On occasion, I assist my clients with hiring accounting and higher level executive staff. I constantly see many 50ish and older candidates who were making six figures, trying very hard to get a job that pays only $70,000 (or at times, even less).
Part of the reason this happens is because employers, consciously or subconsciously, overlook the older candidates prefering to hire a younger, less expensive, more energetic, more open-minded, more interested in learning new skills, computer savvy person who will stay with the company for 25-30 years. In reality, that “ideal younger hire” doesn’t exist, however, many of the biases associated with an older candidate are accurate. Many older candidates are less willing to listen, less willing to learn, expect to be paid more, less computer savvy, unwilling to keep up with technological advances and are less open to change. Ageism is ubiquitous and even after all of the other prejudices like racism and sexism no longer exist (yes, I am an optimist), ageism will be the “ism” that outlasts them all.
I believe this because we (you and I) make decisions that almost guarantee that we will fall victim to ageism. To prove it, I want you to try this very simple exercise:
Think back to the year you finished school and started your career, add up your total number of years of experience. I graduated from college in 1991, I have 28 years of experience. Now answer the following two questions - How many different companies did you work for? and How many different titles have you had throughout your career? I worked for 7 different companies and I have played the role of auditor, senior accountant, assistant controller, controller, CFO, COO and owner.
Finally, I want you to think about all of the repetitive or seemingly identical workdays performed where very little thought was needed to complete them - sum them up and deduct them from your years of experience. In other words, I want you to determine the total number of years of experiences by subtracting all of the days where you felt you weren’t really learning anything new. Even with my many different jobs and job titles, I still had many repetitive days where I could literally come in and complete my job in a robotic, thoughtless fashion. If I were to be honest with myself, I would have to say I accumulated about 12 years of experiences over my 28 years of experience (a gap of 16 years).
I’m guessing if you’re being honest with yourself, you will also probably lop off years. It is easy to get comfortable, to perform no more than expected, to become lazy, to feel entitled and to stop learning.
The odds that ageism will occur to you increase dramatically when you let your years of experience outpace your years of experiences. Typically, this gap significantly grows during the later stage of a person’s career - the exact time you need to be working extra hard to shrink the gap!
It wasn’t until about eight years ago when I became mindful of this gap. I was becoming more and more frustrated with my boss for not appreciating what I contribute to the company but in reality, I was getting too comfortable, I stopped learning and growing and it began to show in my work. I realized I needed to make immediate changes or that gap was going to continue to grow at even a faster pace making me more miserable and less interested to come to work.
All I did to get started was to commit to reading more business books and joining professional groups to open my mind to the latest trends and ideas. This simple first step gave me greater exposure to people, an understanding that I had skills that other people needed and the realization that I had to keep learning. This quickly led to volunteering my skills by helping struggling business owners improve profitability, efficiency and cash flow. I began making a significant difference in not only their businesses but their lives. This reignited my passion to work because I once again had purpose and meaning - I was making a difference! Eventually, my volunteer work became a side business until I had so many clients, I opened a full time consulting business - I have never been happier in my professional career.
In less than eight years, I completely reinvented myself because I acknowledged that like it or not, change is happening all around me and if I don’t keep up with the change, I will fall behind and I will eventually become a victim of ageism. This transformation was so impactful, I created a standard of continuous improvement to ensure I never get comfortable with what I’m accomplishing today. I decided to call it the 7-Reinvent after reading about the work of stem cell biologist, Jonas Frisen of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
“Thanks” to the above ground nuclear weapons testing in the 1900’s, Dr. Frisen discovered that the radioactive carbon-14 which now appears in the DNA of all living creatures on earth, could be used as a form of carbon testing to determine the age of the cells of the body.
What he learned was the vast majority of cells such as the cells lining the stomach and the red blood cells would regenerate within a week, other cells like those in the liver take over a year, the human skeleton gets replaced in about 10 years and while most of the cells replace, there were a few areas of the body that never replace including the cells in the cerebral cortex.
Upon publishing his research, Frisen famously stated that “the average age of the cell is between 7-10 years.” After reading that, I concluded, if the body is smart enough to know it needs to reinvent itself every seven years, I should use that as a benchmark for reinvent the other areas of my life, including my professional life.
7-Reinvent is a commitment to continuous learning, coaching, accountability and surrounding myself with people that encourage open mindedness and idea sharing to ensure I continue to become a better version of myself. I know I’m succeeding as long as I can always look back seven years and see a completely different person than who I am today.
Back in 2012, I was a CFO in a 9-5 style career. Today, I’m the owner of a successful consulting business. I’m using my strengths, skills and experiences to make a positive impact on hundreds of people. The more I reinvent myself, the greater the opportunities I have to help more and more people reinvent themselves!
I’m now four and a half years into running my consulting business and every year I have been laying the groundwork, using what I am currently learning, to grow into my new business models. In 2019, I released a book, and I am performing more speaking engagements. In 2020, I will be releasing two internet based SAS (software as a service) programs to make it easier for business owners throughout the world to create and stick to budgets as well as track and forecast cash flow. Finally, I am creating the relationships to build the business model of purchasing and improving small businesses by either turning them around and selling them or scaling them and generating a share of the profits.
What do you see when you look back seven years? Do you see a person performing the same job with the same tasks working in a similar role or do you see someone who has been completely reinvented? If you have changed very little or not at all, YOU are setting yourself up to become a victim of ageism.
Make the decision today to begin your own 7-Reinvent. Begin the process by simply reading books to open your mind to new ideas. Join peer groups that will force you out of your comfort zone, build new relationships, create accountability and challenge yourself.
By following the 7-Reinvent, you will reignite your passion to work, you’ll will think with an abundance mindset, you will be seen as a leader and if you’re an employee, your boss will notice, if you’re a business owner, you’ll feel more confident to make adjustments to your business model and will allow your employees more autonomy to operate and grow the business without you feeling you need to be there.
Most importantly, gone will be the days where you get bored at work because your gap between experience and experiences will be shrinking, not growing. With the help of 7-Reinvent you will be back in control of your future and you will significantly decrease the odds of ever falling victim to ageism.