Entrepreneurial Transformation- 50Something and Starting Over

The house is quiet. Quieter than it’s ever been. No kids scrambling to get up and get out for school (that hasn’t been the case for years but you didn’t notice it)…no husband bumbling around, he’s already left early for work (he doesn’t want to appear that even though he’s older, he can keep up with the younger workers - he needs that job!)…or a husband who no longer is there for many reasons and now you’re going this life alone…Silence!

Just last week you were directing a staff of 40, sitting in your corner office, Madam VP of whatever. Or, you declared that you were sick of it all and retired only to find that you weren’t quite ready to deal with that whole fixed income thing. Either way, right now you’re walking around your quiet house feeling purposeless and silently grieving the passing away of 20 something years of working life. What the heck just happened?

Life happened. Either by choice or by making the decision one day that what you were doing wasn’t enough and now you need something more.

So, now what? Remember ladies, I said in my previous post, it isn’t over.

So now is the time you start the second half of what can be the best part of your life. Life after 50something!

I read the book Beyond Half Time* by Bob Buford a few years ago and it focused on living the second half of your life with significance and success. What I liked about the book was that it helped me to see that I could keep dreaming and aspiring beyond raising kids or finishing one career.

The road to finding yourself after 50Something is not always the easiest, but it is doubly rewarding the second (or third) time around. When we pool all of our experiences from our past, we are equipped to achieve more and help more people. Yes, it requires a little more energy (some days I just don’t want to do anything but bask in my past successes or failures), it requires more courage (when you are younger, the consequences of what we do are the furthest things from our minds), and it requires that we keep dreaming.

Lorraine Campman, 58-year-old founder of Music Oasis Lifelong Learning Center in Pennsylvania, says “Don’t let the music die inside of you.  If you have a dream, find a way of fulfilling that dream, and there are going to be rough spots in the road along the way, but you have to persevere, accept the help that’s available out there and do what you can to make it happen”.  She fulfilled her dream through breast cancer, financial woes and starting a new venture in her fifties.

I am one of those 50Somethingers who found my way through one business failure to now doing something of significance that I love. My business partner, Carolyn Johnson, who you will hopefully meet in future posts found tremendous business success in her late 50’s. We are everywhere, us 50Somethingers, and if you are one and want to live the second half with more significance and success, stay connected. As this community grows, we will all prosper and change together.
Stay tuned cause – it still is not over!



* Bob Buford now has a series called Half Time which provides spiritual guidance through Bible study and personal guidance for financial and professional success.

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