The Cut-Off Age for Getting Into a New Career or Business
Issue #2480
- WEALTHY: How old is too old? For making money, that is… (Bob Bly)
- HEALTHY: A germ killer that could be screwing up your hormones (Shane Ellison)
- WISE: Billie Burke on age
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Gmail users, listen up! (David Cross)
- Make it easy for mentors to give you advice (Bob Cox)
- It’s Good to Know… searching for celebrities
- Add “revenant” to your vocabulary
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“Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese.”
Billie Burke
The Cut-Off Age for Getting Into a New Career or Business
By Bob Bly
At what age are you too old to start a new career or business?
I have thought at various times in my life (I am now 51) that the cut-off age was 50… 60… or even 70.
There were two reasons I believed you’d reach a point where starting over just wasn’t practical anymore.
The first, and lesser, was sheer age and lifespan: the idea that when there are many more years behind you than ahead of you, your time to enjoy the fruits of whatever labors you pursue is too limited.
The second reason I believed there was a cut-off date for starting a new career, learning a new trade, or launching a new small business was lack of experience.
For instance, one of the many careers I considered in my youth was the law. But I decided pursuing that in my later years was impractical.
Reason: Say, hypothetically, you were to graduate law school at age 45. You compete against two groups.
The first group is other 45-year-old lawyers who are the same age as you - but have 20 years of law experience vs. your zero years.
The other group you compete against is your classmates. Like you, they are new to the law. But being in their 20s and single, instead of 45 and having a mortgage and three kids in college, they can afford to work for starting salaries too small to meet your needs.
However, actor Abe Vigoda has changed my mind about all this. And my opinion today is that it is NEVER too late to learn new things, start a new business, switch careers, or go into a different industry. (Abe Vigoda, if the name does not ring a bell, is the dour-faced actor famous for playing the character Fish on the TV sitcom “Barney Miller.”)
On the Internet recently, I read a short interview with Vigoda, who is still a working actor at age 87. It reminded me that his big break was his first movie, “The Godfather,” in which he played Sal Tessio.
Well, “The Godfather” was released in 1972. So if you do the math, Vigoda didn’t begin his movie career until he was over 50. More impressive is that, at age 87, Vigoda - who, pardon me, has a slightly cadaverous appearance that makes him look ready for the Old Folks Home - is still a competitive handball player.
If Abe Vigoda could get his first movie role at over 50 - beating out actors his age who had decades more credentials and experience - then I am convinced that you and I can start a new career or business at any age.
As an older entrepreneur or career changer, you will likely have some advantages over your younger colleagues, peers, and competitors - such as greater life experience and wisdom to draw upon when making decisions.
You may have some disadvantages, too - including (possibly) less energy, less flexibility, and less adaptability to new technologies and methods. Then again, maybe not. It depends on your personality - and your circumstances. If you are a retired empty-nester, you may actually have more time, freedom, and flexibility, not less.
If you are still working for a paycheck because you have to and not because you want to, it may take a greater degree of courage and fortitude to make any major business, career, or life change. But I know from firsthand experience that 50 is not too old to make a major change. And from that, I am guessing that your age won’t stop you, either.
I started a small online information marketing business as I was closing in on my fiftieth birthday. I kept my day job as a freelance copywriter, while putting in long hours to get the new business started. But today, I earn a six-figure passive income from that business, selling information products on the Internet and “working” only an hour or two a day. Meanwhile, entering a new field has energized and renewed me in a way I never thought possible.
If your gut tells you that you are ready for a change, you probably are.
I close with this piece of wisdom from Milton Hershey, founder of Hershey Chocolate:
“I have often been asked - What is the best age for producing? I know only one answer, the age you are now.”
[Ed. Note: As copywriting master and experienced info-marketer Bob Bly said, it's NEVER too late to start your own business. Now's the perfect opportunity to get your online business up and running. Bob will be speaking at ETR's 2008 Info-Marketing Bootcamp. He - along with 11 other business-building and marketing experts - will reveal a proven technique that can help you make at least $100,000 in 2009. Learn the details here.
For expert insights into the world of direct marketing, be sure to sign up for Bob's free monthly newsletter, The Direct Response Letter. Do so today and get over $100 in free bonuses.]
Dear ETR: “How can I cut back on Gmail spam?”
“In your article about getting rid of excess spam, you stated that Google’s e-mail service has excellent spam filtering. I disagree with that. I use Google’s Gmail. I receive between 200 and 500 spam messages per day, and several arrive in my inbox. I am very careful what I click into, and certainly never spam, yet I get an irritating amount of Gmail spam.
“Do you know how I might be able to diminish this annoying spam? I am sure that many other ETR readers will gratefully appreciate your help with this problem. Thanks 200 to 500 times.”
Judy H.
Orlando, FL
Dear Judy,
200 to 500 spams a day with “several” in the inbox is not bad compared to the impact of not having ANY spam filtering.
Spam filtering is about striking a balance. It’s better to receive all the e-mail you should receive with the occasional spam arriving in your inbox than to have your e-mails filtered to such an aggressive extent that messages from clients and family are tagged erroneously as “spam.”
Gmail’s spam filtering uses heuristic algorithms to help identify spam. It “learns” what to consider spam when you mark e-mails as “spam”… or when you mark legitimate e-mails tagged as spam as “not spam.”
Because Gmail filters spam based on how you tag your e-mails, you should not mark as “spam” e-mail from senders you DO wish to receive e-mail from. And instead of simply deleting spam from your inbox, check the box next to the e-mail and click the “Report Spam” button at the top of your inbox.
It helps if you receive a large volume of legitimate e-mail. This gives the spam filter a good-sized sample to work with and compare to the spam you’re receiving. If you receive only a handful of legitimate e-mails a day, plus up to 500 spams a day, it will take a long time for any filtering system to build up enough data to accurately separate the wheat from the chaff.
No spam filtering system will ever be 100 percent accurate. In my Gmail account, I receive about the same amount of spam each day as you do. Only 10 to 15 spam messages make it into my inbox each week. And one legitimate e-mail a week (like my sister’s holiday photos) gets erroneously marked as spam. That’s about 3,000 e-mails a week with less than 15 that should have been tagged as spam that weren’t and 1 that was tagged as spam that shouldn’t have been. That’s a 99.995 percent rate of accuracy.
I can live with that!
To summarize:
1. Add the e-mail addresses of legitimate senders to your Gmail address book.
2. Create a filter in Gmail to mark e-mail from legitimate senders as “Never mark as spam.”
3. Check your spam folder and make sure you mark mail in there that was from legitimate senders as “Not Spam.”
4. Mark spam in your inbox as spam.
5. Try to receive more e-mail from a wider range of legitimate senders… if only for a while.
If you’ve published your e-mail address in any discussion forum, website, newsgroup, etc., it may be necessary to change your e-mail address. However, the steps I’ve outlined above should help.
[Ed. Note: Spam is irritating. But it's a problem you can solve. Fortunately, many of life's little inconveniences have easy - though often unknown - solutions. Sidestepping a speeding ticket... getting out of jury duty... rehabbing poor credit. Learn how to do it all - and more - right here.
Have a question for an ETR expert? Send it to AskETR@ETRFeedback.com. Include your full name, your hometown and state, and the ETR team may answer you in an upcoming issue.]
Should Making Money Online Be This Easy?
I hear stories of budding Internet entrepreneurs jumping through hoops to make a buck. And sure, many times building a solid, long term business does take real effort. But you can also quietly pocket some decent dough online for much less work.
In this case, you can copy the exact steps one man used to make $187,296 in one day. No, that’s not a misprint.
What’s stopping you from doing the same? The program is called Instant Internet Income and I guarantee it works exactly as it says. Take a look and see just how easy making money online can be.
The OSREAR Success Technique
By Bob Cox
One of the best ways to accomplish a big project is to get advice from people you respect. But it’s not always easy to go up to a boss or mentor and ask for their ideas. So I’ve developed a technique that can help. I call it the OSREAR Success Technique.
Make it easy for your boss or mentor to help you by breaking down your problem into four parts:
O - the Overview. Start off by writing out “the big picture,” the general problem you are trying to solve. Keep it to one or two sentences.
S - the Snapshot. Outline what’s been done to date to solve the problem. Again, keep it to a few sentences.
RE - the Result Expected. What are you trying to achieve?
AR - the Actual Result. What happened? Where are you now?
When you have finished, you will have defined the problem and your attempts at solving it in a clear, easy-to-understand manner. You can then present this list to others when asking for their assistance.
You’ve made your problem so clear that it should be very easy for them to offer you advice. Once you’ve collected a few suggestions from people you trust, you can develop a plan of action and tackle your problem head-on.
[Ed. Note: Using the techniques that have helped others achieve wealth and success is the easiest way to accomplish your own goals. Discover 189 proven methods for turning your dreams into reality right here.]
Toxic Gender-Bender Approved for Widespread Use
By Shane “The People’s Chemist” Ellison
I’m no health saint. Every now and then I do something really dumb. It’s rare, but I’ve been known to drink too much wine or beer and even indulge in the occasional cigar. All of these are toxic. As a rogue chemist-turned-consumer-health-advocate, I’m not proud of imbibing. However, it’s my choice. And that’s the point. Exposing yourself to toxins should be a choice. But modern day society rarely allows this.
Many people are unknowingly poisoning themselves with man-made industrial toxins. The gender-bender known as triclosan is one example - and it makes my toxic indulgences seem as harmless as apple juice.
Triclosan is used in a nauseating array of household products, including toothpastes, soaps, and lotions. Synthesized over 30 years ago, it was once thought to be a safe and effective antibiotic. But results from a recent UC Davis study have sounded the triclosan alarm.
Researchers discovered that it accumulates in the body - even when applied topically - to eventually disrupt hormone activity. The study found that triclosan throws our thyroid and sex hormones out of whack, potentially leading to obesity, infertility, cancer, and age acceleration. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that 75 percent of people from a random sample were positive for triclosan.
There appear to be laws that protect us from such toxic exposure, but appearances can be deceiving. In 1974, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act. It requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine safe levels of toxins in drinking water and over-the-counter products like toothpastes and soaps. These levels are called Maximum Contaminant Level Goals (MCLG). None of them are enforceable. That’s why the gender-bending triclosan was recently approved for use in over 140 household products despite its real and present danger!
The best way to avoid this and many other toxins is to choose organic. Natural soaps and the safe antibiotic zinc oxide work as well as triclosan at beating infection. And neither of them can accidentally poison you.
[Ed. Note: With tricky substances like triclosan lurking everywhere you turn, it's not easy to stay healthy. But if you take a few simple measures, you can protect your health and live a longer, more satisfying life.
Health expert Shane Ellison simplifies the complex, and teaches you how the right supplements and lifestyle habits can help you beat today's pandemic killers. Learn how to overcome obesity, heart disease, and even cancer - and discover the latest natural cures - with Shane's Foundational Health Education program.
It's Good to Know: Don't Search for These Celebrities
In case you're thinking of doing a Google search on Brad Pitt, Justin Timberlake, or George Clooney - don't. Same goes for Beyonce, Mariah Carey, and Heidi Montag. These are the top male and female celebrity names that are likely to lead you to malware (malicious software that can damage your computer), according to a recent McAfee study. A Brad Pitt search, for example, has an 18 percent chance of encountering malware.
Fake landing pages for these search terms appear to be legitimate news sources. But they often end up sticking worms and Trojan viruses into your computer. There's a high turnover rate for this trickery, too. Paris Hilton was the most dangerous celebrity to search for last year, but this year she doesn't even make the top 20.
(Source: Ars Technica)
== Highly Recommended ==
So Simple, You’ll Wonder Why You Didn’t Think of It!
What if everything you want to do could be just a little bit easier?
- That raise you’ve been gunning for could be suddenly within your grasp…
- You could drop that 15-pound “spare tire” from your belly in no time flat…
- More money could seemingly “float” into your bank account…
Sometimes, the most powerful strategies for achieving success are the simplest ones.
But once you’ve mastered them, success is right there in front of you.
Word to the Wise: Revenant
A "revenant" (REV-un-nunt) - from the French - is someone who returns after death (as a ghost) or after a long absence.
Example (as used by D.H. Lawrence in Women in Love): "He pale, immobile like a revenant himself, looked sometimes out of the window, sometimes closed his eyes."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
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