The late Arthur Miller, one of America’s great playwrights, was noted for his outrage against the relentless grinding away of the individual by the industrial machine. He probably would be even more outraged to be characterized as a prime author of one of this age’s most pervasive forms of discrimination: ageism.
But it’s true.
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Miller’s Willie Loman, the protagonist of “Death of a Salesman,” is the quintessential image of the pathetic aging worker in the American mainstream. The reality is something quite different.
In my experience, the older worker, particularly, the really older worker, tends to be the best on the floor.
Why?
Generally, most people who work beyond retirement age are motivated because so many of them are working when they don’t have to. And when you do something you don’t have to, it means you want to and, most likely, you’re good at it.
It’s crazy that we don’t do a better job of harnessing the energy and abilities of older workers.
What about you? Want to prove that just because there’s snow on the roof, it doesn’t mean the furnace is out? Here are some tips, laid out the paint-by-numbers way:
Step 1: Use what you’ve got. Your contact-management system can be worth more to you than your company retirement plan. Before you leave your present position, make sure those IOUs are not only current, but built up as much as possible.
Be the one to introduce your suppliers and customers to your successor, so he or she can hang on to your account. In the next breath, make sure that those suppliers and customers are aware of your next move, so they can be in position to give you some business in return.
Step 2: Surprise! You need a plan! This time, it should be built around your natural advantages: your contacts, your experience, the capital you’ve built up.
If you examine these three assets, chances are you have them in much greater abundance than most people younger than you. They are worth their weight in gold.
Step 3: Don’t try to do it on the cheap. Perhaps you may want to start a business. Remember it’s not a hobby, even if the business you’ve chosen is to make a lifelong hobby pay.
If you’re going out on your own, give yourself a payroll to meet, even if you’re the only one on it.
Step 4: Spend at least 10 percent of your budget on the best professional advice available before you spend a nickel on anything else.
Don’t make a move until your head is swimming from more advice than you ever thought you’d need. The money you spend up front investigating the prospects for the business and for screening out the scams is a cheap price to pay for insurance against disaster.
Step 5: Build an escape hatch. It’s not your failures you’ve got to worry about, it’s the other person’s.
Make sure any sales contract sets forth the sellers’ representations and can be revoked if any of them are false. Also, you want built-in performance clauses that must be met before the full purchase price is paid.
Step 6: Don’t expect your old customers to keep your boat afloat. Even though you can do the work better than someone half your age, you’ll find that the hard part is getting it. You’ll reach the point where you’ve exhausted your previous lifetime supply of prospects among your old friends and you realize you’re going to have to figure out where you’re going to get some new ones. Every business needs new customers.
Step 7: Step up your networking. Keep up whatever clubs or professional associations you belong to, and join some new ones. Be more, not less, active in them.
Step 8: Take some college-level courses. Didn’t you always say you were going to go back to school when you had a chance? Well, now’s the chance. It’s also your best single opportunity not only to stretch yourself, but to get in touch with people one-third your age.
Step 9: Get in an exercise program. Many outplacement firms insist their clientele get on some exercise schedule. You feel better about yourself when you feel better physically.
Step 10: Have some fun at it. Your first career was for the money, the prestige, the security, whatever. Now you’re doing it because you feel more alive and useful. For the first time in your life, you’re naming the game, you’re calling the shots.
Mackay’s Moral: To avoid old age, keep overachieving.
Harvey Mackay is author of The New York Times best seller “Pushing the Envelope.” He can be reached through his Web site: www.mackay.com; or Mackay Envelope Corp., 2100 Elm St., Minneapolis, MN 55414.
