Is having a job really the best choice for you today?

By Neil Patrick

Last week I was sent the transcript of a soon to be published book about self- employment as a consultant and how to go about it successfully.

The author asked me if I’d be willing to review the book and provide my reaction to it in the form of an endorsement to be included in the final version when it goes to print.

I was surprised and flattered. Well I’m now reading the book and it’s great and after it’s published in a couple of weeks, I’ll be writing more about it here. But because the topic of the book was essentially self-employment for mature professionals, it got me thinking I really should revisit this topic on this blog.

I talk here a lot about jobs, and how to get them in these hyper-difficult economic conditions.

But there’s another option too of course - creating your own job.

Our generation has been taught to be a bit scared by this I think. We all know of someone who lost their entire life savings when their business went bust or failed to even get off the ground. And yes, the statistics for the failure of start-up businesses are still frightening.

But being self-employed doesn't automatically mean you must risk your savings and your financial future. Quite the opposite in fact.

Not if you choose to take the skills you have acquired over all those years of working and decide to sell them in small pieces to people that need them.

In fact if we accept that getting a job as an employee is now harder than ever, especially once you get past about 45, isn’t it more sensible to choose a life path where our age and experience is actually a benefit rather than a burden?

And here’s the truth: people want and need freelancers more than ever today.

The recession has made businesses really cautious about taking on extra employees. It’s obvious the reason this is happening - why take the commitment of having an extra head on the payroll, month in month out, at a time when costs need to be ruthlessly squashed, when you could get the job done by a contractor with absolutely no long-term obligations attached?

And people will pay top dollar for this too.

You see, the real question clients often face isn't can we afford to pay $500 or $1000 or $2000 a day for a contractor? The fact is that many, many businesses have now slashed their permanent full-time staff to the absolute bone. The moment anything happens (which of course it always does) which means they need some extra resource, they are stuck. Big time. They may also have hiring freezes which means they cannot hire any extra people.

So their problem cannot be solved by hiring new people. But it can be solved by finding skilled and reliable people outside the business to handle it for them. And suddenly if you are on their radar, and you have the skills and experience called for, you are in a strong position to negotiate a good rate. So let’s say they hire you for 6 weeks, 2 days a week, at $1,000 a day. Total cost $12,000 dollars. And their problem is gone.

And you are $12,000 better off in exchange for 12 days of your time. (Okay, I know that’s a gross simplification, but you’ll get the point I’m sure)

And your client’s headcount is still the same. You’re happy. They’re happy.

There’s another thing I like about this choice also. It’s kind of a philosophical point but it goes like this. Remember all those years of toil and torture to get things done for the people you worked for in the past? Sure you do. You’d just rather not think about them usually right?

But here’s the thing – all that sweat and tears taught us a lot. And that’s the point. We can view that as an investment in us. And whilst we may not have exactly enjoyed the process, it makes us what we are today. Which is mature, experienced people who have learned a great deal in our lives.

So what I like is the idea that indirectly, all that sweat and toil is now being rewarded back to us over and over again.

Somehow it feels like justice has been done!

Oh and if you still want to invest all your time in just hunting for a job, remember these realities:

For every great job out there, there are dozens of really soul-sucking, punishing and unrewarding jobs. Just remind yourself about:

1. The feelings of powerlessness experienced daily by millions of employees

2. The lack of job security that now exists for just about every employee

3. The frustrations of having to do what you are told, rather than what you are really best at

4. The requirement of every employer that you work to a rigid schedule like a machine

5. The crazy office politics that demotivate everyone

6. The lack of fulfillment you feel by doing things just because someone tells you you must

7. The increasingly rarity of pay rises when our costs of living continue to soar

8. The daily torture by bad bosses

9. The lack of appreciation shown for all your efforts

10. The fear of making a mistake which will lead to disciplinary action or possibly even being fired.

Let the young people who are less experienced than us have these jobs I say. They need work experience and they need to learn. We've already paid our dues.

Aren’t you infinitely smarter and more experienced and knowledgeable today than when you were 25 or 30? Of course you are. So why would you choose to even think about competing with those people?

Play to your strengths.

Our retirement plans are ruined…and why this may be good news

By Neil Patrick

We all know the way our careers were supposed to go. Roughly speaking.

We’d get a bunch of qualifications, start work, change employers maybe four or five times, work hard, get promoted and then at around 50 or so have a comfortable cruise towards our retirement at 65. Then we’d be able to relax and enjoy the next 20 or so years.

We’ll that’s all gone now for most of us.

I’m sorry to say that it doesn't make much difference what your employer or financial advisor recommends. If you are a baby boomer in the US, UK and much of the EU, unless you’ve been so successful (or lucky) in your career that you are sitting on a very large pension fund, this version of our life story is a fairy tale.

You probably know this.

In the US, some 82 percent of workers aged 50 and older say it is at least “somewhat likely” they will work for pay in retirement, according to a poll released in October by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago. Almost half of boomers polled now expect to retire later than they previously thought - on average nearly three years later than what they thought at age 40.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. People have a habit of being unduly optimistic when thinking about their financial position if it’s much beyond the next year or so. It’s a combination of hope and difficulty in facing up to harsh realities.

Some of the other statistics emerging in the US are really horrific.

One in 6 reported having less than $1,000 in retirement savings and 1 in 4 working respondents aren’t saving for retirement outside of Social Security. Some 12 percent of non-retired people reported borrowing from a 401(k) or other retirement plan in the past year. Though 29 percent reported at least $100,000 in savings, some find even that’s not enough.

“All too often, people have a lump-sum illusion. They think, ‘I have $100,000 in my 401(k),’ and they think, ‘I’m rich,’” “said Olivia Mitchell, a retirement specialist who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.“But it doesn’t add up to much. It certainly is not going to keep them in champagne and truffles.”

Make no mistake this isn’t a blip, or a phase. It’s a demolition of the life expectations of a generation. 

You can go searching for people to blame if you like. There are plenty who must carry at least a portion of the guilt. Personally, I think it’s more important to invest our energies in something more productive and positive.

Like working out what to do about this.

The good news is that humans are much more resilient and adaptable than we sometimes give ourselves credit for.

And when we are confronted with difficulties, we often respond in much more creative ways than we expect.

I have a friend who is 60. Two or three years ago he was on the face of it, doing well in his career in sales. He was the Sales Director for a booming manufacturing business. And much of that success was down to his drive and natural flair at finding clients and keeping them coming back for more. He’d be in his office every morning from about 7am, then from about 10am would be hunting down new clients and working on developing relationships with the current clients.

He was very, very good at his job. And the business was growing largely due to his abilities to win new orders and contracts. But I knew a different side. I knew that he was locked in a war with his boss. There was a huge power and personality fight going on. And this was steadily sapping my friend’s motivation and strength.

His stress levels were through the roof.

In the end he became ill. Very ill. He developed diabetes. He lost weight. He looked like a shadow of the man he used to be.

But he did the most sensible thing he could. He quit his job.

For a while he looked around for other jobs. But at 60, you guessed it, there was no-one interested in hiring him into the sort of job he just left. Especially since he’d quit at it.

Fast forward to today. I had a beer with my friend a couple of weeks ago. He looked strong and fit. He had recovered the twinkle in his eye and the infectious grin that he always used to have. He was happy and healthy again.

He hadn’t been hired into a new job. He’d created his own.

He was always great at DIY. And he loves doing it. He’s simply taken his hobby and turned it into his job. And by doing great work and looking after his customers better than almost any tradesman I ever met, he has far more work stacked up than he can actually do.

He's happier than he’s been for years. He has a job he loves and the customers are queuing up round the block.

Is he worried about his pension and retirement?

I doubt it, I really do.

Tips for boomers to find ‘flexible’ jobs

By Andrea Coombes

A growing percentage of Americans say their retirement will entail some paid work, either because they’re worried about their lack of savings or because they want to stay active. But that doesn’t mean retirees are yearning for a 50- or 60-hour workweek.

Sixty-nine percent of workers said they plan to work for pay after they retire, according to the 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

And more workers said they plan to delay retirement: 36% of workers said they’ll wait until they’re 66 or older to retire (fully 26% said they’d wait until age 70 or older), up from 11% who said that in 1991. Read the study here.

Another 7% of workers said they don’t plan to retire at all.

If you’re among those who plan to continue working but you don’t want to keep going full-tilt, what’s the best way to find a good part-time or work-at-home gig?

The good news is that, anecdotally at least, there are employers out there looking to fill part-time jobs with experienced workers, and a number of websites aim to help people like you find those jobs.

And “part time” doesn’t have to mean a job at a fast-food restaurant or in retail.

“Some of the jobs employers are trying to fill are not what anyone would think of as an average telecommuting job,” said Sara Sutton Fell, founder and chief executive of FlexJobs, based in Boulder, Colo.

“These are high-level roles. They are very well suited to an older demographic who values flexibility and has the skills to bring to the table,” she said.

Some of the current openings on her site include “infrastructure management senior analyst,” firewall engineer, human-resources generalist and senior tax associate, Fell said. Some of the companies posting positions to the site include PwC (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers), ADP and Xerox.

Tips for finding a job

Visit the job sites. You can search for part-time jobs onRetirementJobs.com, RetiredBrains.com, and Indeed.com, among others.

Meanwhile, FlexJobs only posts jobs that are part-time or flexible as well as professional (meaning they have opportunity for growth). The company vets each posting to make sure it’s legitimate (FlexJobs.com charges job seekers from $14.95 a month to $49.95 a year to see the listings).

Drop by. “If it’s an employer you know you want to work for, particularly if it’s a retail-based job, go in, meet with the manager,” said Kerry Hannon, a Washington-based career expert and author of “Great Jobs for Everyone 50+.” “Dress appropriately, drop off your resume and just say you’re available. Nothing beats a face-to-face meeting with somebody.”

Don’t rule out full-time job postings. For the right candidate, employers may consider alternative work arrangements. “Often, job-sharing arrangements and so forth come up,” said Tim Driver, chief executive of RetirementJobs.com and MatureCaregivers.com, in Boston. “It’s always worth exploring listings that are written as full time.”

Tap your network. Ask people you know whether they know of any part-time or telecommuting opportunities at their workplace—and whether they can put in a good word for you, Hannon said. “Employers love to hire people who they know or the people that work for them know,” she said.

Go beyond the big job websites. Interested in a nonprofit job, for example? “The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a great jobs board—that’s a good place to look for any kind of nonprofit job,” Hannon said, adding that “the nonprofits love part-time workers,” in part because those organizations often face budgetary constraints.

Ask your network about job boards, staffing companies and temp agencies that focus on your city or state. For example, a staffing agency called 10 til 2 focuses on part-time jobs in Colorado.

Hannon pointed to Flex Professionals, which lists jobs with flexible schedules in the Washington, D.C., area, and Special Counsel, which looks to place people in the legal profession.

Check with trade groups and your alumni association to see whether they know of or list flexible jobs. Also, college career centers often offer advice on career transitions, Hannon said. “A lot of them have great career coaches on staff who can help you with interviews and resumes.”

Visit universities’ online job boards. “Most of the big universities have job boards that you can check for part-time or full-time work,” Hannon said.

Avoid the scams

It’s no secret that many workers dream of working at home, and the idea is gaining acceptance among some employers, depending on the job type.

Still, “there’s been slower acceptance of that than even part-time work,” said Jill Ater, founder and chief operating officer of 10 til 2, the Denver-based staffing agency.

“Employers still want to see people, but sometimes you can start off in the office and transition once they learn to trust you,” Ater said. Job seekers might ask in the interview whether working at home is an option at some point. “See how the employer feels about it,” she said.

Unfortunately, the work-at-home dream is a target for scammers looking to separate you from your money, often by collecting fees upfront for equipment or information they say is necessary for their work-at-home “opportunity.”

As part of its premium service ($4.95 a month; you can cancel at any time), RetirementJobs.com offers a “Work at Home Guide” that lists organizations it considers legitimate, plus tips to stay safe.

Here are some other ways to steer clear of scams:

• Avoid ads that read like marketing copy. When looking for work, focus on ads that list a job title. “You want it to be a professional job posting and not marketing copy,” Fell said. “If it looks like they’re trying to get anybody to apply, that’s probably not a professional job posting.”

• Be wary of requests for money. Fell said the scam often goes like this: “We’re going to give you your own computer. We’ll mail that to you, but we do need to install some proprietary software on there, so you need to pay $400 for that.”

• Search for the company’s name on Google to make sure the website address given to you is legitimate. Sometimes scammers create fake websites that mimic real sites, to lure you to provide personal information or to send money. “They’ll mimic the names of the CEO, the director of HR, so the website really looks legit,” Fell said. “Unfortunately, they’re really good at it sometimes.”

• Search the company’s name with the word “scam” or “complaint” to see what others are saying.

• Be wary about sending personal information if the email address doesn't include the company name. “Make sure the job ad has the company domain name in it, rather than a general @hotmail or @gmail,” Fell said.

More resources

Here are some additional resources for finding part-time or flexible jobs:

Common Good Careers recruits for the nonprofit sector. Read more: Boomers: Get job recruiters on your side.

Idealist and Bridgespan also list jobs at nonprofit organizations.

Check out AARP’s page on working after retirement.

Encore.org offers a guide to finding work after 50.

Read more: Taxes, Social Security and your part-time job.

Andrea Coombes is a personal-finance writer and editor in San Francisco. She's on Twitter @andreacoombes.

This post originally appeared here:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tips-for-boomers-to-find-flexible-jobs-2013-08-29

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.

Top 10 best job search websites

By Brandon Widder

Looking for work? Check out this guide to the best job search websites to help get you back on your feet and earning again. Even if you think you have the internet covered, check this - it includes some lesser known avenues for you to exploit.

Finding a job is work in and of itself, and needless to say, pounding the pavement can often leave you pounding your fist in frustration. And with unemployment hovering around eight percent according to the United States Department of Labor, it’s no surprise that you may be looking for work given our current economic state.  Although the job market may look a little bleak and barren at times, there are jobs out there for the taking — you just need to know where to look.

Numerous social networking and job search websites are available at your disposal online, whether you’re a part-time student looking to supplement your income or a former CEO on the hunt for the next big startup. The competition may be nonexistent or even over-the-top at times, but just knowing people are hiring offers some piece of mind.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. Here is our guide to some of the best job search websites available at your fingertips. Touch up those resumes and start clicking.

Indeed: Indeed is arguably (and probably) the largest job search engine on the planet. With more than a billion job searches a month and hundreds of thousands of new postings each week, it’s no surprise the company makes that claim. You can create a free, tailored profile, upload a resume, and search job postings aggregated from company pages, associations, and various listings from across the Web. The search results are vast as well as thorough, whether you search by category, location, or even starting salary. The mobile app, email alerts, and search plugins are just a few of the added perks. The website is relatively simple, but sometimes that’s all you need.

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SimplyHired: SimplyHired offers one of the most robust, online job databases out there. The search engine company taps into job listings from across the Web, utilizing information from local newspapers to government websites and everything in between. You can search and browse for specific jobs by title, company, or even skillset and refine the results by your desired location. A free account also allows you to upload your resume for personalized results, manage recent searches, setup email alerts and more. And with more than five million jobs, there’s sure to be something for everyone.

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LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the premiere social networking site for professionals, but it’s also a great free tool for crowdsourcing and landing jobs. You can create a personalized, resume-like profile touting your work experience and various skills, and send invitations to other LinkedIn users to join their network. It works in a similar fashion to the six degrees of separation idea; once you’re connected with another user, you can peruse their network and create valuable contacts to further your connections with other users. The website also serves as an online job board where employers can post available openings and LinkedIn users can apply.

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Craigslist: Craigslist isn’t just used for landing a free sofa or renting out a spare bedroom in your house. Although the website is more stripped down and harder to navigate than some of the other options, it’s still is a fantastic resource and an appropriate avenue for checking out the current job landscape. Just pick your desired location and one of the numerous job categories (i.e. education, government, hospitality) to begin. Be forewarned though, some of the categories can be overly broad, scammers are abundant, and employers are typically bombarded with applicants.

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Monster: Monster.com was once the king of online job boards. Although that may no longer be the case, the website still serves as yet another great option for job hunting with more than a million available listings. You can browse and search listings by wage, time or category among other things, and upload your resume for greater specificity and customization. The website also offers career advice including resume and salary negotiation tips, potential job interview questions and more. It’s not the most extensive of the job search websites, but Monster does a phenomenal job when the search engine is coupled with the career tips and a noteworthy support forum.

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Dice: Dice.com has been the go-to option for technology and engineering jobs since its inception in the early ‘90s. The site offers approximately 80,000 jobs listings on any given day, whether you’re looking for an entry-level position at a small Silicon Valley startup or a coveted position at Google or Microsoft. Users can create a profile, upload a resume and search postings from around the globe. Dice also offers tech news, career advice and a lively support forum that covers topics from computer forensics to tips for understanding seemingly cryptic job descriptions. For more specialty job sites, try your luck with eFinancialCareers for finance jobs or MediaBistro for all things media.

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CareerBuilder: CareerBuilder.com isn’t the best job search website available, but it remains one of the most widely used and popular. It offers all the basic features and allows you to browse and search job postings by skillset, company, and location, among other attributes. A free account gives you options for uploading your resume, managing your job history, and accessing the comprehensive salary calculator. The site even offers a free job competition report so you can get a glimpse of whom you’re up against for any job you apply for. It’s not the most fancy of sites, but it’s simple, straightforward, and to the point.

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TweetMyJobs: TweetMyJobs.com is an entirely different breed of social networking — one that beautifully combines social media with the painstaking task of finding a job. All you have to do is select which types of jobs you’re interested in (or “job channels” as the site refers to them) and connect with your Facebook and Twitter profile. TweetMyJobs will then send you tailored job recommendations directly to your email, mobile or Twitter account depending on your preferences. You also can create a custom profile and upload a resume to speed up the application process. It’s a great method for Twitter addicts to stay up to snuff on the current job market.

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USAJobs: USAJobs.gov is the U.S. government’s official site for federal jobs and their accompanying information (i.e. eligibility, benefits, salary). Although the site is a bit limited, there are still thousands of jobs to comb through, whether you’re on the hunt for that ideal job researching soil for the government or looking to join the team as a Hazmat specialist. USAJobs is current, frequently updated, and often features government positions other job search websites may have missed. You can even apply through the website to streamline the application process.

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Internships: Internships.com is a great option if you’re a student looking to gain some valuable work experience or if you’re just not looking for a full-fledged job. The free-to-use website is one of the largest internship hubs to date and typically features more than 60,000 positions at more than 25,000 companies scattered across the country. You can search by paid or unpaid internships, full- or part-time, and a slew of other options including category, company, and location. Plus, the site offers a mobile app and resume templates if you’re just beginning your hunt.

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/best-job-search-websites/#ixzz2Ic1qRkOh

Why you have what it takes to be a great entrepreneur

By Neil Patrick

The last few days I have been guilty of doing what I criticise others in the media for doing i.e. focussing too much on all the bad news (well there has been a lot of it to cover!)

So by way of restoring the balance, here’s a great video featuring Phil Poje of Tech Orchard. He’s a very calm character, but don’t let the measured delivery fool you. He’s got real passion under that cool façade.

Here he talks about why our generation has what it takes to succeed in business and how you can go about organising yourself to create a business you absolutely love... and which rewards you not just financially, but emotionally too.

His thoughts mirror my own almost exactly. If you feel that your mid-life years are a time to re-assess your future, then you will take inspiration from his comments about why you already have so much potential to succeed.

In my view, if we can’t expect the economy, our investments or our employers to look after us, it is time to take matters into our own hands. Creating our own independent income streams for ourselves is the best possible way to do this.

Robert Kiyosaki – Life Choices

By Neil Patrick

Robert Kiyosaki , best selling author of the ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ series of books has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons lately. In case you don’t know, this month, one of his former partners sued one of his companies (Rich Global LLC) successfully for $24m.

The lawsuit involved a retrospective claim for unpaid royalties from what I understand. Rich Global is one of around 10 firms he owns, so I don’t know yet if he is personally bankrupt, or whether he can cover these losses from other assets.

But that doesn’t really matter right now. To my mind, none of this invalidates his valuable teachings around the subject of how we go about organising our lives to create sustainable financial security. Here’s a clip which sets out his perspective very clearly and is essential for us to get a grip on our life choices and where they will ultimately lead us.

He may be down right now, but I wouldn’t bet on him being out!