CHAPTER SEVEN
CATCHING UP TO GET AHEAD: TECHNOLOGY IS YOUR FRIEND NOT THE ENEMY
This book is filled with success stories about people just like you:
Michael Grottola, “right-sized” from his six-figure job on his 65th birthday, who used his engineering background, entrepreneurial spirit and retirement fund to change his life, starting a consulting business that’s helping others change theirs.
Tom Betts and Dave Bateman, both burnt out on the corporate rate race but not on their own prospects, seized timely opportunities to learn new businesses and buy into them with resources they’d accumulated over the years. Not for the faint of heart – or thin of wallet!
Geri Brin and Julie Cole, whose industries could not have been more different, but who both leveraged the reach of the Internet to become self-made businesswomen.
Cliff Brahm and Tim Groves, successful corporate executives who looked for something new and found it in the franchise model. They’re busier than ever, growing by leaps and bounds and relishing their success – and their independence.
Jeff Frank and Brian Hess, who identified problems in their respective industries, invented solutions, then used the fruits of middle age – money and relationships – to turn those solutions into businesses.
Whether they were right-sized, down-sized, burned out, or just ready for a new adventure, these over-50 entrepreneurs gave themselves a second chance by hiring themselves. I love these men and women because I see bits of my own story in each of theirs. I empathize with their fears and tough choices. I rejoice in their success the way my friends, family and fans rejoiced in my own after I reinvented myself as an artist or the Priceline guy or Denny Crane. I learn from their failures the way they learned from mine, as I discovered with great humility during our interviews.
As I sit here finishing this book in my office at home in Kentucky, surrounded by memories from my early years, my eye is repeatedly drawn to something much newer: my Google Calendar. It is packed with meeting requests, conference-call reminders, project due dates; all color-coded and time-stamped like a kaleidoscope of opportunity. What I find most striking about this is that nearly all of items on my calendar—hell, the calendar itself—are born of choices and successes from the last 10 years, facilitated by the explosion of technology, social media and mobile devices. Things like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, iPhones, iPads, WordPress, cell phone cameras, etc.
It’s like the bridge of the Enterprise – and I’m a real captain this time!
Without these tools—and that’s what they are, tools—my Brown Bag Wine Tasting series on YouTube wouldn’t be possible. Do I make a lot of money from that? Or course not. But it’s fun, it keeps me in touch with good people who I like, and it keeps me sharp in front of the camera. All of those things, when you combine them in other areas, those do make me a lot of money.
Take Twitter, for instance. You could never mount a more modest stage: you get 140 characters. Your picture’s in the corner. And that’s it – Twitter! And yet I have nearly two million people following my every word – can you believe it!?! With this tool I can speak directly to fans. They give me feedback on things like my new album or my Shatoetry app, or my appearances at Star Trek conventions. All that feedback makes me better at those things, which makes the products better, and adds value to the lives and experiences of my fans.
Think of it as 140 characters… with zero limits.
Young people understand the power of these assets implicitly. They take the technology for granted at times (welcome to young people!) because they’ve grown up immersed in it. In fact, those of us who weren’t raised around this technology might argue that young people’s interactions are defined by them. (And if we’re not careful we might even breathe an annoyed sigh when we say so.) But do you know who else understands the importance of technology?
Michael and Tom and Dave and Geri and Julie and Cliff and Tim and Jeff and Brian.
Each of them recognized early in the growth of their entrepreneurial ventures that 21st century weapons would be critical to their survival. No, they hadn’t grown up with social media or mobile devices; understanding them wouldn’t be second nature like it is for their children and will be for their grandchildren. But they embraced the technology anyway. They did what Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, told a generation of professional women to do: lean into the problem. Lean into the discomfort and unfamiliarity in order to conquer it.
That choice, I discovered as I talked to people all across the country, is the only major difference between those Baby Boomers who will read this book and those who won’t because they’re too busy expanding their businesses or building the next phase of their lives. They’ve already embraced the technology and applied the same discipline and effort to learning it that they applied to raising children, fighting injustice, accumulating wealth and building our future.
Which is another way of saying: This is not a complete book. This is not the final frontier. It is still missing one thing: your story. And for the vast majority of Americans over 50 years old who are struggling in the turbulent new economy, the reason your story is not in this book is because you have not yet made this choice. That’s the bad news: you have to catch yourself up.
Here is the good news: catching up is easy. It’s literally something a 2-year-old can do!
I spoke to Ezra Firestone one last time about this. He lives in New York City, but travels all over the world talking to groups who are trying to build and grow businesses of their own. I caught up with him on the phone in an airport lounge between flights. He crystallized the issue perfectly, I think.
“The barrier to entry from a technology standpoint has gotten really low,” he said, “and the Boomer generation is leveraging that new technology as well as anyone else. In fact, they’re leveraging it better because they get more done in a shorter period of time.”
In other words, you have a pre-Internet attention span.
Use it!
Off the top of his head, Ezra rattled off a dozen educational resources at their disposal as well as a number of online platforms that make it very easy to build businesses, many of which we’ve already touched on here and in previous chapters: WordPress, Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, Khan Academy, the list goes on.
As Ezra’s voice cut through the chatter of the international departures lounge, it reminded me of when I first had to tackle these same technology issues well into my 70s. A website and email were easy. I could have someone build and manage those things for me, and that’s what I’ve done for several years. But all this other technology, if it was going to be effective for my brand and my business, I would actually have to learn how it worked and how to use it. No one was going to beam me up to the ship – I had to get there on my own.
I struggled at first, especially with Twitter -- 140 characters? Have you not seen me on the stage or heard me tell a story? You cannot tie this stallion to so short a rope! That’s how I felt at the beginning. Then my assistant Kathleen found these two gentlemen who ran a small service called “Catch Me Up” that was designed for people just like me. They’d just made their second video about Twitter and she forwarded it to me. It was a revelation. It answered all the simple questions I felt too silly or stupid asking. In a lot of ways, I credit learning how to use Twitter properly as the reason I’ve been able to build the following I currently enjoy.
The Internet is not the Field of Dreams. It’s not “build it and they will come,” as Julie Cole so aptly put it. You have to use the technology to give people something that they want. That’s a lot easier said than done, but if you pull it off on regular basis, these technological innovations can unlock business success no matter the field, the product, or the service. (I learned that from “Catch Me Up” as well).
And there isn’t just one way to learn about this stuff. There are countless tools at your disposal—as both Ezra and I can attest. But there’s one ingredient no one else can provide: You. If you don’t make the choice to join the ranks of the over-50 entrepreneurs in this book who hired themselves – the choice to get caught up – then you never will.
When the boarding announcement for Ezra’s flight home came through the loudspeaker in the lounge, I quickly thanked him for his insight so he could get packed up and on his way. But before he did, he left me with a pearl of wisdom that I want to leave with you:
“American baby boomers are a generation of people who reinvented every decade of their lives. They’re not sitting on the porch in their 50s and 60s. They’re not lying in bed in their 70s, waiting to die. They’re out there doing things. They’re learning to snowboard, they’re learning to ski, and they’re becoming yoga instructors and building businesses.”
Ezra paused to take a breath, or maybe for effect (watch his videos – he’s very good), before concluding his point by addressing me directly:
“They’re not afraid of technology, Bill. It’s just new and it’s different and it’s not what they grew up with. But what I’m seeing is that they’re getting out there and doing it, and they’re doing it well.” Amen.
Take these stories to heart, listen to experts like Ezra, and learn from my trials and triumphs. And if you do only one thing after you close the cover on this book, please just get yourself caught up. It will put the next phase of your life into warp drive.
Plus, you’ll finally know what your kids are talking about!
If you want to, that is.
