Who here's successfully done a middle age career reboot? What do you do before? Now?

[HardDrive]

If you put together Powerpoint slide decks and Visio diagrams, you could get a job as a business analyst.

[Seahawk]

I have a bit of a LeeH brain worm working for me. This is important stuff, at least to me. So.

I did a tour in the Navy as a "Detailer" at the Bureau of Naval Personnel. It is a prime gig and an indicator that the next rank is assured. Simply put, you manage naval officer careers and try and ensure they find the right fit for promotion, etc.

I thought, erroneously, that the percentage of folks that wanted to track to the next level would be 80/20. It turns out the ratio was more 40/60. I was the 80/20 guy.

I spent hours on the phone with really smart men and women that were making their way through life, a life I could influence positively or in a negative way.

I learned a lot: I listened and did not ever negatively impact a family...I never forgot that the officer I was detailing had a family, kids in school, a successful spouse, or goals different from mine and, in one case, a horse.

I moved some mountains to make sure the Navy didn't crush folks, trust me.

So: Happiness, family, satisfaction, then how do they transition to the next thing was always the theme, ever present. What do I do next?

Transition to the next thing, the inevitable reboot. Most Naval Officers get their commission at 22/23 and can retire with a pension as a Commander 20 years later, a Captain at 26 years from commissioning...in other words, a lot of tread on the tires; young people, in a relative sense, with skills.

The best at it were exactly like LeeH, thoughtful and honest about what they want in the next chapter.

My advice? Volunteer at one of the Tribal Reservations in Arizona. I'd get out of Phoenix and go south a bit.

It will change your life, alter your perspective and make your next choice less of a burden, more of a gift.

Worked for me.

Best, Lee. I am the age the Beatles sang about...you are a young man, embrace the the day, be of service, then decide.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Lee, can't offer you any advice or changing career but can suggest you go for what interests you

This route has worked very well for me, chose it over money and promotion opportunities

Never once had 2nd thoughts about it being the wrong choice and even after 30yrs of doing what interests me I still want to get out of bed and go to work

Well most mornings I do and when occasionally the mornings turn into weeks of not wanting to go to work, I go and find another company that wants my help

[Evans, Marv]

Originally Posted by LWJ

Let me stand up and say it. This is an awesome thread.

There is a lot of wisdom here. Also a lot of looking and longing. I am inspired.

This thread is very heart warming. I imagine this is one of the few places a person could come to find such gold.

[Arizona_928]

Do what you enjoy. Happiness is the only motivation for me.
I'm in my late 20's. Contract through a local district, assistant coached some high school ball this last year and we won state. I run an orchard and been planting seasonal crops for me.

Can make a ton more money local doing other stuff, but i don't care about cash. Pursuit of knowledge interests me. But i like being out in the forest enjoying life

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I was a n'er-do-well during my formative years, eventually quit that and trained hard to become a malcontent for most of my professional life; then I woke up one day and realized my life had passed me by and I've pretty much been a layabout for the last four or five years.

hahaha
All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine.

[Zeke]

I always messed around with cars. My family was typical Leave It To Beaver and not a gearhead in sight. So, after following my nose into one job/opportunity to the next (I was on a Formula 5000 pit crew for a year), one job came at me because I was well versed in fiberglass manufacturing. In fact, I had sort of looked at plastics (Hello Mrs. Robertson) as a career. This particular job took me to the Queen Mary which had just been acquired by the City of Long Beach.

I had to join a union to work the ship. Since fiberglass is initially a liquid, it was considered a coating, therefore. I joined AFL-CIO Painters and Decorators Local 33.

After the QM gig was over I was left with this expensive investment in a union card. IIRC, it cost me $350 in 1970 — you do the math. So I ventured out as a painter doing actual painting knowing nothing about what I was doing. I got fired a lot until this old Dane took me under his wing and taught me enough to hold a job. It was tough work. A 2 man crew was expected to roll on around 90 gallons of paint a day. That was 2 large tract houses or up to 10 apartments. No spraying as the union didn't allow for spraying tp keep more men working.

I lasted 4 years with that and never looked back. But I did start painting houses on my own and worked up to having 3 guys work with me. We took on some odd jobs here and there and I started doing drywall and carpentry.

My next opportunity was to go to work for a large general contractor as a junior superintendent. Sometimes I didn't know what I was superintending, but the job is being a babysitter and nothing more.

I quit and started building room additions and doing alterations and restorations of older properties. These were not all high end jobs, I did a lot of low rent apartments because there was always lots of work in that sector. By then I did know what I was doing and could just about do it all.

Well, I still had that thirst for following my nose and one day I get a call about some French doors. You can install FD's, right? Of course I said having only hung a few doors, maybe 20-25 at that point. So I end up making the frames to retrofit patio door openings and doing this as a sell up for a company installing those plastic sunrooms. I covered 3 counties for them and installed the doors. I thought this was a good business so I started doing some on my own advertising in the newspaper using display ads, not classified. By then it had been 20 years since the Queen Mary and I spent the next 25 years selling and installing doors and windows. Lots of windows.

So what does this have to do with career changes? Doors and windows follow the economy and when a recession hit, things got slow so I'd do other jobs for customers. The last Great Recession ended the window biz. I became a handyman just to make ends meet. Had to sell a couple 911's to pay bills. It was tough and I wasn't getting any younger.

I had always enjoyed fixing things and have hardly ever hired a fix it job out no matter what. Career change: I walk into an antiques store nearby and tell the proprietor that I can repair antiques. I think at this point you get the theme, I fake it until I'm not faking anymore and making a go of it. Been in the antiques repair business now 8 years this January.

Once in awhile I'll go back to contracting if something is really interesting. Better money. The last big reno job I ran was a $300,000 do over of a very classic and architecturally significant 3500 sq ft residence near the county club a couple miles over. That was the winter of 2017-18 and pretty much the end of my shoulder which got replaced later in '18. I've had some problems with that so all I do is the antiques.

This is a great thread and I had thought of doing some consulting AFA historically correct renovations are concerned, but today's market doesn't give a damn. They hire the cheapest labor they can find and cut every corner they can. That is not my life.

And I don't speak Spanish so I don't know what is going on at a jobsite anymore so why bother?

[herr_oberst]

Great synopsis, Zeke. The headline of your resume could read "Journeyman Craftsman" which is not a bad thing at all in my worldview.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by rusnak

What do you do? I'd say always keep in mind your customers. They should always be at the front of your mind. You're not creating demand. You're answering it better than anyone else. That is either your reason for doing it, or you're just chasing an idea rather than an opportunity. The two are not the same.

I develop, build, and hold real estate. I added a seasonal outdoor business, which is now dominant in my area. I also became a fuel and convenience store operator that is now quite notable in terms of sales volume. I make it a point to have fun and always have concern for my customers and my crew. In the process I built quite the extended family who buy in to my drive for customer satisfaction. Along the way I cultivated friendships with friendly competitors, and just outlasted my rivals. Retirement is probably a good 30 years or so away so I have time to contemplate how to grow what I've done, or make my next switch to something else.

I'd like to hear more about what you do, how you started and grew your business. Have always thought your posts on what you do interesting.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by Zeke

.....
I had always enjoyed fixing things and have hardly ever hired a fix it job out no matter what. Career change: I walk into an antiques store nearby and tell the proprietor that I can repair antiques. I think at this point you get the theme, I fake it until I'm not faking anymore and making a go of it. Been in the antiques repair business now 8 years this January........

Memorable line in a great post Zeke: I fake it until I'm not faking anymore

Also agree about construction. Materials costs, labor, and demanding clients have pretty much burned me out.

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

I'd like to hear more about what you do, how you started and grew your business. Have always thought your posts on what you do interesting.

I built real estate projects for around 20 years before I started in my early 40s to dabble a bit in seasonal outdoor retail.

I went into it whole hog so to speak, and opened a pumpkin patch. First, with a tenant as a partner operator which didn't work out so I decided to take on all of the risk buying pumpkins, and I bought all of the stuff to make a small neighborhood pumpkin patch. I was really lucky to find and hire and train a really great crew. That I think was the key to success. They are still with me 10 years later. Within the next 4-5 seasons it grew into a regional event. We have a good following because of our emphasis on cleanliness, customer service, good value, and safety. I took 3 years off when I started to build and then open up an Arco AM/ PM gas station. It is now probably the highest grossing Arco in our area, 3 years after opening. It took us 2 years to reach that level. Through it all, and through good and bad tenants operating it and now with me taking it on again, my crew and customers have become my extended family.

Two years ago I got back into pumpkins again, taking back the operation and I moved it next to the Arco when I built a Starbucks on the former pumpkin patch location, which is today a tenant of mine. I also sell Christmas trees. The break even point for the trees is around 1,100 trees and for pumpkins it is around 4 semi truck loads (53' semi trailer full), so it is not for everyone. You have to be almost crazy. But put it this way: Last year I sold 12 semi trucks at one location. That's well over a third of a million pounds of pumpkins. If you type "# Planet Pumpkin" into google, you'll see some of our customer photos over the years. They post photos on social media of the carnival rides, food, pumpkins, face painting, photo booth, etc etc. I can sell over 2,000 trees if I can get them. Last year was difficult because I only got around 800 trees, so it was a loss on trees but a huge profit on pumpkins. We're going to try to rebuild the tree business but it's going to take time.

Last year was strange. I posted one post to Facebook and then just let the chips fall where they may. It was our riskiest year, but also probably our most memorable.
https://www.facebook.com/Planetpumpkin/posts/3534357946585040

I still develop real estate projects. I'm building apartments with partners, but my passion is putting on the seasonal holiday business, growing the retail business, and spending time with friends.

I could probably write a book about it all.... (p.s.: that's my tractor. I was going to disc the weeds, but needed to get some diesel first)









https://fb.watch/3W94fH3JWO/

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

If you put together Powerpoint slide decks and Visio diagrams, you could get a job as a business analyst.

+ getting yelled at a lot and moved everywhere.

BA is the SPAM of the business world. We can be anything you want

rjp

[Rick Lee]

Mrs. Lee is a business analyst. She's been capped out for a while, can't really get promoted, doesn't really want to and her workload only ever increases as her employer lays off others and shifts their workloads to the survivors. I don't think she's real happy there other than having to be happy to have a job that pays pretty well. I worry what will happen if they decide to lay her off. She won't make this much money anywhere else, even if she finds a job right away.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

That is absolutely fascinating, thanks for putting it all down. I would imagine you could do a TED Talk or something like that, be a guest speaker for an MBA course in entrepreneurialism, etc.

Originally Posted by rusnak

I built real estate projects for around 20 years before I started in my early 40s to dabble a bit in seasonal outdoor retail.

I went into it whole hog so to speak, and opened a pumpkin patch. First, with a tenant as a partner operator which didn't work out so I decided to take on all of the risk buying pumpkins, and I bought all of the stuff to make a small neighborhood pumpkin patch. I was really lucky to find and hire and train a really great crew. That I think was the key to success. They are still with me 10 years later. Within the next 4-5 seasons it grew into a regional event. We have a good following because of our emphasis on cleanliness, customer service, good value, and safety. I took 3 years off when I started to build and then open up an Arco AM/ PM gas station. It is now probably the highest grossing Arco in our area, 3 years after opening. It took us 2 years to reach that level. Through it all, and through good and bad tenants operating it and now with me taking it on again, my crew and customers have become my extended family.

Two years ago I got back into pumpkins again, taking back the operation and I moved it next to the Arco when I built a Starbucks on the former pumpkin patch location, which is today a tenant of mine. I also sell Christmas trees. The break even point for the trees is around 1,100 trees and for pumpkins it is around 4 semi truck loads (53' semi trailer full), so it is not for everyone. You have to be almost crazy. But put it this way: Last year I sold 12 semi trucks at one location. That's well over a third of a million pounds of pumpkins. If you type "# Planet Pumpkin" into google, you'll see some of our customer photos over the years. They post photos on social media of the carnival rides, food, pumpkins, face painting, photo booth, etc etc. I can sell over 2,000 trees if I can get them. Last year was difficult because I only got around 800 trees, so it was a loss on trees but a huge profit on pumpkins. We're going to try to rebuild the tree business but it's going to take time.

Last year was strange. I posted one post to Facebook and then just let the chips fall where they may. It was our riskiest year, but also probably our most memorable.
https://www.facebook.com/Planetpumpkin/posts/3534357946585040

I still develop real estate projects. I'm building apartments with partners, but my passion is putting on the seasonal holiday business, growing the retail business, and spending time with friends.

I could probably write a book about it all.... (p.s.: that's my tractor. I was going to disc the weeds, but needed to get some diesel first)









https://fb.watch/3W94fH3JWO/

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

That is absolutely fascinating, thanks for putting it all down. I would imagine you could do a TED Talk or something like that, be a guest speaker for an MBA course in entrepreneurialism, etc.

Thanks for the compliment. People who've got entrepreneurial ambition have my respect and admiration too. I would want to take a class that would have us as a guest speakers.

[wdfifteen]

I had an interesting conversation with my son in law a few nights ago. He has an MBA and is a 3rd or 4th level manager at a food production plant. Being at a hiring level, he sees what is available out there, so employee retention is a lot more important to him than to the levels below him. He focuses on solving employee problems. He said he never tells anyone they are a good employee. They wouldn't be talking to him if they weren't having problems as employees. Assuming they do their work well, he doesn't tell them they do a good job, he tells them. "You do your work well." It's a subtle, but a big difference. The work you do is not your job. Most employee's point of pride isn't that they toe the corporate line (which is part of doing a good job), it's that they are good at what they are doing hour to hour, day to day, and they do it well. He leverages that pride in their expertise into convincing them to follow whatever corporate rules they are breaking. (One of them is no smoking on company property)
He can retire with a pension and benefits in 10 years. His ambition is go to work for an electrician. He just wants someone to point him at a job and let him do it. He is appalled at any suggestion I make that he become an entrepreneur. It just doesn't appeal to him, and he is amazed at his mother's and mine addiction to walking the entrepreneur tightrope.

[3rd_gear_Ted]

Originally Posted by RANDY P

+ getting yelled at a lot and moved everywhere.

BA is the SPAM of the business world. We can be anything you want

rjp

Business Analyst = pimple on a manager's ass

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by rusnak

Thanks for the compliment. People who've got entrepreneurial ambition have my respect and admiration too. I would want to take a class that would have us as a guest speakers.

There are a lot of people here who have a great experiences and expertise and valuable wisdom to share.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I had an interesting conversation with my son in law a few nights ago. He has an MBA and is a 3rd or 4th level manager at a food production plant. Being at a hiring level, he sees what is available out there, so employee retention is a lot more important to him than to the levels below him. He focuses on solving employee problems. He said he never tells anyone they are a good employee. They wouldn't be talking to him if they weren't having problems as employees. Assuming they do their work well, he doesn't tell them they do a good job, he tells them. "You do your work well." It's a subtle, but a big difference. The work you do is not your job. Most employee's point of pride isn't that they toe the corporate line (which is part of doing a good job), it's that they are good at what they are doing hour to hour, day to day, and they do it well. He leverages that pride in their expertise into convincing them to follow whatever corporate rules they are breaking. (One of them is no smoking on company property)
He can retire with a pension and benefits in 10 years. His ambition is go to work for an electrician. He just wants someone to point him at a job and let him do it. He is appalled at any suggestion I make that he become an entrepreneur. It just doesn't appeal to him, and he is amazed at his mother's and mine addiction to walking the entrepreneur tightrope.

I think this is what seahawk was talking about in terms of passion. Entrepreneurship is definitely not for everyone.

Stability, to me, is monotony, is soul crushing. But to others it's comfort and the very definition of success.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by 3rd_gear_Ted

Business Analyst = pimple on a manager's ass

Well, you can always DIY, but wait!

You can't. Middle management can't / won't figure it out, why they pay us.

rjp