When I talk with folks about the phenomenon called the Entre-Boomers, people usually assume that these are either, 1) baby boomers who got laid off and are unemployable at their age, or 2) baby boomers who did not plan for retirement and have to find ways to continue to earn income into the future. While this may explain some Entre-Boomers motivation, we are seeing more and more from this generation who are making a conscious choice to enter the world of entrepreneurship.
From StartupJournal we see a profile of one baby boomer who made a clear decision to make a change:
Bill Rumford was driving down Highway 101 in the San Francisco Bay area one afternoon at a clip of 65 miles per hour when a car behind him started honking and flashing its lights for him to speed up.
“That was the very moment I knew I needed to get out of the rat race,” he recalls.
Mr. Rumford went home that day in 2004 and dropped a bomb on his wife, Maggie. Remembering a bed-and-breakfast they had visited recently on Pender Island, a tranquil setting with 2,500 residents located between Vancouver on the Canadian mainland and Victoria Island, Mr. Rumford told his wife: “I think we should go up there and offer to buy it.”
The simple desire to get out and live a great life is the reason baby boomers I know have altered their lives by doing things like moving to a rural area, etc.
Thanks for bringing this up! I talk to boomers frequently who have made conscious choices about priorities in their lives resulting in compromises that no longer serve their purpose. Some turned down a promotion early in their career because it meant constant overnight travel and a risk to the well-being of their families. Others have chosen not to move to corporate headquarters in a city with a low quality of life. People make choices, then change their goals. These are bright, talented and very experienced people who are ready to take on new challenges–way before they get “outsourced,” “early retired,” or “obsoleted.” A lot of people are waking up and realizing that even if they could retire, they’ve got many productive years ahead and it’s just far too early to stop learning and growing.