Boomer Entrepreneurs

What would you do if you knew you would not fail? I heard this question posed on a favorite television program last Sunday, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. If you’re like me, you will be thinking about this for days to come.

The first thing that came up really surprised me. “I would take a math class!” I thought. Me? A person with almost a lifetime of math anxiety….Yes, exactly, because I would know going in that I was going to pass. So what if I wasn’t the quickest mind in the group? So what if I finished last? I wouldn’t worry about it. I would just go in there to learn. What a novel idea! Taking a class to learn.

I’m embarrassed to admit that fear of math has kept me from some professions that others felt I would be well suited to. Chemistry, physics, statistics……no way could I make it through one of those classes I decided. Or could I have?

Anyway, fear of failure – or loss of ones income or savings no doubt holds many of us back from pursuing what our heart calls us to do. I bring this up now because there has been much in the media lately about how we baby boomers are using our lifetime of learning to launch new careers or start businesses. From 2007 to 2008--the latest data available--new businesses launched by 55- to 64-year-olds grew 16 percent, faster than any other group, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit group that studies U.S. business startups. All told, boomers in that age group started approximately 10,000 new businesses a month.
The trend is so strong that the Kauffman Foundation predicts a sustained entrepreneurship boom, not in spite of the country's aging workforce, but because of it.

I’m guessing that many of us are thinking of entrepreneurship because we simply want to control our work lives and make the big decisions that had previously belonged to our bosses. And according to an AARP survey, one in six baby boomers who work for others hope to be self-employed at some point.

I can share one success story very close to my significant other and me. Our friend John who retired from advertising and moved to Cape Coral decided to do some prospecting in his home office. Before he knew it he had a successful agency with 10 employees. After retiring a second time, he knew his mind was too active to sit on boards or watch the waves. He parlayed his creative writing talent into a business publishing childrens’ books targeted to his areas of interest. His characters, Luke and Linda discover everything from banking to the beaches of Ft. Myers and Sanibel.

“I had the idea to write childrens’ books for many years,” John says, “and when there was plenty of time to research it and really think it through, I hatched my discovery idea.” “It took 2 years to get the first book in print, but now I have 6 in distribution, and I’m working on three more.” “The business is in the black, but the great satisfaction comes from meeting people from all over, and signing and book reading events.”

John, with the help of his wife, began this venture at the age of 66.

Stories such as John’s are all around us here in Southwest Florida. Information technologies continue to make it easier and easier to work out of our homes and keep capital investments lower. Few of us mind that flip flops and shorts have replaced business suits and high heels.

Now, back to my initial question. What is holding you back from exploring that idea or adventure that’s been brewing for too long?

Failure is a very scary concept to be sure. But so is dying with your music still inside you. So, I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes. It comes from Henry Ford. “Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”