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Do I Ever Want To Retire? I Do Not Think So.

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Do I Ever Want To Retire?

retireOn my walk back from my workout this morning, the question about whether I ever wanted to retire popped into my brain.

My wife and I are living in Ajijic, Mexico, one of the oldest expat and retirement locations in Mexico.  We are finalizing our move in the coming months, as we will make a final pilgrimage back to Austin in October 2018, to clean out our condo for rental. We will return in early December to be semi-permanent residents.

I have worked since I was 14 years of age and for most of my career, I enjoyed what I did. My father was an economist for the New York Stock Exchange for 25+ years before he was forced into retirement at 58 years of age. He had a generous pension, but being forced into retirement before he wanted to retire killed him. It took 15 years, but he died because he could no longer do what he loved.

I do not want to be like my father.

Do I Have to Retire?

We have been planning to move out of the U.S. since the early 1980’s when I had an assignment in what was then West Germany working for IBM. This came to head with our current health care and health insurance crisis for baby boomers in late 2016, right before the presidential election. You can read more about this in the post The Looming Healthcare and Insurance Catastrophe for Baby Boomers.

I have since carefully planned the move which you can follow in the Move Abroad and Take Your Job With You Series of blog posts and podcasts.

Now that we have relocated to Ajijic, Mexico, I have met all kinds of people from the U.S., Canada and other parts of the world who are retired. We met a couple of women the other day playing cards at a local taco restaurant. They enjoyed all of the activities that were available to them. Their husbands regularly play golf at several of the golf courses in the area. My visceral response was “yuck”.

If this is what it means to retire, I want no part of it.

Meaning and Purpose

Ever since my bicycle accident in 2002, I have been seeking meaning and purpose in what I do with my life. The thought of spending my days playing games or doing other activities that do not fill a mission is not what I want to do.

We have met many here who are actively involved with a variety of charities that help the local school children, spay and neuter cats and dogs, rescue street dogs, support the arts, and many other worthwhile endeavors. Over time I will likely become involved with one or more of these efforts.

Maybe I am a little selfish, but I want to work on what I want to work on. I created Career Pivot in 2012 to help my peers and friends who were adversely affected by the Dot Com bust and then the great recession. It is something that I feel I can have an impact and yes, make a few dollars doing.

I am mission driven.

Work Less, On My Terms

I have decided I do not want to retire.

What I do want is:

  • To work as hard as I want to work
  • Work on something I am passionate about
  • Stretch me to learn new things
  • To work when I want to work

I want to work less, on my terms, on what I want to work on.

It is rather interesting, this coincides with what the Career Pivot Community membership has told me.

They want:

  • To work on what they want to work on when they want to work on it, and on their terms
  • Have accountability

Lastly, they need to have their horizons broadened. There are so many new ways to work and make money.

Am I being unreasonable? I do not want to retire like my father and many of the people I meet.

I want to continue to contribute to society in a way that I control.

What about you?

Marc Miller  

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How People Think of You May Be Frozen in Time

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Frozen in Time

frozen in timeHow people from our past think of us may be frozen in time. We all have colleagues from the early years of our career who do not think of us in today’s terms. They remember us how we were back then.

Their memories of us are frozen in time.

I learned about this concept from Carol Fishman Cohen, co-founder of iRelaunch. iRelaunch’s about page states:

As the pioneering company in the career re-entry space, iRelaunch is the leader in career re-entry programming of all kinds. iRelaunch works directly with over 40 blue chip companies in a range of roles, to develop, pilot, source for, present in and publicize their re-entry internship programs, or similarly support their efforts to hire relaunchers directly into open roles without internships.

Carol often talks about how her relaunchers are approached by colleagues, classmates, and bosses from years before their career break.  They remember them how they were previously and not how they are today.

This is especially important for those of you who have been unemployed for a long time and your confidence is waning. Many people remember the old you with confidence and vigor. They do not know the person who is worried about whether they will ever get a job again.

Let me give you some frozen in time examples.

Frozen in Time Example #1

Brenda had a long career in the non-profit association world, but after 25-30 years, she was burned out. She went to work for an exciting tech startup which flamed out when the main co-founder passed away. Working in the tech startup world energized her and therefore, she decided to ramp up her technical skills and become a programmer. She quickly learned after completing multiple coding boot camps that no one will hire a 55+-year-old female with no experience.

While all of this was happening, she was caring for both of her aging parents.

Brenda was pretty demoralized and directionless. That was until she was approached by someone she had worked with 10-15 years earlier to do some business analysis work for them. They remembered her as the bright, energetic, focused and really sharp business person, and not the demoralized and directionless person she had become.

It was a short-term project where Brenda went into the organization and reviewed their processes. She then gave recommendations on how to improve the flow of work through the organization.

Brenda was amazed that their view of her was frozen in time. This project gave her the opportunity to get some of her mojo back.

Frozen in Time Example #2

Back in 2016, I wrote “Introverted Sales Guy Job Search – Case Study” blog post. This was the story about Steve who had worked for the same company as an account manager for over 20 years.

Steve had been unemployed for a considerable amount of time and was quite demoralized. Steve thought everybody would think he was a real loser. He did not want to reach out to his network and ask for help. Sound familiar?

I pushed and prodded him to reach out to people he had worked with over the last 20 years. What he discovered was people remembered him as a really nice guy who put his customer’s needs and requirements first. His reputation was frozen in time.

Please read the case study to understand the process I put Steve through.

Frozen in Time Example #3

This is my story.

I planned my exit from high tech after a near-fatal bicycle accident back in 2002. I had worked in high tech for over 25 years and was burned out. Then came a couple years of teaching high school math and a year of non-profit work. I was glad I took a chance, but neither turned out the way I thought they would.

Financially, everything was okay but I needed to go back to work.

I had been away from high tech for over 4 years, which is an eon in high tech. Much to my surprise, I was immediately approached by 3 companies with opportunities.

The first opportunity was to work with someone who I had worked with at IBM years ago on an interesting startup idea.

The second opportunity was to do some contract work for the team I left after the bicycle accident.

The third opportunity was with a sexy tech startup where one of my colleagues at my previous startup was working. She recommended me for the job and I started a few weeks later.

They did not see me as someone who felt they failed at their two previous jobs. They remembered me as the incredibly innovative high tech trainer and instructional designer, which was not how I saw myself at the time.

Their memories were frozen in time.

How Do People Remember You

This is why it is so critical that when you get demoralized from a long drawn out job search to not isolate yourself. I formed the Career Pivot Community website, which as of the time of publication is in beta so that people in the 2nd half of life can find a community to seek help. You do not have to feel so alone.

Seek out others who remember you in better times, allow them into your lives and let them help you.

Very likely their view of has been frozen in time.

What If You Are Not Passionate About Anything? [Updated]

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What If You Are not Passionate About Anything?

Well, there are a lot of us out there who are not passionate about any ONE thing. We are passionate about a combination of things!

I have talked about those interests that you must fulfill to be happy. In my last post, I talked about my wife and her very high outdoors interest.  She knew about this — kinda but she was not aware of it to the extent that she would go outdoors when she felt blue or just needed a boost.

What happens when you are not passionate about anything?

What if you have so many interests that there is not one thing that drives you? Society tells us that being passionate about one thing will drive you to success.

I hate to tell you but that is BS! I am not passionate about any one thing, but a lot of things, and I am fine just that way I am!

Note: This post was originally written in May 2012 and has been the most popular post on CareerPivot.com ever since. It was updated in June 2018.

Make sure and read the comments.

Interests = Passions

I do have a lot of interests but nothing I am passionate about.  The following graphic came from my Birkman assessment. A score of 85 or above is a strong interest and a score over 90 is something you must have in your life to be happy. Notice I do not have any interests over 82. I like to do a lot of different things.

What you will notice about me is:

  • I like putting things together, either physically or logically. (Mechanical)
  • I like helping people.  I have run help desks, support groups and been in training most of my career. (Social Service)
  • I like to research stuff and figure things out. (Scientific)
  • I like to propose ideas and communicate. (Persuasive)
  • To a lesser degree, I like the outdoors. (Outdoor)

For More: Do your skills match your interests in your career?

Multipontentialite

Multipotentialites have a lot of different interests. The problem is there is no single interest that drives them. The one common theme is they love to learn.

You could describe me as a multipotentialite. I like to do a lot of things, not just one.

For More: Are you a Multipotentialite?.

What do I not like to do?

  • I am not a reader AT ALL! (Literary)

If you have read earlier postings you would have learned that I graduated from high school reading extremely poorly.  I read at maybe 30-40 words per minute.  Reading was hard work! Even though I have overcome that in the last 30 years, I still do not read for enjoyment.  I read books when required.

I do not love to do anything.  I like to do a lot of things.  This is both good and bad.  On the good side, I have been able to move around in my career: programmer, engineer, trainer, IT consultant, public speaker, salesperson, school teacher, help desk support person, non-profit fundraiser and now a career designer.

On the bad side, I have been directionless from time to time. I wrote about this in my post when I left teaching titled, Dealing with that Directionless Feeling.  Rather interesting –  this post is found by readers using Google search every week. I am not the only one who gets this feeling from time to time.

What Can You Do About It?

I have long accepted that I need variety in what I do on both a daily and long-term basis. In my career, I have typically changed jobs or area every 3-5 years. This means I have made a lot of lateral career moves, which as a baby boomer, I was told was not something you wanted to do. We were supposed to always be looking for that next promotion.

I followed my own drummer!

I now try to make a change to my business every year to add variety.

I started the Repurpose Your Career Podcast in 2016, which has added a lot of variety. Learning how to produce a podcast has stretched me considerably.

The Career Pivot community website project was started in 2017 and is currently in beta. Building a membership website and community is something I have never done before.

In 2018, along with my virtual assistant, we have been re-organizing the website. You will probably notice the section –

Do You Need Help With …

at the bottom of every post and in the sidebar. We spent a lot of time digging through the nearly thousand pieces of content on the website and organized it into portals. This was fun! We created a Start Here page and eight portal pages.

I purposely make changes to keep things interesting. I am not passionate about anything. I am passionate about a combination of things.

How about you?  Do you feel that you are not passionate about anything?

Are you NOT driven by a single calling? Check out my post about being a multipotentialite and let me know if that resonates with you.

Note: This post is found daily! If you have found this article you are not alone. There are a lot of us who are not driven by any single interest. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ME OR YOU.

Marc Miller  

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Combat Age Discrimination with Strategic Relationships [Updated]

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Combat Age DiscriminationCombat Age Discrimination with Strategic Relationships?

Have you used a strategic relationship to combat age discrimination?

We first want to look at what we mean by age discrimination.

Most of you reading this are over fifty years old and probably have had to combat age discrimination.

I have heard it many times where someone has said, “I walked in the door for the interview, the expression on the face of the interviewer said it all. He/She is old!”

They are probably thinking one of the following:

  • They will never be able to keep up!
  • Their skills are out of date!
  • They will not be able to get along in an office filled with younger people!
  • They are out of date in this world of Social Media!

Why do they think that way?

I want you to go back to your first memories of your grandparents. Over the years, did they slow down? Did they not understand the younger generation?

Many of our biases are based on our own experiences. Could you see your grandfather working next to you? My guess is probably not.

If the hiring manager is in his thirties and sixty-year-old walks in, his thoughts will be shaped by his life’s experiences.

Strategic Relationships

How do you combat age discrimination? You take the fact that you are older out of the equation. It all comes down to having strategic relationships. This is how you combat age discrimination!

If you walk into the interview, and this is the first time the interviewer forms an opinion of you, well… you are in trouble.

I have previously written about a Targeted Job Search. This is where you target the company and not the position. You develop strategic relationships with the target company with the idea that they call you when a position is available.

I had a discussion recently with a friend, Tom, who is over sixty years old. He had his own business for the last twenty years, but the recession had wiped out his customer base. He was now looking for a job, and it was not going well. He had a few interviews, but everyone told him he was overqualified.

I told him his next job would probably be based on a strategic relationship. His eyes lit up as he had just completed a six-month contract that came through a lifelong contact, a small business owner.  The small business owner had hired some twenty-somethings to do a project. He was very unhappy with their work and he called Tom and said are you interested?

That small business owner did not think of Tom as his grandfather. He was not concerned Tom would not be able to keep up. He knew Tom!

Weak Ties

When I left the high-tech world the first time and got certified to be a high school math teacher, my strategic relationship was with my chiropractor! My chiropractor knew me well and knew my values. More importantly, she knew a lot of people. Strategic relationships can come from anywhere in your life.

My chiropractor is a weak tie. A weak tie is a relationship that could have been dormant or someone that you have a loose connection with. I saw my chiropractor every few weeks but would I call her a close friend? No. The advantage of weak ties is they know people that you do not know. If you want to learn more about weak ties check out my post — Discover the Power of Weak Ties After 50.

Has Your Network Aged Out?

A common theme with many of us in the 2nd half of life is our network has supported us throughout our careers. Many of our career moves were presented to us by mentors or peers. As we grow older so do our mentor and peers.

What happens when those people retire, leave positions of responsibility or worse die? Our network withers and the strategic relationships that supported us through the years disappear.

If you want to combat age discrimination you need to be ever vigilant on building relationships. More importantly, you will want to build those relationships strategically at your target companies. You can read more about this topic in my post — Search Aged Has Your Network Aged Out and Abandoned You?

Strategic Relationships are Nothing New

Most of us have been building strategic relationships throughout our career. We did not think about it, we just did it. Now that we are in the 2nd half of life, we can no longer let it just happen. We need to be purposeful in building relationships if we want to propel our careers into our 60s and 70s.

Every interview I have had in the last ten years has been acquired through a strategic relationship. When I walked into the room their initial opinions had already been formed. This is nothing new.

Are you ready to be strategic in developing relationships to combat age discrimination?

Let me know what you think with a comment below!

Marc Miller  

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‘Playing it Safe’ in Your Career is the New Risky [Updated]

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Are you Playing it Safe? If so, that is pretty risky!Playing it safe with your career

Are you ‘Playing it Safe’ with your Career? We live in a world where creative destruction has accelerated. If you are not aware of creative destruction then I suggest you read my post: Surviving Creative Destruction in the 2nd Half of Life first.

We live in a time where automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics are capable of eliminating your job. The recent article 375 million jobs may be automated by 2030, study suggests states:

The McKinsey Global Institute cautions that as many as 375 million workers will need to switch occupational categories by 2030 due to automation.

The work most at risk of automation includes physical jobs in predictable environments, such as operating machinery or preparing fast food. Data collection and processing are also in the crosshairs, with implications for mortgage origination, paralegals, accounts and back-office processing.

This will have a ripple effect throughout many industries.

‘Playing it Safe’ is now the new risky!

If you think that your employer plans on keeping you for more than three years or expects you to hang around more than three years you are ‘playing it safe’ and that is pretty risky!

I started taking risks in my career around the turn of the century.  When I have made those career decisions that were actually pretty safe, they felt very risky.

I started the planning process for Career Pivot in early 2009. Incorporation occurred in late 2010 and the Career Pivot brand was launched in February of 2012. I had thought things through, gotten advice from many trusted advisers, and hired a coach.

In 2012, on a Sunday afternoon, I had a phone conversation with my coach.

I told her that I was feeling very anxious about a variety of things going on at the time.  Logically, I knew everything was going according to plan but, emotionally, I was a wreck. She reminded me that I had re-made myself many times before. (This was the seventh career change of some sort in 35 years.)  Why was this any different? I told her it was not. Every time I go through these changes, it is very anxiety-provoking. I perceived emotionally that I was taking a big risk. It was my perception and, therefore, it was my reality. I was not playing it safe!!

Now Comes the Emotional Side.

I am a pretty unemotional guy as I am a recovering engineer. What I discounted was the emotional side of starting Career Pivot. For the first 18 months in business, I would wake up in a sweat at 4 AM and think I do not have a paycheck! This is the ‘I do not have a paycheck syndrome.’ No one is there to take care of me.

The days of having an employer, company, government … who will take care of you are gone.

Nonetheless, I feel far more safe in my career decisions because I am not relying on an employer.

Is Your Industry Safe?

If you think your job and industry are immune to automation, AI, and robotics then you are smoking something and you are inhaling.

Do not listen to our esteemed Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin when he was quoted as saying:

“Technology has made the American worker more productive. In terms of artificial intelligence taking American jobs, I think we’re, like, so far away from that – not even on my radar screen,” Mnuchin said. “I think it’s 50 or 100 more years.”

Our esteemed treasury secretary must be smoking something because virtually none of the experts agree with him. I guess it helps to be a billionaire and have no financial worries.

Industries are Morphing at a Rapid Rate.

I am working on a blog post and survey based on a Pew Research study called News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017. The study states:

As of August 2017, two-thirds (67%) of Americans report that they get at least some of their news on social media – with two-in-ten doing so often.

Even those of us who are in the 2nd half of life are getting news from social media as the study states:

For the first time in the Center’s surveys, more than half (55%) of Americans ages 50 or older report getting news on social media sites.

Remember reading a newspaper and watching the evening news? I sure do! But, now, I never watch the evening news. I read the local Austin American Statesman newspaper on my iPad on Sunday mornings, and get most of my news from the Apple News app.

The news industry is just one example of where change is occurring at lightning speed. I have written multiple posts on this topic:

Even professions like Information Technology (IT), which everyone thought would be safe, are no longer.

Career Safety is the New Risk.

When I left my last corporate employer I swore I would never work for anyone again as an employee. My wife and I have downsized. We have greatly simplified our lives. We have lived for the longest time mostly on savings. It took 2 years before I started paying myself and I am still drawing some money from saving after 5 years in business.

We even plan to move to Mexico in 2018. Check out the podcast where I explain how and why. Why The Millers are Moving to Mexico and How They Will Do It! [Podcast]

I am not taking the safe route but it is safer than being an employee!

Are you ‘playing it safe’ with your career?

Marc Miller  

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

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