Retirement: Your Start-Up Business

You might think that a retirement expert gets her inspiration from authors of retirement books. Not me. I gain insight from authors who write about best business and management practices, not from books describing the best vacation and retirement communities. That's why I've decided to take one book each month and focus on 5 steps that can help you thrive in retirement.

This month's featured book is, "The Start Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career" by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha.

1.    "Today you need to also think of yourself as an entrepreneur at the helm of at least one living, growing start-up venture: your career."

Change the word "career" to "retirement" and then think about your future as a "Start Up" business. From this perspective, you bring new life, energy, and enthusiasm to creating your retirement lifestyle.

2.    "Finished ought to be an F-word for all of us. We are all works in progress. Each day presents an opportunity to learn more, do more, and grow more in our lives and careers."

This statement applies to retirement as much as it does to when we were pursuing careers. Maybe more since we're in charge of our own learning and growing. Where are you going to challenge yourself? What do you want to learn? When are you going to start? 

3.    "Whatever the situation, actions, not plans, generate lessons that help you test your hypotheses against reality. Actions help you discover where you want to go and how to get there."

Retirement is the time to dream about what you want to create and how you want to live in this next stage of life. But don't stop at dreaming. You won't know what a dream can become unless you get started. Lean into an idea. Take a baby step in the direction of your dream. You can talk about plans all day, but until you start to do something and take action, nothing happens, nothing changes. Life rewards action. Get started now!

4.    "Don't let uncertainty lull you into overestimating the risk."

I love this statement because it proves true in so many situations. When we're creating the life we want to live in retirement, there are a lot of uncertainties. Uncertainty breeds a degree of risk, but just how much risk is also uncertain. Consider the idea that you may be overestimating risk. Unless you're happy with status quo, agree to live with some degree of uncertainty and keep moving forward.  

5.    "An entrepreneur who is trying to build a business in an unhealthy society is like a seed in a pot that never gets watered: no matter how talented the entrepreneur, her business cannot flourish."

Okay, so you may not be trying to build a business, but I think of retirement as my life business. In retirement I want to continually learn and grow, to be challenged and excited about living each day. That's why it's important to place myself in the right environment. If you are living in an area where your spirit does not come alive, or hanging out with people who do not support your growth and development, then you'll be like a seed in a pot that never gets watered. Consider the environment that you need to flourish and take steps to move in that direction. Set the stage for the life you want to live!

Copyright 2015 Patrice Jenkins All Rights Reserved