Transcription
A lot of people right now are in a position where they have to reinvent themselves, find a new life, a new career, a new way, a new uh business, whatever it may be, when they kind of least expected it.
For those of you who don't know my story, uh I'm 59 years old and uh a couple of months ago, about three months ago almost now, I was unceremoniously let go from my position. Just kind of out of the blue one day. Got an email in my inbox uh to have a 15-minute meeting. I knew I was cooked. Of course, I was right. I got on the call on the Zoom. There was my boss, somebody from HR. Within six minutes, my job, my career was over. So was my life as I knew it.
And um it's over because uh in the months since uh in the three months since uh I've been let go, I've realized one thing and that is I will never. Yeah. I'll never be I'll never go back to corporate life again. I'm either never going to get hired uh at at the kind of position I had at the at the wages that I was making and/or I just don't freaking want to do it anymore.
A lot of people thought that they were going to, you know, at 50, 55, 60 sort of coast into retirement. But as people are living longer, they're realizing that what what they have saved up for retirement is not enough. A lot of people got married and started families later in life, which is common now, too. People don't get married at 21 and have kids at 22 anymore. They're more likely getting married at 30 or 31 or 28 and 35 years old and so their children um they have younger children at older ages and they have to provide. They have to send their kids to college and you know, so there's a whole bunch of reasons why people still need to work after the age of 55, even 60 years old. That means that you, if you can't find a job, that you have to reinvent yourself. The question is, what do you do? How do you reinvent yourself? Your 50s are the decade of reinvention. Everybody that I know that's in their 50s is doing something cool right now. And if you are listening and you have parents in their 50s, please send this to them. Please remind your parents that they are super cool and there's so many cool things that they could be doing because everybody that I know in their 50s right now is thinking about this.
I go on the job boards every day. I go on LinkedIn. I go on Indeed. I go on Glass Door. I look at all the jobs and every job description I see, ones that I would have been begging for a year or two ago, every job description that I read puts a pit in my stomach. An absolute pit. Like because every job is just corporate like dribble. It's a long ass list of freaking job duties. Nobody meets the requirements. I don't know why they put all the requirements that that alone is certainly going to dissuade, you know, capable people of applying because they put all these friggin requirements on there with this long list and I'm thinking, I don't want to do that. My artistic sense, maybe it is. I don't know what it is. It just tells me, man, you just can't do it anymore. You can't fake it anymore.
You'll hear a lot about you need to follow your passions. What was it that you wanted to do when you were younger that you can do now? Like everything that I that I wanted to do when I'm younger, I can't make a. I'm not going to be able to make a living at. You know, I don't know if you knew this, but stand-up comedy really doesn't pay the bills. No, it's true. Things are bad. I mean, it's getting so bad that now instead of a bologna sandwich, my wife packs a suicide note in my lunchbox. She does all the prep, I just have to pull the trigger. She's sweet that way.
And I think a lot of people in my age realize at a certain point that they've just been faking it. And they have by by necessity, right? And not because they're phonies, but by necessity because you had to put food on the table. You had to pay for your kids' school. You wanted to take a little vacation, you know, go out to dinner, you know, get the mortgage paid up. Like it you have to make sacrifices in this world to do that. And I understand it. And a lot of but a lot of times for a lot of people, some people like their happy the whole way through. God bless you. But from what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing and what people are telling me on my other channels is like they it was soul-sucking, soul-crushing, demoralizing, like just and and painful like like emotionally painful to go to work every day. They just, especially if you worked in a corporate environment, which is seems to be the absolute worst.
A lot of people are telling me, "Listen, I didn't even get fired. I just couldn't take it anymore. I just could not go another. I couldn't do it another day." And so they're they're gone and now they have to figure out what it is they can do in order to continue to survive for the next let's say 25 years.
But if you are going to reinvent yourself at 45, 55, 65 years old, there are certain things I think you're going to have to do, me included, if you're going to survive this next period. And the first one would be that you have to let go of the myth that it's too late. If you're in your 50s like myself and you want to make a positive change in your life, you have to start by changing your mindset. This is one that I have to overcome because I have this in my mind a lot. Like I'm 59 years old and nobody wants me and I'm too old to do this and I'm too old to do that and you know what? Like you have to drop that stuff. You have to drop it 100% or else you're screwed. I'm speaking to me as much as I'm speaking to you. So, this is not a lecture from me to you because I'm in this boat. Like, I'm in it may be the Titanic, but I'm in this boat with you. You know what I'm saying? So, let's clear the deck chairs. If we're going down, we're going down together.
You have to shed some old labels, you know, and forget 100% who you used to be if you want to truly turn the page. I was in sales. I was in digital media sales, you know, for the last 20 years and whatnot. And I was very good at it and I was a I was a sales manager and I think I was good at it and uh I pe people looked up to me and um I knew what I was talking about. I was really good with clients the whole nine yards and no that becomes part of my it became part of my identity. Now I'm going to have to say, hey, that's no longer me. I'm something else right now. Because if I'm still leaning on the the things of the past that made up my identity, then I'm not going to be able to turn the page.
Third thing, I mean, you have to I I think is that you have to connect with like like what is it that excites you? Would you like to be a chef, you a psychologist, a teacher, a nurse, a doctor, a lawyer? Like what is it that you really like? What what were you dreaming about, you know, or when you were lying awake because you couldn't stand your job? What was it that, oh man, only if I if I was only like this or that or the other thing other than a millionaire, which is, you know, that would solve a lot of problems, but other than that, like what is it? What did you want to do when you were a kid that you were afraid to do? That you were people told you not to, like you your maybe your parents pointed you in a different direction or you listened to your friends and said that's dumb. What are those things that you can kind of maybe fall in love with again right now and perhaps turn into a new career, a new source of revenue, whatever that may be? I already know instinctively what they are. Okay. So, just so you know, when I was younger, I wanted nothing more than to be a a comedian and an actor and a writer. Like, I just wanted to do that.
I think the next thing would be that you have to be willing to learn new things. Like reinvention. It might mean you have to go back to school, take an apprenticeship, study online, whatever it may be. You may have to learn some new things. This is much harder for people at our age for a couple of reasons. One, we don't retain things like we did when we were 18, 19, 20 years old. Number two, maybe you can't afford to like take the time to learn something new because you need to have money coming in. And I'm in I'm I'm in that situation. Honestly, I can't. I have a kid that's a senior in high school getting ready to go to college. I need to make money. But uh if you do have the time and you maybe you are still working and you're thinking about it and you already have money coming in, then maybe like uh you know reinventing for you reinventing yourself means I'm going to learn something new, a new skill, a new trade, uh get a new degree, whatever it may be. And then when you finally get that, then you can go ahead and transition from the current job to your new career. But for those of us who are suddenly um unemployed or have been unemployed for a while, that's not a possibility.
Quite frankly, in most cases, fear is huge. It's it's a killer of dreams. Fear has prevented me personally from accomplishing a lot of things in my life. Even the baby robin has to like uh has to jump out of that nest the first time when not really not really knowing for sure whether it could fly or not. Bottom line is that if you're in your 50s, 55, 60 years old, 40 years old, it's not too late. It's really not too late. I mean, if I'm going to tell myself it's too late, then I'm doomed. And if you're going to say it's too late, then you're doomed. And I don't really believe it's too late. I have another good 15 years of uh 10 years at least of working time in my life. And uh you could do a lot of damage in 10 years. You can accomplish a lot of things. A lot of people have.
Why live out the rest of your life in just agony and pain and dissatisfaction, hurt? Like, why do that when the choice is there for you? It's there for me. It was Listen, I was kicked. I was forced out and have no choice. But being forced out was probably the best thing that happened to me. I don't see it right now. Like, I don't see it right now just to be I'm not like, "Hey, it's the best thing that happened to me." Like right now it's a struggle every day to figure out what I'm going to do, how I'm going to make money, how I'm going to support my family. It's a struggle. But I know at the end of the day that is a struggle that is worth um you know suffering because my life when I look back in one year, two years, five years, I know I'll be better off than had I stayed had I remained in that corporate drudgery for the remainder of my working life where I was unsatisfied, unhappy working for people I did not like. I know that I will have been better off. Maybe I'll have less money uh but I know I'll be better off. I'd rather die with a smile on my face, with a nickel in my pocket than a than a than a giant frown.
And I think if you're watching this video up until this point, I think you probably agree with me. Let me know in the comments where you are, what the life what life change you experienced, uh were you fired, did you quit? Uh what are you thinking about doing? I like to get people's stories. I do respond to almost every single comment that I get. I'm not going to tell you to like or subscribe to this video. I'm done doing that. You know why? Because if you liked it, you would like the video. And if you wanted to hear more, you would subscribe. I don't even have to tell you to do that. You don't need a call to action. So, if you want to see more of this stuff, you're going to go ahead and you're going to hit subscribe.
Also, I have a newsletter. It's called Aged Out. You can find that at AmericanTruthBomb.substack.com. So, thanks for watching and I'll see you on the next video. Here he is to close out our show. A very funny guy who's been uh who's not a beginner. He's been working all over the place and he's here for you right now. Put your hands together for Paulo Ros.
[Applause]
Thank you everybody. My name is Paula Romanace and uh I live in a place called middle class hell.