Thanks to Terry Brodie of GlobeandMail.com

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Call them seniorpreneurs or greypreneurs: Older entrepreneurs have several assets on their side

When many people think of startups, they think of youth. But “seniors have surged to the forefront of the entrepreneurial world of late” and the growing number of businesses being headed by older entrepreneurs has led to the creation of new terms such as ‘seniorpreneur’ and ‘greypreneur,’ notes this piece.

The story notes that the number of people aged 60 and over could reach two billion by 2050, according to the United Nations.

And while aging boomers are a target market for many products and services, on the flip side “is opportunities for seniors to branch out as seniorpreneurs.”

The article points out the growing number of those aged 55-plus who “seem to be rejecting the traditional model of puttering around a garden or golf course.” And they’re carefully planning a transition from a career “to arrive at the threshold of an entrepreneurial venture.”

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In this blog-post, we are focusing on why it’s good for you and never too late to:

1) take up new physical activities,

2) engage in new social activities and

3) pursue new intellectual challenges that can make a positive difference in your well-being – for the short-run and in the years ahead.

If you happen to be job-hunting over the age of 40, after many years of being firmly entrenched in the same company, industry or location, you’re probably feeling that is a DARE-ing project in and of itself – which it is.  In that case, plant something new that takes care of your innermost self and boosts your confidence and sense of control while you’re grappling with change. Plant something that improves your physical health, ramps up your intellectual power and unleashes beneficial brain chemicals that contribute to your well-being. Here are just a few of the reasons experts advise you should plant new seeds now, especially if you’re dealing with added stress.

1.)  If Your Sneakers Are Moldy, Your Brain Will Get Oldie. A few years ago, the only weight I ever pushed around came from the sound of my own loud mouth. A year later, and dozens of pounds lost, I can attest that exercise saved my life, improved my well-being and enhanced my intellectual focus. Here’s why it would work for you:

• Dr. John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist, says in his book,  “Brain Rules,” that a lifetime of exercise can result in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance, compared with those who are sedentary. Medina asserts that exercisers outperform couch potatoes in all sorts of brain metrics tests, such as those that measure long-term memory, reasoning, attention, problem-solving, even so-called fluid-intelligence tasks – which refers to how you put to use the information that you learn. One of the biggest surprises is that you don’t even have to exercise that long or hard to reap these benefits! Did you know that even walking several times a week will benefit your brain? The ideal is doing two to three bouts of aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes – which can reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s by 60%!
• Exercise improves your mood because it stimulates the release of three feel good chemicals in your brain. Called neurotransmitters, their medical names are serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. By stimulating the release of these hormones, exercise has been proven to help lower depression and anxiety.  So, get out there and walk off the stress, or go for a bike ride, or – if you’re not the outdoorsy type – put on some music and dance like a fool in your own home.

2.)  If the only laugh lines you have are from watching late-night Seinfeld reruns on TBS, you need to get some real friends. When was the last time you had a conversation with a friend who made you laugh? More importantly, when was the last time you actually felt you could cry with a good friend who wouldn’t judge you?  If you don’t have friends like that, maybe now’s the time to consider going beyond your current circle of friends (or all those online LinkedIn connections.  Would you ever want any of them to see you with streaked mascara?  I didn’t think so.)

Additional tips:

• Be proactive about cultivating, engaging and caring about people you really want as friends, and weed out the ones who don’t feel that way about you. In this day and age it’s too easy to rationalize that there are many other things we need to be doing work- and family- wise rather than spending time with friends. Yet, connections with true friends and family members are what matters to our well-being.
• According to psychoanalyst, educator and author, Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., positive social interactions are a powerful mechanism for controlling stress. As women talk with other women about worrisome occurrences in their lives, their stress levels fall because oxytocin (the maternal friendship and bonding hormone) levels rise. Even during non-stressful times, having solid friendships has been proven to improve health and extend one’s lifespan.
• If you’ve been a mom for most of your adult life and your circle of friends is tied to your children, now might be the perfect time to expand your circle of friends. Getting involved in organizations other than your children’s school or church expands your perspectives.

 3.)  Unchain Your Brain, Train Against the Drain. Learning a new language, researching the competition before starting a company or learning to play a musical instrument are all exercises to unchain your brain. To plant or seed something new, challenging and fulfilling while waiting for the next big thing to take seed, it’s a good idea to engage in an activity that is not related to a work situation or family demand.

The following are a few reasons why:

• Taking up new intellectual activities stimulates different neural regions and develops new pathways within the brain.  This helps to re-energize the brain against the dreaded “brain-drain” many women complain about in middle age, and helps you see problems in a different light.  As Dr. John Medina writes in Brain Rules, “What you do and learn in life physically changes what your brain looks like – it literally rewires it.”
• The more you stimulate the neural regions and pathways, the more adept you become at the new skill or activity you’re learning. It’s that fluid intelligence thing again. One of the other major benefits of taking up new intellectual activities is that it increases your self-confidence that you can, indeed, learn new things.
• There are nine different kinds of intelligence, but most people neglect to explore, let alone develop, those outside their comfort zone. Conversely, we all know of artists, musicians, business-owners and scientists who did their best work after the age of 40, 50 or even 60.  By developing different facets of their intellectual capacity, they surpassed the creativity and productivity of their youth in ways they never would have DARED or imagined earlier in their lives.
• Those are just a few of the reasons why planting something new – physically, socially or intellectually – can be beneficial both in the short run and over the long haul, even in times of stress.  Next week, in Go DARE, we’ll provide a list of ideas for what to plant or seed. There’s no limit to why, what, where and how you can grow by DARE-ing yourself!

All the prattling hyperbole about suspected “wardrobe malfunctions” such as J-Lo’s left nipple about to flee its incarceration from badly affixed designer duct-tape (pun intended), and the utter vapidity of starlets prattling on about whose shoes they were wearing – because everyone knows they’re surely not wearing their own shoes but serving as mannequins (shoe-trees?) for some designer – bored me more than the interminable litany of Awards No One Cares About.

There was a great deal of comment on age in yesterday’s reviews – the age of the TV audience for these awards, as well as the ages of the winners and hosts. Linda Holmes at NPR.org wondered: “It was not a night where Hollywood attempted to reach a young audience, as it did last year when it paired James Franco and Anne Hathaway as hosts — and wound up with dire reviews for the telecast.”

And the CNN.com article yesterday by John Anderson concurred. “Was it really just a year and a day ago that the Academy Awards made its big play for youth, via the double-edged disaster of James Franco and Anne Hathaway? OK, that didn’t work. At all. But last night’s full-frontal embrace of the past — punctuated in no small way by the choice of a silent movie as Best Picture — was a back flip, a half-twist, and a landing in deep denial.”

Speaking of “full-frontal,” could I be the only one who wants to point out to Angelina Jolie that she is so gorgeous from the neck up, why indulge in a full-frontal leg-lift in every single close-up? Was it some sort of a signal to Brad, who looked more like a hound-dog last night than ever?

Maybe the Academy reads the same business analyses I do, which is that women over the age of 45 are the best target audience for serious adult movies and fiction as well as nonfiction books and, perhaps, the best target audience for the Oscar telecast.

And here’s a factoid that makes it ironic that there were few memorable commercials shown during the telecast: with the TV audience getting smaller, (or is it older?) who needs to spend a fortune on TV ads?

The most wry comment I read yesterday was that the reason The Artist won as Best Picture is the average demographic of Academy voters is a 62-year-old man, and The Artist focuses in no small part on the happiness that a “trophy wife” brings to the film’s main character – a gorgeous Frenchman who, in his eloquent silence, brings new meaning to the term “eye candy.”

The best news is that 2011 gave mature movie-lovers not one but at least a dozen substantive, intelligent characters played by women over 40. Compare this with other years; in the last thirty years or more, older women routinely bemoaned the fact that there were just no good roles for them anymore. They were invisible in Hollywood after reaching 40.

But Sunday night, Meryl Streep, brilliant beyond description, won Best Actress for The Iron Lady. Viola Davis in The Help and Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs were also nominated for the Best Actress category, and Octavia Spencer, who won Best Supporting Actress in The Help, will be 40 in May.

This year older women dominated the red carpet with their grace, beauty, and style. But more importantly, they delivered their talent, depth of character, and passionate artistry to film and to us. They were duly recognized and awarded by the Academy, and I am thrilled to see them acknowledged.

So whether it was a night for a young or old audience, more importantly, talent of all ages was considered and duly awarded – without prejudice to age. Maybe filmmakers are finally starting to realize that grownups go to movies too. Maybe they’re realizing that not all films can be about some transformer superhero or other for which its creators can automatically expect exponential gadget-driven revenue streams into perpetuity. Maybe they’re beginning to see that the movie industry’s best bet for a brighter future, whether the distribution is through theaters, mail-order DVD or streaming, is the population that draws a salary and has disposable income and time to enjoy movies.

Not only is it a population that makes purchase decisions about adult movies, but it is also the demographic that often funds the spending of transformer superhero fans.

As the noble and definitively adult wife of the most noble and defeated salesman of all time decreed: “Attention Must Be Paid.” Or, as I say:  “Piss us off at your own peril. Give us more like Meryl!”

Barbara Corcoran

BARBARA CORCORAN : Real estate tycoon

Barbara Corcoran is an amazing, DARE-ing, over-50 woman. And not born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She grew up in a little town in New Jersey, with nine brothers and sisters and not much money. A poor student in high school, she floundered from job to job until her early twenties. Then, borrowing $1000 from her boyfriend, (equivalent to about $5000.00 in today’s terms) she founded The Corcoran Group, an extremely successful real estate corporation in New York.  She sold this business in 2001 for 66 million dollars! You may have seen her; Barbara is the real estate contributor to NBC’s TODAY Show, and an investor/shark on the reality show “Shark Tank.” Author, speaker, and entrepreneur, this “Have a Plan and Get it Done,”  over-50, DARE-ing woman is inspiration, motivational, and often outrageous. Her book, “If You Don’t Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails,” is a terrific and entertaining read. She tells it like it is!

At the Inc. Conference for women entrepreneurs last fall in New York, I had the pleasure of hearing her speak; engaging, charismatic, funny, and enlightening, are the words that come to mind. I came away with further confirmation of my long-held belief that you can achieve anything with the right mindset, the right attitude, the right energy. She shared with us that the biggest mistake she made in her life was falling prey to the belief that she was stupid. Struggling in school as a young girl, she hadn’t learned to read by the third grade. Yet she says this set her up for a lifetime of trying harder, going the extra mile, not taking anything for granted, and being a meticulous “preparer.”  She had to constantly prove she wasn’t stupid!

That kind of fortitude and character is what politicians are really talking about when they praise American spirit.

Sara Blakely

SARA BLAKELY: Creator and Founder of Spanx.

I love Spanx! I have struggled with trying to wear a nicely fitting pair of slacks, and groaned over seeing that unsightly panty-line.  Spanx founder Sara Blakely solved this, with her invention of legless pantyhose, and has built a hugely successful company from it. Yay for her!

SPANX^® is available in 35 countries, and offers a whole line of great products such as bras, panties, slimming apparel, swimsuits and active-wear. The visibility of these products is huge; you hear about them everywhere from major news networks to SNL to sound bites on the infamous “red carpet”  at all the award shows! In addition to keeping butts covered, SPANX also shapes the world by focusing on their mission: To help women feel great about themselves and their potential.

It was a stroke of genius from Sara, yet she had a very hard time getting any manufacturer to take her seriously. Ten clothing manufacturers in the South turned her down cold. So, spending $5,000 of her own money, she had a prototype made, and flew all the way to Dallas to meet with a buyer from Neiman Marcus. She blithely persuaded this buyer “ super-sophisticated, ultra-glamorous denizen of retail diva-dom” to follow her to the ladies room where she modeled her white pants “before” look, and then put on her Spanx and modeled her “after” look under her white pants! The woman ordered on the spot.

The rest, as they say, is history. With supreme focus, Blakely grew her baby, with fortitude, tenacity, hard work, and attitude.

I recently met Sara at a New York Inc. conference for women entrepreneurs, and was so impressed with this woman. She is an adorable, funny, energetic 41-year-old woman, who knows herself and her public, has a wonderful sense of humor, plus drive and smarts.

In her speech, she told us of her dad, who was so influential in the growth of her character; she learned to drive on through discouragement, all the way to ultimate success. She told us how her dad encouraged her to fail. He would ask her what she had failed at that week, and was disappointed if there was nothing. Sara presented the concept that failure is not the outcome; real failure is not trying.

My hat is off to both Barbara Corcoran and Sara Blakely, two inspirational DARE-ing over-40 women. They show how DARE-ing really gets done!

Do you think about food all the time? That dieting is a full-time job? And yet you feel you can never relax, or if you do, you gave five pounds by just looking at food?

Join the club.

In Part One of this article, I made a start sharing with you a couple of eye-opening (to me at least!) factors that can lead to weight loss issues. I worked with Diane Solomon, a nutritionist trained in London at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, and she told me about four common problems. In Part One, we touched on the whole insulin/blood sugar piece of the puzzle, plus what food allergies or sensitivities can do to your weight.

Here in Part Two:  Two more possible areas that may explain your weight loss difficulties.

ADRENAL FATIGUE

Do you have a hard time losing weight, feel tired a great deal of the time, have low blood pressure, feel dizzy if you stand up quickly from a prone position, and/or have cold hands and feet? You may have an adrenal exhaustion issue. It comes about from prolonged stress, or by being a woman! Seriously, the hormonal toll on our bodies is heavy, and pre-menopausal and menopausal women are more susceptible.   

Very simply, your adrenals create adrenaline, one of the hormones that is produced during fear or stress (the Fight or Flight mechanism), as well as cortisol. They are both pumped into the blood in response to stress and make you feel “wired.” But after prolonged stress, you burn out. You begin to feel foggy, crave salt, and feel dizzy when you stand up quickly. Your skin gets dry and wrinkled, you begin to store fat, and you feel fatigued.  Old before our time! And fat, too, unfortunately.

The answer? Rest and reduced stress, of course. And consider getting help from a Nutritionist, Naturopath, or Registered Dietician, for the right amounts of nutrients/herbs that will help. Eleutherococcus Ginseng and a short course (one or two months) of a good Adrenal Extract (Nutricology makes a good one) can do wonders. 

Also, talk to your natural health care practitioner about using natural hormone replacement. This helps to balance the “estrogen dominance” that can occur with this adrenal fatigue. Pro-Gest cream is Diane’s recommendation to her clients as a source of natural progesterone, and Phyto-estrogen cream for natural estrogen. Both are made by Emerita, and Diane tells me that if a woman uses these before hitting menopause, she can often sail through without so much as a hot flash!

Also, be sure to take a good daily multi, to ensure B vitamins and Vitamin C, other nutrients your adrenals need to restore prime function and balanced hormonal activity. 

Adrenal fatigue is one of the most common syndromes Diane encounters in her practice and is fairly easy to address. But it takes time – not two weeks. It is apt to be four or five months of taking the right nutrients, ginseng, and natural hormones, before results are very noticeable, and hold.  So if this applies to you, hang in there!

LACK OF SLEEP CAN MAKE YOU FAT: THE LEPTIN / SLEEP CONNECTION

That’s quite a dramatic statement. But have you experienced feeling tired and sleepy after a bad night, and reaching for food all day (more than usual!) to try to give you energy, or wake you up? And then you never feel full on days like that?

This is probably due to the see-saw workings of the hormones leptin and ghrelin. Simply put, ghrelin (produced in the gastrointestinal tract) stimulates appetite, and leptin (produced in fat cells) tells the brain you are full, and signals you to stop eating. The problem is, if you do not get enough sleep, your leptin levels fall, so your brain doesn’t hear the message that you are full. At the same time, too little sleep creates an increase in ghrelin. So your appetite is stimulated. Nasty combination for those of us trying to keep our food intake down!

The answer? More sleep of course. Find ways to ensure good sleeping habits, and enough sleep. Eat a healthy diet and get plenty of exercise. Try a small amount of high carb food or warm milk before you go to bed to help you get to sleep. And keep stress and alcohol to a minimum. All of these are important in ensuring you get a good night’s sleep.

There are so many possible factors that may be involved in your weight issues, besides the most obvious:  thyroid issues; lack of exercise, or plain old overeating. Unraveling it feels like a full-time job sometimes, doesn’t it?

Consider checking out whether any of these other possibilities are in play for you. It might be easier than you think to lose weight and keep it off.