INTRODUCTION

If you’re over 50 years old and reading this right now, one of two things has probably already happened to you: either the new economy has risen up and bitten you in the ass or you’ve seen it happen to someone you care about and you realize you’re unprepared for when it happens to you. Whichever camp you fall into, you’re not alone. In the wake of the 2007-08 financial crisis and the “Great Recession” that followed, similar stories have been playing out across the country. As if our over-50 asses didn’t have enough problems!

Workers—both blue and white collar—have seen their 401Ks, IRAs and money market funds decimated. At the same time, they watched as large multinational companies streamlined operations, trimming the fat (translation: their jobs) in order to stay profitable. And profitable they stayed, at record levels in fact. The Dow bounced back and rocketed past the 17,000 mark. The S&P 500 took it on the chin but has since vaulted over 2000. But it seems the only people benefitting are the bankers and the ladies who strip for them. I don’t know about you, but my years of looking good in a g-string are long gone.

What haven’t bounced back are the jobs. That’s the dirty little secret of this recovery. Corporations are making record profits and the stock market indexes are hitting record highs because big business has realized they can be just as productive with half the people. All those jobs that companies had to cut when things went south in 2007-08? They don’t need them anymore. They may have never needed them if you were to ask some CEOs, and this downturn was their chance to trim that fat. (And If you don’t like being called ‘fat,’ then for God’s sake stay out of show business!)

There’s a new book out called “Choose Yourself”, by an ex-hedge fund manager and entrepreneur named James Altucher, which first made this new reality totally clear for me. I knew something was up before I read it—there was something fishy about this new environment in which we found ourselves—I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Too many of my fans were still struggling. Too many of my friends, and their friends and families, were worried not just about making it through retirement (what if the money that was left dried up too fast?) but even making it to retirement (would they ever be able to retire now?). This passage from “Choose Yourself” really opened my eyes:

I recently visited an investor who manages more than a trillion dollars. You might think a trillion dollars sounds impossible. I did. But there’s a lot more money out there than people let on. It’s squirreled away by families who have been hoarding and investing and reinvesting for hundreds of years. And this trillion dollars I speak of belonged to just one family.

We were high up in the vertical City of New York. His entire office was surrounded by glass windows. He brought me over to one of them. “What do you see?” he said.

I don’t know, I thought. Buildings.

“Empty floors!” he said. “Look at that one. Some bank. All empty.” He pointed at another building. His fingers scraping across his window like…I don’t know…whatever a spider uses to weave its web. “And that one: an ad agency or a law firm or an accounting firm. Look at all the empty desks. They used to be full, with full-time employees. Now they’re empty and they will never fill up again.”

I spoke with several CEOs around that time and asked them point-blank, “Did you fire people simply because this was a good excuse to get rid of the people who were no longer useful?”

Universally, the response was a nervous laugh and a “Yeah, I guess that’s right!” And because of the constant economic uncertainty, they told me, they are never going to hire those people again.

Yeah -- they’re nervous.

That is the world—the new economy—we live in today; a world of empty floors. Countless articles have been written about the plight of the poor, the undereducated, the lower middle class, veterans, all of whom were the ones kicked out of those now-vacant office suites and are having a hell of a time getting back in. Their circumstances are very real and certainly very difficult. One group you haven’t heard much about in this discussion, however, is yourselves.

At, or nearing retirement age, Americans over 50 years old face a unique yet equally difficult set of challenges in the new economy. You have more experience, which is good, but your average salary demands are higher, which is bad. You don’t make a lot of mistakes, which is good, but you move a little slower than the younger candidates who will work for 60% of what you’re asking, which is bad. You have a great work ethic and take pride in your work, which is good, but you aren’t as comfortable with the rapidly changing technology landscape as the Millennials, which is bad. Finally — let’s end on a positive — you can name all the members of Led Zeppelin, which is good.

This puts you in a tough spot in the job market. Assuming, of course, that you’re looking for a “job.”

In the rest of the chapter, titled “Permanently Temporary”, Altucher goes on to describe the new economy. The circumstances—the conditions on the ground—are nothing you haven’t already heard, read, seen or felt. But, he says, as a worker, the new economy has given you two choices: permanent temporary employment or creative entrepreneurship.

You don’t have to throw yourself into the job market. You can create your own market. You don’t have to knock on every door in town hoping that someone will hire you. You can hire yourself.

And what’s more, with greater experience, stronger networks, better financial resources and credit histories, Americans over 50—you brilliant silver foxes, you!—are uniquely situated to take fullest advantage of the entrepreneurial opportunities created by the tectonic shifts of the new economy. Not only can you leap into the next phase of your lives, but you can secure your financial future in the process.

Now you’re probably wondering what the hell William Shatner is doing writing this book. You’re probably thinking: William Shatner is rich and famous and devilishly handsome (and you’d be right, by the way), he has no idea what I’m dealing with!

Well, that’s where you’d be wrong. I am a professional actor. I have been permanently temporarily employed my entire life. According to the entertainment website IMDB.com, since 1951, I have had more than 400 different roles in television and film (not including talk show guest appearances). That means in 60+ years in my profession I’ve had 400+ jobs. And even more frightening, at least looking back on it from my perspective, that means I was unemployed hundreds of times too. If they gave me a medal for each time I was jobless, I wouldn’t be able to stand And I’m not alone. Professional actors spend most of their careers unemployed. We are out of work all the time. Every time we finish a show--be it a television segment, a movie, stage production, commercial, voiceover gig, pretty much anything actors do to keep alive—we’re out of a job. So you don’t have to tell me about job hunting or the anguish of being unemployed. I know the bitter taste of not working. I know the stomach clenching feeling of wondering where your next dollar is coming from or how you will keep a roof over your head or how you will support everyone else who depends on you to make enough money to stay alive.

I have been there. When I was a kid, I was there. When I was a young man, I was there. Even as a middle-aged man, I was there. And when I got older than middle aged, somewhere between stiff and decrepit, I was still there.

It was around this time, in the doldrums of the mid-1990s after the long run of Star Trek movies that covered the entire 1980s really, that I got tired of being there. I searched and searched for a way out until finally I found my answer one morning. It was staring back at me in the mirror. I was my own way out. Also, I needed a shave, but you get the picture.

I’d been in the business for 50 years at that point. I had some money. I had a ton of experience. I knew the tricks to exploit and the pitfalls to avoid. I didn’t need studio or network executives to sign off on whether I was a good fit for this or that project—though I would never turn down their offers if the money was right; I’m not crazy! I realized that if I wanted to do something—a commercial, a book, an album, a horse show—I could just go do it myself. I could make it happen. I didn’t just have to be William Shatner, the actor. I could be William Shatner, LLC. William Shatner Incorporated. William Shatner™.

* My IMD profile page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000638/

William Shatner.com. (Go ahead – check it out!)

Don’t misunderstand, in many ways, even if it doesn’t show on my balance sheet, I am still there in my mind, in my soul. I am there every time I finish something and I think to myself, I wonder what’s next? I wonder if there will even be a next. I start thinking about whether I can survive physically another tour, a long movie shoot, or a 24-hour flight to some distant location. These are heady questions about life and career and mortality. What has pulled me back from that pit of anguish and that stomach clenching feeling has been the ability to hire myself.

It’s an ability we all have, especially those of us over 50 years old. That’s why this book is for you. It will help you appreciate those unique skills you’ve developed over the years. It will help you identify those areas where you might need to get stronger. And most importantly, it will teach you how to ride this wave of entrepreneurial spirit by identifying specific ways you can HIRE YOURSELF.

So if I may, I will conclude by bastardizing my cherished late friend Leonard Nimoy’s most famous line:

Live longer and prosper!

William Shatner March 2014