重塑自我永远不嫌晚。保罗·塔斯纳就是个很好的例子——在为他人工作了40年后，他于66岁时创立了自己的公司，将他的商业理念与经验和热情相结合。而且他并非个例。正如他在这段简短、风趣又鼓舞人心的演讲中所分享的，越来越多的老年人开始发挥他们的创业精神，并取得了巨大的成功。
我想带你们回到七年前。那是2009年圣诞节前几天的一个星期五下午。当时我在旧金山一家消费品公司担任运营总监，被叫去参加一个正在进行的会议。结果，那次会议竟然是我的离职面谈。我和其他几位同事一起被解雇了。那时我64岁。这倒也并非完全出乎意料。我签了一叠文件，收拾好个人物品，然后出门去附近一家餐馆和妻子会合，她当时完全没有意识到自己即将离职。几个小时后，我们俩都喝得酩酊大醉。
所以，我为各种规模的公司连续工作了四十多年，这一切就此结束了。我人脉广，口碑好——我以为一切都会好起来的。我是一名制造和包装工程师，背景扎实。和很多人一样，退休对我来说根本不可能。于是，接下来的几年，我毫无热情地去做了咨询工作。
后来，一个想法开始在我心中萌芽，它源于我对环境的关注。我想创办自己的公司，利用废料——纸张、农业废料，甚至是纺织废料——设计和生产可生物降解的包装，以此取代我们都已上瘾的有毒一次性塑料包装。这被称为清洁技术，对我来说意义非凡。这项事业可以帮助减少每年被丢弃的数十亿磅一次性塑料包装，这些包装污染了我们的土地、河流和海洋，并将这些问题留给子孙后代——我们的子孙后代，我的子孙后代——去解决。
所以，如今66岁的我，拥有40年的经验，第一次成为了一名企业家。
谢谢。但还有更多。
要处理的问题很多：生产制造、外包、创造就业机会、专利、合作关系、资金——这些都是初创企业常见的难题，但对我来说却并非如此。关于资金，我想说几句。我生活和工作在旧金山。如果你要寻求资金，通常会和一些来自高科技行业的年轻人竞争，这可能会非常令人沮丧和畏惧。我的鞋子都比他们大多数人的年纪大。
我愿意。
但五年后，我无比激动和自豪地告诉大家，我们的收入每年都翻了一番，我们没有负债，我们拥有几家知名客户，我们的专利已获批准，我有一位从一开始就与我并肩作战的优秀合伙人，而且我们凭借所做的工作赢得了20多项奖项。但最重要的是，我们为解决全球塑料污染危机做出了微小的贡献——哪怕只是微小的贡献。
我现在正在做我人生中最有意义、最有成就感的工作。我可以告诉你，各个年龄段的创业者都能获得很多资源，但五年前我真正渴望的是找到其他和我同龄的初次创业者。我想和他们建立联系。我当时没有任何榜样，真的一个也没有。硅谷那个二十多岁的应用程序开发者可不是我的榜样。
我相信他非常聪明——
我想为此做些贡献，也希望我们所有人都能为此做些贡献。我希望我们开始更多地谈论那些直到晚年才成为企业家的人。谈论这些勇敢的男男女女，他们在同龄人逐渐淡出人们视野的时候仍然坚持不懈。然后，将这些人跨越行业、跨越地区、跨越国界联系起来——构建一个社群。
你知道，美国小企业管理局的数据显示，美国私营部门新增就业岗位中有64%都来自像我这样的小企业。谁又能说我们会永远保持小规模经营呢？我们这里有一种很有意思的文化，认为人到了某个年纪就应该去打高尔夫、下棋或者整天带孙子孙女。我非常爱我的孙子孙女，同时我也热衷于在全球市场做一些有意义的事情。
而且我并不孤单。人口普查局预测，到2050年，美国将有8400万老年人。这真是个惊人的数字，几乎是现在的两倍。你能想象这8400万人中会有多少初次创业者吗？而且他们都将拥有四十年的经验。
所以，当我说“让我们多谈谈这些优秀的创业者”时，我的意思是，让我们谈谈他们的创业项目，就像我们谈论那些比他们年轻得多的创业者一样。在这个国家，年长的创业者创办新企业的成功率高达70%。70%的成功率！我们就像创业界的金州勇士队——而年轻创业者的成功率却骤降至28%。这是英国一家名为CMI的机构得出的结论。
一位70岁企业家的成就难道不和一位30岁企业家的成就一样意义非凡、一样值得报道吗？当然是。正因如此，我希望“70岁以上的企业家”这个说法能像“30岁以下的企业家”一样普及。
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It's really never too late. Love to see stories of people who achieve at any age. Heck, Louise Hay started Hay House publishing at like 61! I know I'll keep going as long as this body will support it.
Thank you! Smash the beliefs on ageism! Here's to honoring and valuing the wisdom of a 40 year career and what that can mean for a start up in the senior years! Super well done. And yes, here's to connecting together so that even MORE impact can and will be made. Job well done!
My husband and I lost all our financial security, home and business in an interesting arrangement of the stars. It was big sucking sound. We ran, humiliated, to Mexico as we could not afford to live in the US on our social security. That was over 4 years ago.
He is now 73 and I am 68. I started an Interior Design business that is now manufacturing furniture. It is still small and growing. My joy is the Mexicans who are my tradespeople and my employees. Yes I get to create but I also am of service. I am in love with my work and my life. I am grateful.
What an inspirational guy. He highlights beautifully the benefits that those with a few decades of wisdom can bring to party. It's terrific that youngsters have so much energy and the passion to put in long hours to succeed, but people like Tony - who might not have as much energy as a 20 year old - have something that the 20 year old cannot have (yet) and that is years of experience. It is so exciting to be living at a time where youngsters are given the chance (this wasn't always the case) to start businesses, but at the same time, so are people who would have been put out to pasture only a few decades ago.
I AM VERY MUCH INSPIRED FROM THIS ARTICLE.THANKS A LOT.
What an insightful experience sharing. It shows experience counts. More so in old age. Nobody can do for the 'old' what they can do for themselves.
Thanks Paul for your incredible story. Im 62 and am working on an invention. Actually my son gave me the idea a few years ago and told me to run with it. To my chagrin, I havent done anything with it. Now is "THE" time. With the economy here its hard to find a job. My hubby got laid off last Sept at 58 years old after working for that company for 30 years. Most of those years he endured abuse from the management there. Ive been an entrepreneur for years not doing anything with my ideas. One thing is who do you trust with your idea. The more I research, the closer Ill get to having my product out on the shelves. It's never to late for an out-of-the-box thinker.