The road less travelled

When my father turned 50, he was at the peak of his career in management, handling of one of the world's leading metal producers. Another 10 years later, as he left the role for his first 'retirement', he carried with him the same passion he had always had for personal growth, along with the years of wisdom he had accumulated working in leadership positions.

At 67 now, he has just completed his Ph.D and is head of department at a leading Engineering College.

His remarkable achievement this year got me thinking. A lot of us look at aging as a natural burden and have a strange expectation that we need to stop working and stop producing great things when we reach a certain age.

Clearly, as exemplified by my father, this isn't the case for everyone and I would argue that it should also not be the case for most of us. As Vivek Wadhwa has noted, 'Ideas come from need; understanding of need comes from experience; and experience comes with age.' Age is therefore one of the crucial ingredients of a great product and service.

Think about it personally; no matter your age, have you not built up a wealth of experience and knowledge? Have you not seen more and done more than the younger version of yourself? Would you not be able to make better decisions than you would have when you were in your 20s? Would you not be able to set up systems, manage your tasks and manage people better now?

Old dog, fine-tuned tricks

When many people think of entrepreneurs today, they think of young, fast-growing tech startups. While the media focuses on people like Mark Zuckerberg, the reality is that experience does make you a better businessperson. It is not just a philosophical point; there is real data behind this.

A study at Duke University examined 539 technology ventures and showed that there are twice as many successful entrepreneurs over 50, as there are those who are under 25. It also showed that in high-growth industries such as computers, health care and aerospace, the average age of the successful entrepreneur is 40.

A brief look at some of the most successful entrepreneurs lends weight to this argument. Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals at age 76. The original creator of Coca-Cola founded the company with his reformulated beverage (replacing the coca with sugar) at 55. Colonel Sanders job-hopped most of his life and then at age 65, cashed his social security check and created the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. Ray Kroc, the man who made McDonalds what it is today, only bought the business from the McDonald brothers when he was 59.

With so many examples out there of seniors taking the business world by storm, it is surprising that our society still favours the attributes of the young when looking for business growth.

Perhaps not entirely surprising in that when a young person does become a successful entrepreneur, it is rather exceptional. But for that very reason, should we not realise that it is actually normal for the more experienced of us to be building and growing successful businesses?

Ask any successful businessperson who is aged over 40, and they're likely to have built their success by testing and measuring their approach, finally discovering the combination of marketing, product development and sales that works.

They're unlikely to have 'struck gold' by some ingenious stroke of luck, but instead nurtured their success through careful thought, planning, perseverance and wisdom. I have always maintained that a large part of business growth is often consistent repetition of what already works. It is a path that I have used to help hundreds of businesses achieve greater success.

A change in perception

A large part of this has to do with mind-set principles. We are told that we are meant to aim to retire at around 60. We are bombarded with this idea in the media we consume, many of the structures put in place by our government and even the pressure from younger generations that see us as 'outdated'.

For this reason, so many of us prepare ourselves for a fairly early retirement by starting to wind down, rather than opening up to, or even actively seeking new opportunities.

We rarely entertain the notion that this could be the best time to start a new business or ramp up our business growth. We unfortunately consider the senior entrepreneur to be a rare fluke rather than the norm. Instead of being encouraged to stoke the wisdom we have spent years building, we are encouraged to back away from new, exciting opportunities.

As a business coach, I often find our more seasoned clients are some of the best to work with and achieve the best results. They have seen how business works, they are really aware of when to push themselves and they know when to ask for help.

They listen carefully and make decisions based on sense and wisdom rather than irrationally or with unchecked emotional responses. They are keenly aware of their strengths, and they know when an outside eye will help them achieve the next level in their business.

Best of all, senior entrepreneurs know that talk is cheap. Action is what gets results and they know that they have to implement changes in their business, not just talk about it. And believe me, when you are excited about something that you are building for yourself, no matter what age you are, you will always find the energy to take action and get the job done.

The main qualifier that separates successful senior entrepreneurs from those in the 'shutting down' mode is their quest for growth. They have the mind-set of wanting to do things that they have not done before and, importantly, believing that they can be more successful than they have ever been. The saying that you can't teach an old dog new tricks only really applies to dogs: successful entrepreneurs continuously learn and grow.

Changing your mind-set can have powerful effects in almost any part of your life. Societal norms and the situations portrayed in the media sometimes need to be challenged in order to discover the untapped success that is locked inside you.

If you are nearing the so-called 'retirement age', then it may be time to revisit your mind-set. Are you winding down your brain, or are you revving it up to apply those years of learning and wisdom? Which direction should you actually be heading in, at this point in your life?

Now is the time to exercise your business acumen; when you are full of life experience, have a greater awareness of long-term implications and have a grounded outlook, this is when your creativity and innovation can flourish into a practical and successful business venture.

Experience comes with age - now may be the time to put your experience to use.

Shweta Jhajharia is a principal coach and founder of The London Coaching Group

@Londoncoachingg

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