Sunday Newscape Magazine

In our every changing world, where more and more companies are finding legal ways to wiggle out of paying their pension obligations, if you want to avoid running out of money during your retirement years, the hustler in you has to wake up and get busy now.

At this time, many corporations are finding creative ways to get rid of their older employees because we are becoming a youth oriented culture. If you’re over forty years of age and you find yourself unemployed, one day, you may find it hard to land another job. The solution is not how to find another job, the solution for you, could be, about becoming self-employed and creating a ‘niche’ where clients seek you out.

So, make a list of the skills and talents that you have to offer someone in business and then begin marketing yourself as an independent contractor or consultant. If you can learn how to hustle, how to create opportunities for yourself, you may end up with three or four incomes at the same time. Building wealth is about knowing how to create multiple avenues of cash flow and residual income. If you’ve been in a corporate environment for a long time, you may have gotten into the habit of not thinking and just following orders. Now is the time to wake up mentally and start thinking again. The difference is that this time you are thinking for yourself, to create your own prosperity.

More than thirty years ago, I found myself in a boring job that was killing my spirit. I decided to quit and focus on doing things that I enjoyed and could also earn an income from. After discovering that beautiful women are not willing to pay an average looking guy to have sex with them, I came up with “Plan B”. There were bumpy times but I never gave up and I learn how to always keep going forward. I haven’t had “a boss” in more than thirty years. That is a wonderful feeling. You can accomplish the same thing if you put all your mental, physical and spiritual energy into it.  You must combine these three energies for things to work out in your favor.

Some people go through life believing that social security or the government is going to be there for them when they are too old or too sick to work. In your later years, you may have an expensive health problem that could wipe you out financially. Do you really believe that the government is going to have the money to pay all those costs? I don’t have that much faith in the unknown. In life, you should always have a back-up plan. I prefer to be in control my money and my destiny. 

You should put a little bit of time aside and do some creative thinking. Try to figure out how to create some residual income for yourself. Imagine having money coming in, on a steady basis that you didn’t have to trade “labor hours” for. You will never become wealthy trading labor hours for money. You might want to buy a rental property. Rent is a great form of residual income. You might think about finding a business opportunity that you have a talent for and can become excited about.

If you’re healthy and you enjoy what you do for a living, why would you want to retire? You might want to work fewer hours as you get older but as long as you get a sense of satisfaction from your work, you should keep going on. Doing something you love will keep you excited about life. Too many old people get depressed after they retire because they start to feel as if they are useless.

Also, if you’ve worked at a hard job for most of your life, once you have your home and all your larger loans paid off, you might want to quit and take a job doing something you enjoy even if it doesn’t pay as much as your previous job. At least you will be happy.

Once you are happy, you will become clear minded and then you can come up with some plan to start creating residual income for yourself.

So, whether you are twenty-five or sixty-five, you can start all over again by working for yourself.  Just go out there and start knocking on doors. Finding clients is simply a numbers a game. You must come with a valid product or service to offer the public or the business community. If you’re pitching someone who has a need for what you’re selling, if they have the money to buy it and the authority to make that decision, sooner or later, you’re going to make a sale. In sales, that is called a “qualified lead”.

Maybe you have an idea for a great invention? It is all about believing in yourself.   Colonel Sanders went broke and started all over again at the age of sixty-five. He was known for having said “ while others are getting ready to retire, I’m just getting started”. Because of his strong sense of ambition, he became very successful and ended up being known worldwide. You can do the same once the “hustler” in you wakes up.

If your friends and family members tell you that you’re nothing more than a big dreamer and you don’t have that type of ability or talent to make it all happen. Stop going to them for their opinion and keep what you’re doing a secret. If you want a little emotional support, start networking with other highly driven people. You could do an on-line search to find an organization in your area, a support group, where big dreamers all come together. If there isn’t such an organization near you, maybe you should start one and charge monthly dues? That could be a great business opportunity for you, if you started an organization to inspire people to find their inner hustler, to achieve success and the dues went in your pocket.

If you know anyone who has tremendous potential but their inner hustler is still sleeping, give them a wake up call. Cut this column out and send it to him/her or hang it on a wall where it will be seen. As always, I welcome your comments. You may write to me at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it