The best advice I received and lessons I learned when taking a big career risk later in life.
Hi everyone! Long time no talk. I hit pause on my writing for a bit to focus on some big changes in my world. As many of you know, in addition to my writing, I work as a financial planner. Toward the end of last year, I decided to go out on my own and start my own financial planning company. It’s something I’ve thought about doing for a long time, but never pulled the trigger.
Then last year I thought, what better time to do it than during a pandemic induced global shutdown! Seriously though, I’d been with my previous company for 25 years, enjoyed the people and the work and made a good living. It was a tough decision to move on, but it ended up being one of the best decisions I’ve ever made (more on the new company at the end of this article).
I’m sure many of you have faced similar forks in the road or are maybe even contemplating one right now. So for my first article back, I thought I’d write about the best advice I got and lessons I learned as I contemplated the change and then took the plunge. Hopefully, it will help some of you
Don’t let fear make your decision. Pretty much anything you do in life that’s worthwhile and difficult will get you out of your comfort zone. In other words, it’s going to scare you. That fear is a good indicator that you should be paying attention. It’s a reminder that you should consider your path carefully. Just don’t give it veto power over your decision making. If you let fear make your decisions, you’ll never do anything worthwhile. Choosing unhappiness over uncertainty is often a bad choice.
Sometimes you’re not ready to do it until you’re ready to do it. When I told my brother about my decision to start the company, his first response was “It’s about time.” Then he laughed and said he was only kidding. He’s a successful business owner and he said looking back on it, he wasn’t ready to start his business until the day he started it. Had he started it 6 years or even 6 months earlier it would have failed. As I said before, don’t let fear hold you back, but also don’t start before you have the things you need to make it work. Timing is important.
Sometimes the only difference between a huge success and the status quo is just a willingness to say yes. I have a friend who coaches founders of very successful organizations. He told me it’s easy to look at these people and think that their success is a direct result of their skills, hard work or brilliance. Truth be told, he’s often surprised by how normal they are. What they have, however, is a willingness to try. When the time came where a decision was required, they said yes and took the risk. You don’t need to be Albert Einstein or Elon Musk to succeed at something. You just need to put your yes on the table.
Sometimes the best time to do something is when things look their worst. When I talked to my dad about it, I asked if I should wait because of all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. He thought about it for a second and then told me the story of when he started his business back in the early 70s. The economy was in terrible shape and he’d just been laid off. Unlike me, he didn’t have much choice about what came next. No one was hiring and he had a growing family to feed, so he started his own company. Looking back on it years later, he realized that was the perfect time to start. His opportunity was greatest when he said yes to something that everyone else was saying no to.
Sometimes older is better. We tend to venerate youth and think of our 20s and 30s as the ideal time of life to take big risks. That’s not always the case. Yes, as you get older you have more responsibilities and more at stake, but you also have more skills, wisdom and life experience. When discussing my situation with a close friend he said “You’ve been doing this for 25 years. There are very few corners you can’t see around.” It’s easy to get complacent and play defense later in life, but truth be told, that’s often a great time to go on offense.
Get comfortable with discomfort. As we age, we often get comfortable. We make more money. We upgrade our house, cars and lifestyle. We get settled into a career. As this happens, we’re less willing to rock the boat. Less willing to take risks. More willing to compromise. Sometimes our fear of discomfort can keep us from doing something that we need to do. If you take a big risk or make a significant change, I can almost guarantee that you’ll go through a period of discomfort. There will be stress, uncertainty, long hours and a big learning curve. But there will also be growth, excitement, challenge, fulfillment and payoff.
Focus on taking the next step. A big change often means a long To-Do list. Don’t get distracted or overwhelmed. Just focus on what’s next. It you try to do too much, very little gets done and the things that you do, don’t get done well. Concentrate your efforts on a few wildly important goals that can be broken down into a series of logical steps. Each day ask yourself: “What’s important now?” What’s the next step that needs to be done to advance the process? Whatever that is, that’s your focus. Not the 500 other things on your list.
Accept Reality. Sometimes an option you’re considering depends on someone or something else. If you’ve tried that door and it stays closed, however, that’s probably a good indication that your way forward is on a different path. Give thanks for the clarity, accept reality, make your decision and move forward.
Don’t burn bridges. Ever. If change takes you someplace new, leave on good terms. Act honorably. Be transparent. Wish everyone well and move on.
How about you? Is there a change you want to make or a new adventure you want to pursue? There’s no time like the present. Don’t talk yourself out of it just because it’s scary or because you’ve had a few birthdays. Decide what you really want out of life and then start taking those plans very seriously.
About the new company
In my financial planning practice, I focus almost exclusively on retirement planning. For 25 years, I did that work at another company and then did all my writing about retirement in books, newspaper articles and at this website. I always thought it would make sense to do those things under the same umbrella, so when I made the switch, I jumped through the hoops necessary to turn Intentional Retirement from a publishing company into a financial planning company. You won’t notice much change going forward. I’ll still post articles regularly at the site and there’s no cost or obligation to follow along. That information is general in nature, however, and is not intended as advice for your specific situation. If you enjoy the articles, but want to do more detailed planning for your retirement, now I can likely help with that as well. Just reach out to me at Intentional Retirement HQ and we can talk further. No pressure obviously, but feel free to touch base if you’d like more information. Thanks for following along. Like I mentioned earlier, the transition went amazingly well and I’m settled into a new day to day rhythm. With that in the rear view mirror, I’m looking forward to writing more regularly again and I’m excited for the new adventure.
A quick housekeeping item. As a result of the changes described above, I had to make a few updates to the site’s Terms of Use, Disclaimer and Privacy Policy. Feel free to review them when you have a chance.
Be Intentional,
Joe