This article is a reprint from a column I pen each month for the website of my high school class www.DanMccarty70.com. While it has been over four decades since the 400+ of us exploded from the halls of Dan McCarthy High and into our lives, today over 250 of us still meet on a regular basis in cyberspace to remember, smile and stay in touch. I hope you enjoy my Ramblings.
The Best Years of Our Lives
.jpg)
As we find ourselves passing the magic six-zero, maybe we should look differently at what is perceived as normal. In my life, I have found that striving to be normal is just not all it is cracked up to be. And that, my friend, is good if you graduated with the DMHS Class of 1970, the class some would say wrote the book on abnormal. But that is a story for a different Rambling.I remember when my grandfather died, the pastor at his funeral talked about his living a “long, long life” (he was sixty-eight). Today, many of our parents live into their eighties and nineties, yet we Americans look at sixty to sixty-five as the typical retirement age. If life expectancy is increasing, should not our productive years also increase? I think this Rambling will prove this.
Many longevity experts point out that the ages between fifty and eighty are and should become a time for reinventing ourselves and pursuing our true dreams. Around fifty, many begin to realize a renewed creativity. The graying boomer generation, those once longhaired adolescents who in days past touted the virtues of tuning in, turning on, and dropping out, is now empowered through their many live experiences. They have realized an inner freedom, laced with more than just a dash of confidence they might have lacked in their thirties, forties, or fifties.
Today is when we can blossom, spread our wings, and not just fly, but truly soar like eagles. The years have enabled us to turn our long delayed seeds of ideas into a garden of dreams that can now be realized. If you ever think it is too late for you to add a few coins to your coffers, maybe you should consider some of the following geezers who started late and still finished strong.
McDonald's and Ray Kroc
Ray Kroc started McDonald’s when most people his age were preparing to retire; he was fifty-two. He was barely making ends meet as a milkshake-machine salesman. One day, he happened on a hamburger stand in San Bernardino, California, and instead of selling the McDonald brothers his machine, he bought the business. The rest is one of the greatest business success stories of our time.We all know Ray Kroc became a pioneer in the fast-food industry developing a uniform system
of production for hamburgers, milkshakes, and French fries, so the food tasted the same in each franchise countrywide and, eventually, worldwide. The real story is that, in 1960, Kroc had more than 200 McDonald’s franchises in the U.S., but he barely earned a profit.Many younger business owners would have quit, citing a flawed business model, but not this sixty-year-old. He had come too far and learned too much to quit. He started to prosper only when he started the Franchise Realty Corporation that bought property and leased it to franchisees. Kroc went on to accumulate $500 million in assets. Today, McDonald’s has 33,000 locations, employing more than 400,000, and serving 68 million daily in 119 countries. Not a bad alternative to early retirement, wouldn’t you agree?
Like Ray Kroc, we have learned so much more from the bumps and grinds of life than any textbook could ever teach. And yes, I know that many of us, like these success stories, might have begun our march to success with a thought process just a bit off center, a bit outside the acceptable normal zone. I know that I have spent most of my life in the mostly gray area just outside what is normal—guilty. Consider how much you would be willing to bet on a guy who thinks like this.
If I find myself needing to borrow money, my experience has taught me to seek a loan first from pessimists—after all, they don't expect it back. I know at this ripe old age that success is not that difficult; after all, I’ve learned that a full 50% of all I meet are below average. In my youth, I respected lawyers until I found that 99% of them give the rest a bad name.I know that the best way to convince others that my plan is the right direction is by fortifying it with statistics, knowing full well that 82.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot. I’ve learned that a clear conscience usually indicates a poor memory. I know that however much I search for a rainbow, I find one only after a good hard rain.
Colonel Sanders
Speaking of rain, look at Harlan Sanders, known worldwide as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. We all know he was a success, but what most don’t know is that he bounced from job to job until, at forty, he started a service station selling chicken dinners out a side window to his patrons. As the demand for his special pressure-cooked chicken grew, he sank his life savings into opening a full restaurant on the adjoining property.
As fate would have it, a major interstate was built, which diverted traffic away, all but
bankrupting the restaurant and dear old Harlan. In a last-ditch effort to save his business and at sixty-five, Sanders decided to franchise his business, and Kentucky Fried Chicken was born. Harland was five years older than we are today when he started franchising.As for this writer, I’ve learned that the hours I work have little to do with the success I achieve and that I do not have to get up earlier than all my competitors do to succeed, having long since seen the folly in that “early bird gets the worm” stuff. But today, I am convinced that usually the second mouse gets the cheese.
So, while others focus on moving at the speed of light, a healthy dose of the contrarian view makes me ponder the age-old question of what is the speed of dark. I try to avoid depressed people, convinced that they usually house a fair dose of anger but without enthusiasm.
Consider These Late-Blooming Writers and Painters
No matter what card game you play, it is due to Edmond Hoyle. He was the first to write down and copyright the details of the rules of many card games, chess, backgammon, and other games of his time. His claim to fame in card game rules came about when he was seventy, a decade older than we are today.Laura Ingalls Wilder became a journalist in her forties, and she was sixty-five when she started to write The Little House on the Prairie series. Wallace Stevens won a Pulitzer Prize for his Collected Poems when he was seventh-six. Raymond Chandler was forty-five when his detective story “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot” was first published in a magazine. He was fifty-one when his first novel The Big Sleep was published, and Grandma Moses began to paint at seventy-five.
Just think, you could take a fifteen-year nap and start dead even with Grandma Moses or Wallace Stevens. I will guarantee you that things did not always go right in the lives of these writers and painters. Neither do I expect everything always to go right in my life. Age has taught me that when everything is coming your way, it usually means you are in the wrong lane.
I’ve learned that if I have a good idea, I need to act on it—quickly. I have never subscribed to the pessimistic view of “If that is such a good idea, someone else would have already thought of it.” If so, wouldn’t it have been true when that “other guy” thought of it? I’ve learned that 93.73% (again with the statistics, Richard?) of success is about simply suiting up and showing up. It might be in the future that hard work pays off, but I’ll guarantee you that laziness pays its dividends right now.
In today’s tough financial times, we could all use a little extra money—right? Thirty years in the financial industry has taught me to break down complicated matters in easy to understand bites. For example, what do a $100-a-week, part-time job and a $100,000 investment portfolio have in common? Answer: They represent the same amount of income. $100 a week X 50 weeks = $5,000 and $100,000 X 5% return = $5,000. The question is, if you need more retirement income, which is easier to do—amass an additional $100K or land a part-time job?It is important to believe that, at our age, life is not over; quite to the contrary, it can be just beginning. Consider the following late bloomers.
Other Late Bloomers
Lew Wallace was fifty-three when his book became the best-selling novel of the nineteenth century. That book, Ben Hur, has never been out of print. Now, consider, at fifty-one, he became the New Mexico Territory governor from 1878–1881, and it was while serving as governor that he wrote Ben Hur.
Sam Walton was forty-four when he started WalMart and died the richest man in the world with $23 billion.
Lest you think that I connect all success with the thickness of your wallet, let me solidly state that wealth alone does not make a person successful. Money is certainly not the most important thing in life, but from zero to rent, let me assure you that it ranks up there at the top. And money has proved quite useful throughout our life.
And as for my slightly slanted view of life, I know that I will not live forever... but, so far, so good
.jpg)
. Age has also changed the way I view popularity. In my youth, I cared more about being popular than I do today. Popularity became much less important when I had granddaughters and realized that even Barbie had to buy her friends. And it seems normal to find the “age-enhanced” at the reins of political power.Leaders of Countries and Politics—Success at Any Age
At seventy, Golda Meir became the fourth prime minister of Israel. The average age of the men who have been president of the United States is fifty-four years and eleven months. The youngest was Teddy Roosevelt, forty-two, and the oldest was Ronald Reagan, who became president sixteen days before his seventieth birthday. Carolyn McCarthy became a U.S. congresswoman for the first time at fifty-six to advocate gun control after her husband was killed and her son injured in a random train shooting.Nelson Mandela became the oldest elected president of South Africa in 1994 when he was seventy-four. Before this, he was imprisoned for life for antiapartheid activity. He was released after twenty-seven years in 1990, and he led his party toward a multiracial democracy.
I’m sure it takes soul searching and deep thought to lead a country. I, too, find it helpful to get by myself from time to time and just think. The problem is that when I am deep in thought, I never can predict where my mind might wander. For example, I wonder how you tell when sour cream has expired. I ponder what would be the result of being scared half to death… twice. I ask myself why psychics have to ask you your name. I contemplate why experience is something you get only after you need it. I consider if my car could travel at the speed of light, would my headlights work? Then there is that age-old question, what is the opposite of antibacterial soap?
Yet, I again digress… which seems to happen more and more these days. Now, back on track, Richard. Now, what was I talking about? Statistics? No, that was not it… Oh, yes, late bloomers. I’ll bet you never considered Franklin and Ford late bloomers, did you? Well, read on, my friend.
Ben Franklin and Henry Ford
Ben Franklin could also be considered a late bloomer. Although he had done much in his youth, he continued to expand his genius throughout his life. He was forty-six when he experimented with electricity, and he invented bifocals at forty-seven and the catheter at forty-nine. He was elected to the Continental Congress at sixty-nine. At seventy, he signed the Declaration of Independence, making him the oldest signer. When he was seventy-seven, he negotiated the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. At eighty-one, he signed the U.S. Constitution.Henry Ford introduced the Model T automobile when he was forty-five, but he was our age, sixty, when he created the first car assembly line.
After you get a few hard-fought decades under your belt, the obvious is a bit easier to spot. For example, the more people I meet, the more I think the gene pool needs a lifeguard. It’s clear to me I can’t make every deadline. I’ve learned that if I am going to fall behind, it is best to do it early, so I have as much time as possible to catch up. I believe that we are all born with a photographic memory, but some of us just have fewer rolls of film than others do.Yes, these are but a sampling of the slightly off-center thoughts that cascade mostly unchecked just below the surface of my full head of graying hair. In closing, I’d like to leave you with quotations that might hit a bit closer to home than is comfortable.
- Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. ~Mark Twain
- A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams. ~John Barrymore
- At 20 years of age, the will reigns; at 30, the wit; at 40, the judgment. ~Benjamin Franklin
- Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
·Listen to Your Heart—Your Passions and Dreams Await You ~Anonymous
So, don’t think it is too late to pursue your dreams. If you listen to others, you can easily fall for the “You are too old to start your own business, to be a writer, or to invent the next great thing” lie. The truth is that those people don't know a thing about you, and if you wait for their permission, you could easily miss opportunities. A little fear is fine. The goal is not to remove the butterflies from your stomach; it is to get all those little suckers to fly in unison. Neither the ordinary nor the great among us need be bound by the barrier of age. With the right determination, attitude, and some luck, you can see these successful people are no different from any one of us.So, after seeing these examples of how so many others reached their stride only after the world
considered them past their prime, you might be inspired to get fired up and focused… then again, maybe you will find it time for a nap.Keeping the Spirit Alive,
Richard Parker
No comments:
Post a Comment