I had a slightly unsettling conversation with a friend recently. We were discussing future job prospects, what we envisioned ourselves doing a few years down the road. He expressed concern about being considered “too old” for a firm to hire and in response to my very skeptical face said “well I’m over 40 you know.”
(He’s 40, by the way.)
After I poo-pooed his ageist worries, recounted what data I could recall that was meant to reassure him of his employability, I told him what I guess is becoming my mantra – I think we should all work for ourselves.
I thought this before our economic troubles and the past couple of years of turbulence, especially when thinking about myself and my preferred way to work and live. But I guess my response to the uncertainty is to come to question how anyone could feel truly secure while working full-time for a person/entity/institution. It seems to me to be too many eggs in a single basket.
Some recent numbers about those who are most likely to turn to themselves for work – the over 55 folks.
A study by Babson College and Baruch College found that Americans age 55 and above started 18.9 percent of all businesses created in 2008, compared with 10 percent in 2001. The 55-and-overs are playing a larger role in entrepreneurship partly because the number of Americans in that age category is rising rapidly.
Born Curious 
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