Choices. We all love choices. There’s power in the word choice. It makes us feel in control because we get to decide what we want and what direction we want to go. If I’m on a flight and my ‘choice’ of meal is not available, I feel disappointment, but more importantly, I feel that my right to choose has been taken away from me. I’m left to take whatever meal is available, lest I go hungry. In some ways I feel as though I’ve been robbed because I didn’t get to decide, the decision was made for me.
Yes, I’m probably a bit of a control freak at times, yet when it comes to choices, this is something that I don’t take lightly.
Various dictionaries define the word choice as ‘the act of choosing between two or more possibilities; the right; the power; the opportunity to choose.’
I particularly like the last three lines; the right, the power and the opportunity to choose. That very last line is the one that resonates with me the most, especially when it comes to deciding how I will live my life and what type of work that I will do. I’ve been an entrepreneur for the past 25 years and that has been my choice to do so.
Sadly, we are seeing all over the world, men and women leaving the corporate world and not of their choosing. More and more 50-60 SomethingTM individuals are being pushed out of the corporate world due to downsizing or to put it bluntly, because they’ve become too expensive to keep.
Are you a baby boomer at risk of losing your job or are your currently unemployed struggling to find a new job? With unemployment for 55+ year olds on the rise, are you confident that you’d be able to replace your current salary if you were suddenly made redundant? Can you afford to take that chance?
No, not everyone over the age of 50 will lose their jobs, however for those who do, they will find themselves swirling around in the perfect storm and struggling to get out of it.
Great power is yours when you are in the position to choose your future. Make the conscious choice to become a 50-60 Something Start-up Entrepreneur. Make the choice of what type of work you want to do. Make the choice to decide when and where you will work. Make the choice to leave on your terms vs being asked to leave. Make the choice to become an opportunity-driven entrepreneur and not a necessity-driven entrepreneur.
The 50-60 Something Start-up Entrepreneur: How to Quickly Start and Run a Successful Small Business book offers a step-by-step guide to set up and run your own business; encourages business owners to embrace technology; how to outsource and overcome overwhelm.
Decide if entrepreneurship is for you. Click here to download the Ideas-to-Reality Checklist.
Entrepreneurship consultant, keynote speaker and author, Pamela Wigglesworth has carved out a unique space in the market specializing in small business marketing and senior entrepreneurship. She is the author of The 50-60 Something Start-up Entrepreneur: How to Quickly Start and Run a Successful Small Business. Discover if entrepreneurship is for you.
