine in "La Bicicleta", a novel bicycle-friendly cafe where cyclists can park their bikes. Its tables are crammed with customers even though the cafe only opened days ago, under the management of Tamara Marques, 29, and Quique Arias, 35.

"I had other job plans. I wanted to be an air traffic controller. But the labour market is nothing like it was," said Tamara.

"The way the economy is, I prefer to invest in something I really like and which will bear fruit, rather than wait for the government to do something for me."

She and Quique launched their plan in late 2011 and managed to open their cafe, with its rough industrial-style decor and deliberately shabby armchairs, more than a year later.

They raised the 100,000 euros they needed through a rare bank loan and help from their families -- no thanks, they say, to Spanish bureaucracy.

"We're not even talking about getting subsidies or making it easier to get a loan," says Quique. "We're talking about much simpler things, like just getting the paperwork done."

Among its various emergency reforms, the conservative government says it is working on a law to cut the red tape for people launching their own businesses.

Ana, Tamara and Quique say they are covering their costs but relying on their families to live.

Yet theirs are rare tales of hope in a crisis that aid groups has thrown millions into poverty.

"I think there is a growing dynamism. We are seeing just the tip of the iceberg," says Javier Sanz, director of an MBA programme at Madrid's Complutense University.

"In the next five years people are going to realise more and more that to find the perfect job they are going to have to make one up. For that you need to be an entrepreneur."

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130210/spain-jobs-crisis-spawns-entrepreneurs

Seven ways boomers are rewriting the rules of retirement

By Marc Miller

(Reuters) - The baby boom generation has broken the mold at every stage of life, and it looks like old age won't be any different.

Boomers aren't heading quietly into retirement. They're launching businesses, embracing digital technology and living abroad in greater numbers than ever before. But in other ways they are struggling more than the previous generation.

Here is a look at trends shaping the next wave of retirement.

THEY ARE LEAVING THE U.S.

More older Americans are packing it in for foreign countries, where they can save on living costs and enjoy warmer climates.

The number of retired workers, spouses and survivors getting Social Security benefits in a foreign land is rising almost twice as fast as the number of Social Security beneficiaries generally, according to Social Security Administration data.

And 21 percent of baby boomers say they are "interested or very interested" in retiring abroad, according to a survey by the Center for Medical Tourism Research at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

"If that were extended across all boomers, you'd have about 3 million people retiring abroad in the next couple decades," says David Vequist, the center's director.

THEY ARE STARTING COMPANIES

Almost a quarter - 21 percent - of new U.S. businesses started in 2011 were launched by entrepreneurs age 55 to 64, according to the Kauffman Foundation, up from 14 percent in 2007. Entrepreneurs age 45 to 54 accounted for an additional 28 percent of the 2011 startups. Taken together, that's 49 percent of all startup activity - far larger than the 20- to 34-year-old bracket, which accounted for 29 percent of new ventures.

In part, the surge can be attributed to the 2008 recession, which sent older workers into consulting gigs. However, there are a surprising number of complex, sophisticated and large businesses being created as well, according to Dane Stangler, director of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation. He also thinks many of these older business owners are "serial entrepreneurs."

"We're seeing a lot of entrepreneurs in fields like technology and engineering who are launching substantial businesses," he said. "They started companies in their thirties or forties, and now they're doing it again."

THEY ARE TECH SAVVY

Young people might be leading the digital revolution, but boomers - the generation born 1946 to 1964 - aren't far behind.

"Baby boomers got quite comfortable with the Internet and other digital technologies in the workplace," says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet Project. "They won't give that up as they age."

For example, 23 percent of older boomers and 27 percent of their younger siblings use tablet devices, compared with 30 percent of Gen Xers (born 1965 to the early 1980s), according to the Pew Internet Project. The gaps also are small when it comes to smartphones and social networking services.

"They're not going to be downloading every new app that catches the crowd," he says. "They're very utilitarian - show me how it will work for me, how it will improve my life." Expect retiring boomers to publish creative works online, connect with friends and children via social media and continue to job-hunt on sites such as LinkedIn.

THEY ARE BORROWING MORE

Older Americans are taking more debt into retirement than previous generations. Mortgage debt is the biggest factor: Forty percent of homeowners over age 65 had mortgage debt in 2010, compared with just 18 percent as recently as 1992, reports the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University (JCHS).

The culprit: the refinancing boom before the housing crash. In the years leading up to 2008, homeowners took advantage of low rates and deductibility of interest to refinance, says Lori Trawinski, senior strategic policy adviser at the AARP Public Policy Institute.

"(They) took out equity for things like education or a new car," says Trawinski. Boomers on the cusp of retirement are still refinancing, sometimes at the behest of their financial advisers, because of the appeal of today's near-record-low interest rates.

Higher debt levels will have a variety of effects. Some retirees will be stuck in homes with underwater mortgages or monthly mortgage payments that sap their spending power; others will use low-interest mortgage debt to keep more cash on hand or to keep other money invested longer.

THEY ARE OUTLIVING THEIR EXPECTATIONS

Life expectancy for men has jumped an average of almost two years in each of the last five decades, to 75.7 years in 2010, according to the Society of Actuaries. For women, life expectancy has risen by 1.5 years, on average, to 80.8 years.

Yet more than half of older Americans haven't gotten the memo. A Society of Actuaries survey of 1,600 adults age 45 to 80 found 40 percent underestimated their likely average longevity by five years or more; 20 percent were too pessimistic by two to four years.

"That means there's a 50 percent chance you'll live longer," says Cindy Levering, an actuary and co-author of the report. "If you make it to 90 and only planned and saved enough for 85, you may not have enough to live on."

The odds that will happen are pretty good. For a couple with above-average health, there's a 60 percent chance one of them will live to age 90, the Social Security Administration has reported.

THEY ARE PROVIDING FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Some 58 percent of boomers are providing financial assistance to aging parents, such as helping them purchase groceries or pay medical and utility bills, according to an Ameriprise Financial survey of just over 1,000 Americans conducted in late 2011.

When it comes to their kids, boomers are even more ready to help out. Almost all boomers surveyed - 93 percent - say they have given their children a hand. A majority have "boomerang kids" who have moved back home to live rent free (55 percent) or afford a car (53 percent).

But only one-third believed that supporting adult children was making it more difficult for them to reach their retirement goals.

"They're not connecting the dots," says Suzanna de Baca, vice president of wealth strategies at Ameriprise Financial. "They may not be taking money out of their retirement accounts to help their kids, but the assistance is coming out of funds that otherwise could be additional savings."

THEY AREN'T RUNNING TO FLORIDA

Boomers aren't embracing the Florida-Arizona axis of retirement to the extent their parents did. Counties known as retirement havens slowed their annual population growth to 1.7 percent from 2007 to 2009, compared with 3.1 percent between 2000 and 2007.

Instead, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) found that the metro areas with the fastest-growing population of 65-plus residents include locations in North Carolina, Texas and Nevada, as well as Colorado, Idaho and Georgia.

Boomers are attracted to communities with large universities and affordable housing, says John McIlwain, senior resident fellow for housing at ULI and author of the report.

The biggest draw affecting relocation? The kids.

"If you want to find out where a boomer couple will be moving to, find out where their oldest daughter lives. It's the pull of the grandkids."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/05/us-moneypack-retire-surprises-idUSBRE9140O720130205

What a New Set of Skills Can Do

By Marci Alboher, vice president of Encore.org, and the author of "The Encore Career Handbook: How to Make a Living and a Difference in the Second Half of Life."

The plight of jobless Americans in their 50s and 60s is well documented, and it deserves attention.

But there’s a different, more optimistic story unfolding. A small army of baby boomers is hitting midlife eager to apply their talent and experience to solving some of our country’s - and the world’s - toughest problems, from homelessness to climate change.

Colleges and career coaches recognize that people in their 50s and 60s seeking to put their skills to good use are good customers.

Often the first step is getting new skills. Consider Gary Bates, an airline pilot forced into mandatory retirement, who, together with his wife Beth, started Care-To-Go, which provides in-home and travelling elder companions. The Bateses gained credentials as caregivers at Gateway Community College in Phoenix and honed their business chops through the help of mentors and coaches.

Colleges and career coaches recognize that people in their 50s and 60s seeking to put their skills to good use are good customers. Structured programs offer another option. At ReServe, operating in seven locations in the U.S., skilled workers 55 and older are placed at nonprofit and public agencies in part-time projects with modest stipends. For some, that work is the destination. For others, it’s a gateway to a new kind of work, much like internships are for young people.

The Encore Fellows program is another model. Encore Fellowships – currently available in 20 metropolitan areas around the country – matches seasoned professionals from the private sector with nonprofits. The fellows, who earn a stipend, make high-level contributions to these nonprofit groups while learning about a new culture. After the one-year program, most fellows remain in the nonprofit sector in paid positions.

Some argue that keeping older workers in the work force will make it harder for young people to launch or advance their careers. But consider this: many people in encore careers start businesses and nonprofits that generate jobs. And pathways like ReServe and Encore Fellowships create incentives for experienced workers to move on and for younger workers to take their places.

Let’s also remember that today’s 20-year-olds will eventually be 50-year-olds. No doubt millions among them, too, will want to be able to contribute to society while earning a living -- in an enriching, multigenerational workforce. 

Join Room for Debate on Facebook and follow updates on twitter.com/roomfordebate.

Ageism in the Tech Sector

Reuters:

When Randy Adams, 60, was looking for a chief-executive officer job in Silicon Valley last year, he got turned down from position after position that he thought he was going to nail — only to see much younger, less-experienced men win out.

Finally, before heading into his next interview, he shaved off his grey hair and traded in his loafers for a pair of Converse sneakers. The board hired him.

"I don't think I would have been able to get this CEO job if I hadn't shaved my head," says Adams, who has founded eight venture-backed companies. He is now chairman of the company that hired him, mobile conference-call service Socialdial, and is fundraising for a new business. Adams has supplemented his makeover by trading in his button-down shirts for T-shirts, making sure he owns the latest gadgets, and getting an eyelid lift.

Forty is definitely not the new 30 in Tech, it would seem:

"I don't think in the outside world, outside tech, anyone in their 40s would think age discrimination was happening to them," says Cliff Palefsky, a San Francisco employment attorney who has fielded age-discrimination inquiries from people in their early 40s. But they feel it in the Bay Area, he said, and it's "100 percent due to the new, young, tech start-up mindset."

They go on to point out that there are some benefits of youth, but it is possibly being over-emphasized now:

In some cases, there are reasons other than bias for preferring younger workers in a startup setting. People with young children can be strapped for time and less able to work long, late hours. Younger workers are more likely to be expert in the newest software programming protocols. Young entrepreneurs, like many others, often move instinctively in hiring from the cohort of those they know.

Yet there are some indications that age bias is now part of the culture in Silicon Valley - especially visible in what Adams of Socialdial calls the "cachet of the young entrepreneur." When young executives like Zuckerberg are successful, their age often gets a lot of attention. Successful older entrepreneurs, on the other hand, take pride in every aspect of their accomplishments - except their age.

So when the software company Workday went public last month and raised $637 million, little attention was paid to the fact that co-founder and co-CEO David Duffield is 72.

My own experience and those of other "wrong-side-of-40's" in the industry I know (bearing in mind anecdote is not the plural of data of course) is that no, we are not as up on the intricacies of the latest cool language, but our experience also shows us that the big drivers of success are seldom to do with the tech itself, nor working long and hard instead of smart. It's about managing risk, enthusing people, controlling cash, ensuring delivery quality, attracting customers, managing expectations - and while experience doesn't guarantee success in this, it does increase it's probability, as it's a learning curve thing. Which is why, when the going gets tough, Boards start to want a "grown up in charge" (Google, Facebook...and now Groupon it would seem). Horses for courses, as they say....

And, if I was being exceedingly cynical, I would suspect that some of the preference for youthful startups is their naivete, allowing funders to strike deals that no-one who has been around the block would ever accept.

http://www.broadstuff.com/archives/2677-Ageism-in-the-Tech-Sector.html